10 Characters That Single-Handedly Ruined Recent Movies

Alexander Payne's Downsizing - which unfolds in an experimental community populated by people who have been shrunk to five inches in size - is quite possibly one of the worst movies ever made by a great director. Not only does it criminally waste a brilliant premise, but it's such an excruciatingly dull nothing-burger of a movie that it's painful to watch.

Like many a frustrating cinematic failure before it, Downsizing starts out OK. Unfortunately, as soon as Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau) - a Vietnamese activist downsized against her will - arrives, the film falls apart beyond all repair. It stops focusing on anything interesting and instead becomes the story of a chemistry-free romance between Ngoc and protagonist Paul (Matt Damon). In fact, quite a lot of the film is just the two of them cleaning people's flats, and it's so freaking boring.

To make matters worse, Ngoc is also an incredibly grating, borderline-racist character who was apparently designed as comic relief, but is instead as unfunny as it gets. The character does have a thought-provoking backstory but this was ultimately another one of the many things the movie failed to realize on-screen in a satisfying way.

Without this character and her storyline, it seems likely Downsizing would've just been one of those OK-but-forgettable awards season films, rather than one of the very worst ones in recent memory.