Asteroid City

Wes Anderson's singular obsessive compulsive artistry naturally continues with this summer's ASTEROID CITY, but this time it was a bit easier to manage.  Certainly compared to his previous THE FRENCH DISPATCH, which to me was so disorganized and over the top it was as if the writer/director's pathologies had finally gotten the better of him.  Positively exhausting.  Anderson's new film benefits from a single location and relatively straightforward narrative, with his usual dry take on human behavior.  The film is essentially a comedy, yet deals with some weighty themes.  Humor is often the best way to deal with such things.  Universal things like isolation, disconnection, death, exclusion, the mysteries of faith, the cold reality of science, and the use of art to portray them. 

Asteroid City is a stage production written by the esteemed Conrad Earp (Edward Norton).  We learn it is being televised, with an unnamed host played by Bryan Cranston.  It is the 1950s.  Occasionally we switch back (in black and white) to Earp and his arduous process, also meeting the actors and the play's director, Schubert Green (Adrien Brody), who literally lives on the stage as he is about to be divorced.  Most of the film is the play itself, shot in a desert in Anderson's usual eye filling array of pastels, here mostly favoring an aqua tint.  Again there is meticulous detail that crams each frame and would take some time to fully discern with rewatches.  You might say that most Anderson films are not merely watched, but absorbed.

This time the characters are more interesting.  And human.  You've seen the cast list.  Another dream ensemble, though Anderson regular Bill Murray is absent, reportedly due to his contraction of COVID-19.  I imagine he would've played Stanley Zak, the gruff father-in-law of Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman).  Instead we have Tom Hanks, who inhabits the Anderson universe perfectly.  It's probably his best role and performance in several years.  Augie and his family, who've recently lost their matriarch, are in Asteroid City for the Junior Stargazer Convention.  Also in town is actress Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson), astronomer Dr. Hickenlooper (Tilda Swinton), and J.J. Kellogg (Liev Schreiber), whose son Clifford (Aristou Meehan) is a Junior Stargazer awardee.

At one point, a mandatory quarantine is in place.  This film was shot during the COVID pandemic, so interpret as you will.  

I laughed out loud more times during ASTEROID CITY than any Anderson piece since RUSHMORE.  Mostly at how eccentric the movie is.   I especially enjoyed the running gag of Clifford's "Do you dare me to...?" to his father.  Steve Carrell is hilarious as a motel manager, as is Willem Defoe as an acting teacher (seen in the cuttaways).  Everyone is in sync with Anderson's vibe, which includes a line about going on with the show even if one doesn't quite understand it.  This may apply to many viewers.

And it will take a few viewings to really get a grasp of it, though Anderson's metaphors - which includes the appearance of an extra terrestrial "played" by Jeff Goldblum - might not be so difficult to explain.  The faith vs. science and art vs. reality debates infuse every moment.  One might take the entire movie as a meditation on grief.  I'm still trying to understand the periodic appearance of a car chase involving a gunman firing at the police.  Maybe it's a piece of that pesky reality within an artificial landscape, or another reminder that we need to keep things moving.