Asteroid City
Directed By: Wes Anderson
Asteroid City is the 11th full length feature from the singular Wes Anderson. The cast is so deep with Anderson regulars and start studded new faces that it’s not even worth listing them all. The film is playing in theaters in most major cities now.
I discovered Wes Anderson in that sweet spot around the age of 17. Impressionable and just discovering “cinema” I found myself enraptured by his style and the unique deadpan affectation of his characters. For the kind of person crafting a personality around indie rock and Hemingway it felt like these films were made for me.
When considering Asteroid City it’s impossible to divorce my views on the film from the rest of Anderson’s filmography. I think all his films are good, but invariably they are graded on the Wes Anderson curve. For me, the high point will always be the Rushmore to The Darjeeling Limited stretch.
The mechanics of Asteroid City are somewhat confusing. Bryan Cranston is the host of what appears to be a television special of the making of the play Asteroid City. That viewpoint becomes intermingled with the actual play itself and backstage interactions with the actors. It sounds like it would be purposefully challenging like Synecdoche, New York, but somehow it was easy enough to settle in with.
Jason Schwartzman (Augie Steenbeck) and Scarlett Johansson (Midge Campbell) are our two defacto main characters. Both have ended up in Asteroid City due to their genius children who are attending a space camp of sorts. Both have experienced trauma and are suffering with grief in their own ways. They strike up a burgeoning relationship primarily center around windowsill conversations between the closely spaced cabins they are confined to, following an alien encounter at the camp.
“I don’t like the way that guy looked at us.”
“What guy?”
“The alien.”
“How did he look at us?”
“Like we’re doomed.”
“Maybe we are.”
The interactions between these two characters, and their children young love story, seem to constitute the emotional center of the film. Their interactions are brief though, and intercut with a calvacade of B and C storylines that end up feeling more like vignettes than a cohesive narrative story. I needed more time with Augie and Midge to really feel anything deeply for them. More space was given to the children’s story, which felt like a shortened derivation of Moonrise Kingdom.
There are so many characters, minor moments, and plot lines that make the film feel crowded and disjointed, yet beautifully and wonderfully full. With that comes the paradox of having such brilliant actors appear in the film to only give a handful of line readings. It’s hard to not be distracted or disappointed when the background is filled with the likes of Liev Schreiber and Steve Carell and Maya Hawke not doing a whole lot.
This disjointed storytelling seemed to preclude me from finding emotional resonance with any of the characters. I really enjoyed The French Dispatch and other vignette style films like I Vitelloni or Wild Tales, but those are structured as short stories which worked for me. Asteroid City is more like if a Dumas novel was entirely created out of his famous rabbit trails.
Wes Anderson is enough of a master that I know this was his intent, but to what purpose? Is there a joke I’m not getting? Are their hidden references (certainly) that would unlock the meaning of the entire film? The film is deeply referential with nuclear bombs going off in the background, omages to classic Hollywood, three sisters who pretend to be witches, and more. I like to consider myself decently read and filled with a rough working background of film history, but their appeared an impenetrable denseness that perhaps I could not work my way through.
All the hallmarks of Anderson are present. Beautiful cinematography - with those symmetrical shots framed and filled with interesting detail, full of stunning colors. Quirky characters, but just enough, somehow in the right way. Great music. Costumes! All the decorations are in place for a great Wes Anderson film, but the structure and the story that these things hang upon is built without a foundation I could stand upon.
I enjoyed the film and found myself laughing and never bored. This is a good movie, like all of his are, unfortunately there is that unescapable curve.
Musical Pairing: I can’t compete with Wes Anderson - listen to the soundtrack.