Asteroid City | Dir: Wes Anderson | From 10th August | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Wes Anderson is one of those directors that can be quite polarising. Some people adore his quirky offbeat films, while others may wonder what all the fuss is about. His latest film, the eleventh feature of his career, is Asteroid City. It’s the most ‘Wes Anderson’ film yet.
Earlier this year a series of AI generated clips appeared on YouTube that imagined what it would be like if the indie director remade some of cinema’s most popular franchises, there’s trailers Wes Anderson directs Star Wars, the Harry Potter films and The Lord of the Rings.
So distinctive are his trademark moves, they’re easily mocked. Sexually complex characters, parental abandonment, unexpected appearances, highly stylized settings, symmetry, strong distinctive soundtrack, and self-contained worlds- are all regular ingredients in his stories.
He occupies a space in art-house cinema that was once dominated by Woody Allen, before his private life overshadowed his filmmaking. Like Allen, there’s also a long line of regular collaborators, and some big names wanting to add a Wes Anderson experience to their filmography.
The cast list for this one is substantial, regular players Jason Swartzman, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Seu George, Bob Balaban, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Jake Ryan,Tony Revolori, Edward Norton all return for another outing. There’s also Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Liev Sheriber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Margot Robbie, Sophia Lillis, Ethan Josh Lee, Fisher Stevens, Rita Wilson, and even Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker.
Wait! No Bill Murray? Sadly, Anderson’s most frequent collaborator caught Covid and was not available when filming started. He was originally cast to play the role of a motel manager and was replaced by Steve Carrell.
Once of the film’s great achievements is it manages to fit in all those amazing actors and deliver a fabulously quirky and bizarre tale.
It’s a story, within a story, within a story. We join a black and white 1950’s TV broadcast about a production of the fictional play Asteroid City by playwright Conrad Earp. The stage play is presented in black and white, but when we’re inside the production it is shown in colour.
We discover war photojournalist Augie Steenbeck, played by Jason Swartzman. He’s stopped in Asteroid City so his teenage son can attend the Junior Stargazer convention. Their car breaks down and he’s forced the call his father-in-law Stanley, played by Tom Hanks. We learn that Stanley doesn’t think much of his son-in-law, and that Augie has yet to tell his son and three younger daughters that their mother recently died.
Also staying at the motel, which is made up of a series of tiny buildings, is world famous film star Midge Campbell. Her daughter Dinah is also being honoured at the Junior Stargazer convention. Slowly more characters arrive at the remote desert township.
Asteroid City is the home of giant crater and the tiny asteroid that created the indentation in the earth. Things go awry when someone steals the cherished asteroid.
The farcical and strange tale is a wonderful journey filled with odd-ball characters and heavily layered in the all the elements of a classic Wes Anderson film.
As soon as it finished I immediately wanted to watch it again, in fact I wondered when it would be out on DVD so I could watch it again and again. There’s a lot to take in, it’s a film that inspires repetitive viewing.
OF course, if you’re not a fan of any of the ten movies Wes Anderson created prior to this one, you’ll probably dislike this one too.
Bill Murray still flew to Spain when there the film was being shot after he recovered from Covid. He filmed an additional trailer for the film where he plays a character who does not appear in the film.
Graeme Watson
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