Nebraska’s finest muses on his dystopian, effectsdiven sci-fi satire, Downsizing. Alexander Payne’s succession of sly, insightful, modestly-scaled ‘people’ movies, have made him a critics’ darling, essentially the go-to observer of contemporary American mores. The likes of Election, Sideways, and The Descendants have deserved all the plaudits heaped upon them yet, through no fault of his own, also perhaps left Payne somewhat enclosed. Undeniably fine on its own terms, 2013’s gristly black-and-white character study, Nebraska, looked about as artisanal a product as you could still hope to get financed by a major studio. So its not hard to read his latest offering Downsizing – an effects-driven, high-concept fantasy, no less – as a way of breaking the mould of industry and audience expectations.
LWLies: It’s on record that you started writing…
