Asteroid City, 2023.
Directed by Wes Anderson.
Starring Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jake Ryan, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Margot Robbie, Jeff Goldblum, Tony Revolori, Grace Edwards, Aristou Meehan, Sophia Lillis, Rita Wilson, Ethan Josh Lee, Fisher Stevens, Seu Jorge, Jarvis Cocker, Preston Mota, Jack Eyman, Gracie Faris, Ella Faris, Willan Faris, Brayden Frasure, Iván López, Zoe Bernard, Mellanie Hubert, Sebastian Stephens, and Bob Balaban.
SYNOPSIS:
Following a writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving father, who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City, to compete in a stargazing event. Only to have his world view disrupted forever.
Wes Anderson has been delighting audiences with his colourful escapades since 1996’s Bottle Rocket. His films at this stage are among the most recognisable in modern cinema full of whip pans, exquisite production design, large ensembles and a broad colour palette. Anderson’s latest Asteroid City which premiered at Cannes in May, boasts all his usual hallmarks, a stylistic triumph that ranks among his most aesthetically pleasing. It focuses on a junior stargazer competition in the fictional titular city in 1955’s America.
While The Grand Budapest Hotel and Isle of Dogs rank as some of Anderson’s most well-received and financially successful films, his last The French Dispatch which was a series of vignettes proved more divisive, still earning a broadly positive reception but with some commenting on how the film was more style over substance and it was easy to get lost in such an extensive ensemble.
Asteroid City may well prove similarly divisive with again a cast of who’s who in Anderson’s filmography from Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe and Adrien Brody to Jeffrey Wright and Jason Schwartzman. They are joined by newcomers Tom Hanks and Steve Carrell with the first live-action collaborations from Bryan Cranston and Scarlett Johansson. Again, it is a stylistic triumph with Robert Yeoman bringing the Spanish filming locations to life to make this one of Anderson’s best-looking films and the production design as one might expect is top-notch.
The crux of the film revolves around Jason Schwartzman’s Augie Steenbeck, a war photographer, stranded in Asteroid City with his family following a potential close encounter. His son Woodrow is a Junior Stargazer winner. Steenbeck has been grieving the death of his recently deceased wife played by Margot Robbie and has struggled to find the right moment to inform his three children. Grief permeates through much of the film, including its more humorous moments, giving it more depth than there might appear on the surface. Augie’s interactions with Scarlett Johansson’s Midge Campbell are among the film’s highlights Midge a fading, incredibly glamorous Hollywood film star that could be modelled on a number of 40s and 50s Hollywood icons including Marilyn Monroe and Johansson imbues her with a sense of high glamour but also world-weariness and discontent.
As with The French Dispatch and Grand Budapest, there is a story within a story mechanism giving Asteroid City a meta-narrative that can at times prove jarring and distract from the main plot. In spite of this with a cast and production of this calibre, it is hard to keep your eyes off the screen with so many details to pick out. Frequent Anderson collaborator Alexandre Desplat, creates a memorable, ethereal score, playing on the sci-fi and retro elements.
Asteroid City is another colourful, extravagant offering from one of Hollywood’s most celebrated Directors. If his style is wearing thin on some, there is a surprising amount of depth here with the cast better employed than in The French Dispatch where some felt like throwaway cameos, here at least much of the cast is given something of note to do. Robert Yeoman beautifully brings the stunning Spanish desolate landscapes to life, fully believable as a rugged American town.
All the usual elements that make Anderson’s films work are present here and if not the very best of his work, Asteroid City is well worth a watch on a big screen to marvel at all the intricacies and nuances that have gone into making it such a visual marvel and one of his most moving works in some time.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Connor
