Asteroid City (12A)

Dir: Wes Anderson

Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, Jeff Goldblum

Asteroid City may be Wes Anderson’s most meticulously crafted body of work to date, but it’s lack of heart or narrative make it feel cold and empty.

It does not seem like long ago when Wes Anderson was trending over social media. Many people on TikTok and Instagram were uploading posts in the iconic visual style of the American auteur. Since the release of his debut feature film Bottle Rocket (1996), Anderson has gradually built a large dedicated fanbase, making him one of the most iconic filmmakers on the indie scene, along with the likes of Jim Jarmusch and Noah Baumbach. This sudden spike in popularity on social media could not come at a better time for Anderson, as he is not releasing not just one, but two movies in 2023. As well as ‘Asteroid City‘, Netflix will be releasing Anderson’s short story adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar later in the year.

Like myself, many of Anderson’s die hard fans were put off by his last film, The French Dispatch (2021). Whilst showcasing impeccable production design and visuals, which have become synonymous with Anderson’s work, the anthological structure of the film made it difficult for audiences to invest in the film and it’s characters. With ‘Asteroid City‘, Anderson has not changed his storytelling technique too much, which may also see fans, new and old, alienated from the film and any messages that it is trying to convey.

Anderson and frequent collaborator Roman Coppola’s most meta work to date, opens with Bryan Cranston as the host of a retro-futuristic 1950’s TV show. The host introduces a televised production of the fictional play ‘Asteroid City’, a play by famed playwright Conrad Earp (Edward Norton). The play itself follows the events that transpire during a Junior Stargazer Convention in the fictional desert town of the same name. The events of the in-universe fictional play are depicted in widescreen and stylized in colour, while the television special hosted by Cranston is seen in black-and-white academy ratio.

The play within the film follows Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), a pipe-smoking wartime photographer, as he rolls into town in the family station wagon. His wife has recently died and he has her ashes with him inside the not so discrete confines of a Tupperware box. The family automobile conks out on Augie and his 4 children: his ‘Brainiac’ teenage son, Woodrow (Jake Ryan) and his three oddball younger daughters. Augie asks his father-in-law Stanley (Tom Hanks), with whom he doesn’t get on, to drive over and rescue the daughters whilst Woodrow attends the local annual Junior Stargazer Convention.

The Junior Stargazing honours bring an eccentric group of tourists to the small town. Among them are movie star Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson) and her teenage daughter and Woodrow’s love interest, Dinah (Grace Edwards). Steve Carrell is the motel manager, and Tilda Swinton plays the scientist in charge of the stargazing event. Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Wright, and Maya Hawke round out the rest of the huge ensemble of Asteroid City residents and tourists.

While the junior stargazers are peering through their telescopes and being confronted by aliens – yes, aliens – Augie manages to start up an off-kilter romance with Midge. Much like their parents, both Woodrow and Dinah blossom their own teenage romance, as they and their fellow stargazers attempt to alert the outside world of the extra-terrestrial shenanigans playing out in the American west.

The tone of the film plays out in typical Wes Anderson fashion, with the whole cast delivering quirky, dead-pan dialogue, displaying little to no emotion. The massive cast manages to deliver what is expected of any typical Wes Anderson movie, but this leaves little room for any particular range as there are no emotional arcs within the fictitious play. I surprisingly found myself most invested in the scenes that focus on the ‘behind the scenes’ of the play, with Edward Norton portraying the troubled but brilliant playwright behind the televised spectacle. This unique framing device will most likely struggle to appeal to most audiences, but I feel this meta commentary of 1950’s communist paranoia is the films most interesting aspect. Unfortunately, it is mostly kept in the background behind the much more visually glamourous but emotionally thin play within the film.

Anderson is well known for his dead-pan comedies, but this has not stopped him from having a more emotional core to his films in the past. Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), managed to find a great balance between the dead-pan comedy and emotionally compelling story – there is none of that here. I feel with his last two films, Anderson has focused too much on his scrupulous visual style with fantastic cinematography and attentive production design, but as a result all thematical structure has fallen by the wayside.

‘Asteroid City’ is a visual treat but this perplexing tale of post-modernism will test the patience of even the most devout Wes Anderson fans. Without any emotionally attachment to it’s large cast of star-studded characters, self-indulgent whimsy can only take you so far.

Asteroid City is now showing in Cinemas