I love burning apocalypses as much as the next person, but sometimes the explodey blockbuster formula makes you forget how mind-bending and screwed up science fiction can really be. That's why Alexander Payne's new flick Downsizing, about people trying to save money by shrinking themselves, is a welcome respite from the usual.

Payne has won Oscars twice for his screenplays—first for Sideways and then The Descendants—and Downsizing will be his first foray into science fiction. His movies have always been oddball stories tinged with a bit of the surreal, usually focusing on regular guys who get in way over their heads in outlandish situations.

That's definitely the pattern in Downsizing, in which Matt Damon puts on his best friendly dork persona as Paul (it fits him nicely). He's married to Audrey (Kristen Wiig), and they both appear to be struggling with the stress of their jobs and making ends meet. That's when they find out about a bizarre new technology, developed by scientists in Norway, that can permanently shrink people down to the size of Barbie dolls. The idea is to live more sustainably on the planet, but it also turns out that everything is cheaper when you shrink. In the trailer, we see Paul and Audrey meeting with some kind of financial adviser, who explains that their savings will be worth millions in the downsized community.

We catch glimpses of Paul and Audrey's new life as downsized people, living in a mansion with a tennis court and taking expensive cruises on toy boats. It seems idyllic, but this is an Alexander Payne movie, so I guarantee there are hidden catches in the giant contract agreement that we see Paul signing.

This film promises to do what science fiction does best. It gives us a strange, speculative playground in which to grapple with our present-day fears about economic and environmental collapse. And it pokes fun at how easily people can be talked into "solutions" that are too good to be true. The tone reminds me a lot of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, another seriously bizarro scifi movie that uses its futuristic technology to explore very realistic problems in human relationships.

Listing image by Paramount Pictures