MARIA DUARTE, FIONA O’CONNOR and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Savage House, Enzo, Madfabulous, and Erupcja
Latest editorial
Small isn't necessarily the beautiful solution
MARIA DUARTE remains unconvinced by a sci-fi satire positing miniaturisation as the answer to global overpopulation
Matt Damon in Downsizing
CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
KENNY MacASKILL relishes a fictionalised account of the life and death of the principled Irish anti-colonialist, executed for betraying his English imperial masters
FIONA O’CONNOR admires an ambitious first novel that loosens South Africa’s rainbow collective to examine the racial tensions within
Aussie mining corporation murder, Liverpudlian ex-cop amnesia, a naive vigilante tries to reset capitalism, and the riddle of the dead psychoanalyst
SYLVIA HIKINS is persuaded by an entertaining play that the true miracle of Lourdes would be for attitudes toward disability to change
Downsizing (15)
Directed by Alexander Payne
DESPITE brimming with big ideas and a fascinating premise providing a small-size solution to the world's overpopulation problem, sadly this social satire can't escape its many shortcomings.
It starts with Norwegian scientists discovering how to successfully shrink human beings to five inches tall and thus devise a radical solution to global overcrowding.
It then follows occupational therapist Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) from Omaha who, barely making ends meet on his meagre salary, decides to give himself and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) the life they had always dreamt of by convincing her to downsize.
Similar stories
JOHN GREEN recommends an Argentinian film classic on re-release - a deliciously cynical tale of swindling and double-cross
MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Friendship, Four Letters of Love, Tin Soldier and The Ballad of Suzanne Cesaire
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Hot Milk, An Ordinary Case, Heads Of State, and Jurassic World Rebirth