A dramatic performance within a play within a television broadcast becomes a desperately twee confection even for Wes Anderson. On a 1950s black-and-white TV show, a host (Bryan Cranston) describes what the audience is about to see. A playwright, (Edward Norton), is introduced. Jones Hall (Jason Schwartzman) and Mercedes Ford (Scarlett Johansson) are actors that portray the parts in a play. That drama morphs into a tale set at a Junior Stargazer convention. The vivid panoramic spectacle of candy-colored sets boasts a gas station, a diner, a motel, and an off-ramp that was never completed. The production looks fantastic.
This is Wes Anderson, where eccentricity and affectation reign supreme. Lots of competition in his filmography, but I would suggest this is his quirkiest offering yet. It spotlights a distended ensemble, per usual. The proper story includes (but is not limited to) five youthful astronomers and their parents, a prim schoolteacher (Maya Hawke) and her space cadet pupils, a singing cowboy (Rupert Friend), a general (Jeffrey Wright), and a famed astronomer (Tilda Swinton). They all converge on the desert community of Asteroid City, population 87. The Nevada town is known for a crater caused by a fallen meteorite.
Augie Steenbeck (also Schwartzman) is a gruff war photographer and recent widower. He’s taking his three triplet girls and a tween son (Jake Ryan) to a stargazing convention where he meets Midge Campbell (also Johansson) and her daughter Dinah (Grace Edwards). They’re here for the same thing. Their interactions comprise the narrative’s focus, where they process their trauma and confront their feelings. The myriad of conversations meditates on grief, love, and loneliness. The actors assume deadpan expressions as they stiffly recite dialogue, like reading printed words on a page. The charm of their contemplations will form the basis of your enjoyment. Although things do happen. The junior scholars play a game where they sit in a circle and name influential figures. [delivered in a sarcastic tone] That’s a particularly thrilling event. Later a tall, skinny alien (Jeff Goldblum) emerges from a UFO. That development demands a quarantine. Oh, and there’s a dancing roadrunner too. Expect lots of whimsy on display. It all adds up to very little.
Asteroid City is a pensive piffle without a perspicuous point. See, I can be whimsical too. It’s always lamentable when one of my favorite directors seems to have lost it. Tim Burton is one of our most talented directors, but it’s based on his output before 2010 when he unleashed Alice in Wonderland. That film was a garish parody of his previous work and marked a conspicuous divide. Now Wes Anderson has seemingly crossed a line. Oddly it happened after directing what many hail as his greatest creation, The Grand Budapest Hotel. The auteur has always been known for fastidiously assembled displays, but his canon before 2018 contained deeply written characters that served a compelling screenplay. Everything since has been an exercise that values style over substance. Asteroid City is a mortally dull contrivance. When the cast start chanting, “You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep!” at the climax, they really mean it.
06-27-23
7 Responses
I turned to Mark before the movie started and said, “I’m so excited”. There’s nothing worse than getting so disappointed on a directors work you like, for the most part. This was such a confusing bore. I chuckled at certain lines, but the story did nothing for me. Tilda is always someone I look forward to. She was completely wasted here. 2 ⭐️
So much effort in service of a complete bore of a production. Apparently Wes Anderson is a very powerful man. Few filmmakers could have gotten a movie like this green-lighted.
I was majorly disappointed in this movie. I went primarily because I’m a big Scarlett Johansson fan from way back but not even she could save this. It reminded me of the old 60s sitcom Green acres or Gilligan’s Island or petticoat junction where it was a group of Inane characters brought together for an innane plot. The movie was just so flat and boring. And I can’t help thinking what the money men and the producers reaction was to the finished film. This also reminded me of the day being goliath series where there was a lot of beautiful scenery and nothing happening. I mean Mr. Wes Anderson, “Dude! Really ? ‘”
Actors pontificate without a clear purpose or definite end. Not the basis for a compelling film. One of the biggest disappointments of the year for this Wes Anderson fan.
what a brutal read lol. Sorry but I just can’t disagree more this time
That’s ok. I would love to understand why people loved this.
For me, this was as an emotional a connection I’ve had with an Anderson movie since Moonrise Kingdom. From Jason Schwartzman’s heartbreakingly, awkwardly delayed admission of the passing of the mother, to the way Scarlett Johansson opens up about being a victim of a charade of a career and of abusive men. I also do happen to be a bit of a geek for space-related things, so the whole mise en scene just had me pulled in so much. I loved the setting, and sure maybe the government lockdown was a bit on the nose for all that we’ve been through but it was delightfully farcical for me. I do however admit towards the end as the fourth-wall breaking gets a little out of control. The chanting got to be a bit much