Movie Review: 'Asteroid City'

Asteroid City (2023)

Directed by Wes Anderson

Written by Wes Anderson

Starring Jason Schwartzman, Edward Norton, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, Jeffrey Wright

Release Date June 23rd, 2023

Published June 23rd, 2023

I adore the work of writer-director Wes Anderson. As a film critic with more than 20 years of experience writing about movies, Anderson's work has an unusual appeal for me. I see so many movies that look the same, go for the same goals, demonstrate the same filmmaking technique, and though they can be quite good or not good, the sameness of most of what I see becomes monotonous. Then, along comes a Wes Anderson movie like an alien from another planet. Instead of striving to place his characters in a place we can recognize and identify with them in a typical fashion, Anderson's style creates a surreal reality all his own.

In his first feature film, Bottle Rocket, the characters were colorful and odd amid a realistic landscape. Since then, The Royal Tenenbaums began a turn for Anderson that led to more and more of a surrealist perspective. Anderson is a fan of artifice, and he brings artifice forward in his cinematography and production design. In his newest remarkably ingenious work, called Asteroid City, the surrealist production design is intended to logically marry the stage and film. It's as if Wes Anderson wanted to adapt a play into a movie but wanted to bring both the play and the movie forward at once. It's an exceptionally silly, funny, brilliant move.

Trying to describe the plot of Asteroid City is rather pointless. Wes Anderson isn't so much interested in his plot. Rather, it's a Wes Anderson style of comedy, a series of odd, awkward, and often very funny scenes that may or may not be moving forward a plot. On the surface, we are following photographer and family man, Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), as he takes his kids across the country and their car breaks down in the oddball small town of Asteroid City. Luckily, they were on their way here anyway as Augie's oldest son, Woodrow (Jake Ryan), is to compete for a science scholarship.

Asteroid City is the real star of Asteroid City. At the center of the town, which is made up of, perhaps four locations, is a giant crater where an asteroid landed in 3200 B.C. The town grew up around the asteroid as scientists and military men seek to understand the asteroid. Tilda Swinton is the top scientist and Jeffrey Wright is the military man. Things get crazy when an alien comes to Earth and takes the asteroid. The arrival of an alien causes the town, and all of its visitors, including Augie and his four kids, celebrity actress, Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johannson) and her genius daughter, Dina (Grace Edwards), to be placed into quarantine while the military tries to keep the world from knowing about the alien visit.

As that happens, Augie has begun a tentative flirtation with Midge, their tiny cabins are right next door to each other and with nothing else to do, they chat via their adjacent windows. Meanwhile, Woodrow starts a budding relationship with Dinah as they work with their fellow genius kids, played by Sophia Lillis and Ethan Josh Lee, to study the alien while also making sure the rest of the world knows that the alien exists, much to the chagrin of the military and their parents. The genius kids also work with Tilda Swinton's scientist to try and determine where the alien went and whether or not the alien is dangerous or not.

None of this is actually happening however as Asteroid City is a play. It's a stage production. Occasionally, a narrator, played by Bryan Cranston breaks the action to take us behind the scenes on how Asteroid City the play came to be. Cranston introduces us to the playwright, Conrad Earp (Edward Norton), and how he came to cast the characters of Augie and Midge. The play is directed by weirdo genius Schubert Green (Adrien Brody). And the alien is played by Jeff Goldblum. The inspired casting of Jeff Goldblum as a skinny, bug-eyed alien is a complete delight.

There are many, many delights to behold in Asteroid City. This may be Wes Anderson's funniest movie. Each scene has an absurd quality that is quintessentially from the mind of Wes Anderson. It's his very specific sense of humor brought to life. It's not in any way typical humor, it's not a simple joke, each scene thrives on oddity and offbeat timing and if you get it, you get it. If you're not already in the cult of Wes Anderson, the whole thing may be lost on you. I happen to be a huge fan and I loved every second of Asteroid City.

I've barely scratched the surface of the cast of Asteroid City. The film also features Tom Hanks, Willem Dafoe, Hope Davis, Liev Schreiber, Hong Chau, Steve Carell, Margot Robbie, Matt Dillon, Maya Hawke, and Bob Balaban, among others. Every one of these movie stars gets a moment to shine. Hanks may not seem like a Wes Anderson guy, but his taciturn grandfather finds a few moments of terrific low key humor and grace. My favorite secondary character however is Maya Hawke as the teacher of a tour group of young children. Hawke has a romantic interest, a cowboy played by Rupert Friend. Their chemistry is so sweet that it doesn't even need a lot of scenes to pay off.

Asteroid City is among my favorite movies of 2023 and yet another tremendous movie from the mind of Wes Anderson. As a follower of auteur theory, the notion that the director is the author of the movie, Wes Anderson is basically the thesis statement on being an auteur. Everything in a Wes Anderson movie comes from his extraordinarily detailed and ordered mind. It's his sense of humor and style that fully engulfs the screen. Yes, of course, he has dozens of talented collaborators, all auteurs do, but a Wes Anderson movie is one that can never be mistaken for anything other than a Wes Anderson film.

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