Medicine Hat News

‘Downsizing’ and the environmen­t

- VICTORIA AHEARN

TORONTO Filmmaker Alexander Payne feels a sense of powerlessn­ess brewing in the world when it comes to the environmen­t.

“I compost and I recycle and every time I do that I think, ‘Well this is just a tiny tiki umbrella against the immense avalanche,’” the two-time Oscar winner said in an interview at September’s Toronto Internatio­nal Film Festival.

“But what are you supposed to do, not do that? I drive an electric car. What’s pernicious is what I’m told may be happening among some youth — which is in teens and 20s — is they know we’re screwed, so it’s like what’s the point?

“There’s a type of nihilism or apathy or fatalism, saying: ‘Well let’s just have a good time and party and who cares because we’'re all screwed anyway? Why do anything?’ On the other hand there are many young people who are really disgusted with the world they’re inheriting and do want to work to fight it and change it.”

Payne tackles that subject in his new comedy-drama “Downsizing,” which hits theatres Friday.

Matt Damon stars as an occupation­al therapist lured into the new trend of “cellular reduction,” in which humans are shrunk to a height of 13 centimetre­s in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint and help save the environmen­t from overpopula­tion.

Kristen Wiig co-stars as his wife, while Christoph Waltz and Hong Chau are among those who play residents of a tiny community Damon’s character moves into once he’s downsized.

Payne also directed the story, which “turned out to be a handy prism through which to view a lot of things,” he said.

“I guess I did have the urge to make something of a political film, but you can’t make a literal political film, you have to have some kind of metaphor,” said Payne, who also won an Oscar for co-writing “The Descendant­s.”

“So it struck me that that would be a good metaphor.”

Payne used the biblical story of Adam and Eve disobeying the rules in the idyllic Garden of Eden as an example.

“One definitely has the feeling right now on Earth that things are going to have to get a lot worse before they get better, and that’s unfortunat­e,” Payne said.

“Certainly with the environmen­t — it’s going to have to get a lot worse. That’s what we’re all feeling, I think. We’re being told that it may be irreversib­le.”

Overall, the film is a commentary on materialis­m, consumeris­m and classism, said Payne, pointing to scenes in which certain residents of a downsized community live in a poor neighbourh­ood bordered by a wall.

“In all my films I’m thinking about class — class and its relationsh­ip to race,” he said.

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Alexander Payne

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