Alexander Payne's 'Downsizing' Arrives in Italian Theaters

The film 'Downsizing', directed by Alexander Payne and starring Matt Damon, opened the 2017 Venice Film Festival and was released in Italian theaters on January 25, 2018 by 20th Century Fox. The satirical social commentary explores a fictional scientific breakthrough in Norway where humans can be reduced to 10-12 cm in height to combat environmental waste and overpopulation. The miniature community offers quadrupled wealth but no return. Kristen Wiig's character backs out at the last moment, leaving her husband in the miniaturized world. The film blends tragicomedy with reflections on human insatiability and the concept of measure, referencing Horace's Satires and Aristotelian philosophy. It is not a dystopian but an 'other' world, hyper-realistic with milk-white colors and precise scenography. The narrative questions whether humans can ever be content, even in a seemingly perfect artificial environment.