Riot’s Reviews: Asteroid City
Wes Anderson has spent the better part of the last three decades cementing himself as one of Hollywood’s most prolific and impactful writers/directors. His trademark style is easily recognized by his use of bright pastels, static camerawork, and philosophically dense dialogue that is often mixed with deadpan humor. He also helped to set some new standards for quality in the stop motion genre with Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs. For most cinephiles I know, the question that rules the conversation for Wes Anderson isn’t typically “was it good?” it’s almost always “I think this is his best one.” I found myself trying to sort through these questions watching Anderson’s latest film Asteroid City and trying to figure out where exactly I landed.
The movie opens up on a black and white Television production with Bryan Cranston dryly narrating his way through an introduction on what the audience is about to see, the production of a world-famous play Asteroid City. We are introduced to the genius playwright, Conrad Earp (Edward Norton) and all of the big players of the story. Cranston walks us through the plot synopsis (which sounds a lot like an episode of The Twilight Zone or even a true crime documentary), which finally gives way to the opening of the play and catapulting the audience into the brilliantly colored world of an American desert in the 1950’s. A number of parent/child groups are descending upon the quaint little “city” that hosts an award ceremony for brilliant teens. The families are working through various internal conflicts, but when a real-life alien unexpectedly visits the town during the award ceremony, the quarantined visitors will have nothing but time to figure things out.
Asteroid City is filled to the brim with all of Anderson’s cinematic staples yet sets itself apart from his other stories in a few ways. As usual, he has rounded up a virtual “Who’s Who” of major names in Hollywood. With Anderson, it’s a harder task to figure out who hasn’t been a part of one of his other projects since he is so prone to reusing actors in various rolls. I think the most endearing part of this is that even the biggest names on his roster will willingly relinquish themselves to extremely small roles just for the chance to work with him. Asteroid City’s call sheet is staggering: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright (who had the best monologues of the film), Liev Schreiber, Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldblum (sadly underused), Margot Robbie, and Willem Dafoe (critically underused). Each name is its own massive draw for a film, so to get them all into one project in any substantial way is a stunning task.
With an acting caliber like this, it should be no surprise that one of the biggest strengths of Asteroid City lies in its performances. Particularly, the dialogue between Johansson and Schwartzman is really something special. Their delivery is deadpan and monotone, which should be a negative for all intents and purposes. But when coupled with the bizarrely interesting (almost mathematical) framing of the shots and the depth of purpose behind their dialogue, you find yourself strangely captivated by their interactions. Also as expected, the incredible set design (particularly the vibrant colors) lives up to all of Anderson’s previous works. Everything is quirky and slightly off-putting in just the right way, like there is always something uncomfortable waiting just around the next frame. I was also pleasantly surprised with a couple of stop-motion animations inserted into the film: a frequently featured roadrunner and a hilariously awkward alien.
With all the positives aside, I am not certain the average joe viewer is going to respond well to Asteroid City. Not being a regular pursuer of what I would call “big-brained” films, I left the theater solidly knowing only one thing: I was not in the right headspace for that movie. Having watched a majority of his films, I would argue this is a significant requirementwhen viewing any of his films, especially this one. This is definitely not a film for the casual viewer. A brief perusing of current reviews confirms the feeling I had after the show, a lot of people are confused what exactly this movie is about. There is one theory about how it’s meant to explore the processing of grief. Another said it was Anderson’s project that evaluated the feelings surrounding quarantine and the 2020 pandemic. One also argued it was a deconstruction of the parent-child relationship and dealing with the interpersonal consequences of genius level intellect.
The fact is, I could see an argument for all of these points and maybe that was the real intention behind Anderson’s latest run. Because of the massive cast and the broad spectrum of personalities involved, there was a multitude of opportunities for commentary on really anything he wanted. Unfortunately, that may actually be the downfall of this film. How does one person sift through Marilyn Monroe and James Dean references while simultaneously contemplating existential crises, the family dynamic, and the threshold between real life and desires or dreams? The concepts and monologues are big while the spectrum of emotions/expressions are small. As a side note, I think the humor wasn’t as up to par as most of his other films. Regardless, Asteroid City is the most controlled wild ride I’ve seen in a while, somehow dismantling and re-establishing all of my expectations at the same time.
Riot’s Ratings: 8/10: There are a number of elements I probably could have done without on this one and I would have appreciated a little more clarity but this was still a very strong showing. Is it my favorite of his thus far? No. But Wes Anderson fans should certainly not skip it, just be prepared for something different than what you’ve seen before.
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