By Charly SHELTON

Overpopulation will be the big problem that the next generation will have to deal with. Too many people taking up too few resources. How to combat this problem? Either have more resources, most of which are non-renewable, or use less per person. Make each ear of corn feed a dozen people, each cubic foot of natural gas warm a dozen homes, and each ounce of oil run a dozen cars.

In Paramount’s new picture “Downsizing,” science has found a way to do just that – each ear of corn can feed a dozen people – if they are five inches tall. Molecular distance shrinking can make each person small, and the operation is proposed as a worldwide transition to make resources last longer and combat overpopulation. Because you use less, your money goes further; $100,000 translates to about $12 million while living the small life. It’s helping the environment, it’s living a life of leisure and it sounds like a great idea. Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to undertake the irreversible operation and make a small life. But Audrey can’t handle it and backs out at the last minute. Now Paul is left to discover this new world alone – heartbroken, bankrupt from an inevitable divorce, and stuck in a miniature community in the desert outside Palm Springs.

From the movie’s trailer and description, it struck me as a fun comedy, a goofy fish-out-of-water flick that is good for a couple of yucks but will probably not go further than that, or maybe have a sweet ending. I was taken aback at what the movie actually is – a cautionary tale of what our future could look like. The filmmakers made a film about global warming, overpopulation, immigrant rights, inequality and volunteerism that really pulls on the heartstrings, and they’ve hidden this pill expertly inside the cheese of a Matt Damon comedy. If they went straightforward and marketed this film like “An Inconvenient Truth,” I don’t think there would be as much interest – more controversy, less fun. But the morals of this story buried in a comedy starring Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, Jason Sudeikis and Kristin Wiig make the message accessible to an audience that would maybe not seek out a documentary with the same topics.

And it just came together like this, said co-writer/producer/director Alexander Payne.

“We didn’t set out to make a global warming film. We set out to make a film that has political and social satire like our first two films. We had just made ‘Sideways’ and we had moderate success with that and, as a director, I had the urge to do something a little more ambitious. I wanted to do something with a little more political and social consciousness. We were thinking about (co-writer/producer Jim Taylor’s brother) Doug’s idea of getting small and how would that actually come into existence,” Payne said. “So once we got there, we saw it was empowering us with a large net to hurl over a lot of issues in contemporary society that we wanted to talk about. We are not political filmmakers, were satirists. But hopefully with a political social consciousness.”

This is a great film and surprisingly deep. It has already become one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, and now this critic adds a voice to the praise. “Downsizing” should be required viewing for future generations as overpopulation increases and the world warms. But also for film students, to see how to effectively get a message into a film without forcing it violently down the audience’s throat.

“Downsizing” is out this Friday.

  Charly Shelton