Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Asteroid City (2023) - Enjoy Anderson's crisp star parade desert adventure from the comfort of a theater seat

7/03/2023

Asteroid City (2023) - Enjoy Anderson's crisp star parade desert adventure from the comfort of a theater seat

♥♥♥♥

Post-card-like, pleasant, warm-colored poster high-lighting the long star cast for Wes Anderson's Asteroid City

In a tiny desert town in Arizona that's centered around its asteroid crater sight, an astronomical star-gazing event attracts a father of four and his off-spring, among other people, when an unforeseen occurrence forces them to share a week there together. Also, a story about the creation of this desert-plot, which is the material of a New York play.

Asteroid City is written by Roman Coppola (Moonrise Kingdom (2012)) and Texan master filmmaker, co-writer/co-producer/directer Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket (1996)), whose 11th feature it is.

For the veteran Anderson-lover, the film is like a vintage serving of the singular American's style, universe and sensibilities, a delicious return to a peculiar world that most will be very pleased to spend some time in any day of the week. This time Anderson and Coppola's story is probably their most convoluted of plots to date due to its meta-textual layer: Edward Norton (Fight Club (1999)) is the playwright and Adrien Brody (The Pianist (2002)) the restless director of the desert-set play in the film's B/W framing story, with Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad (2008-13)) an amusing narrator. It is curious and has its strange attraction, but the main attraction, the spry, crisply colorful play reality in itself, that is the real dish in Asteroid City.

And a succulent one it is: Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore (1998)) is the recently widowed father grappling with his new role and relaying it to his children and father-in-law Tom Hanks (Philadelphia (1993)), also amusing. His role is in no way up to what is normally to be expected from a Hanks performance, but then Steve Carell (The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)) gets even slighter bones to pick, and ditto for Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse (2019)) and Margot Robbie (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)). It is somehow alright, since Anderson pics are like visits to a strange and privileged playhouse, where the creator's favorite friends usually are found, and many are they indeed.

As before, the focus is often on the adolescent formative age teenagers, but here also on the themes of the surrounding universe; space and the awareness of intelligent life elsewhere. The stylish panache, both in terms of production design, costumes, hair and Robert Yeoman's (Spy (2015)) striking images, are crowned in this film by Scarlett Johansson's (Lost in Translation (2003)) lovely performance as a 1950s movie star, (the clear referential connection is to Marilyn Monroe, and Johansson's brown hair color here is likely chosen for the connect not to be overly clear) , who also gets stuck in Asteroid City.

The emotions and depth don't reach the heights of Anderson's best films here, but Asteroid City is still a magical visit and very worth the prize of admission.

Related posts:

Wes Anderson: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Top 10: The best adventure films reviewed by Film Excess to date
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - A very very good dream
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - A 1960s island youth romance present

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) - Anderson's technically, visually admirable but a bit tiring animation
The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - Anderson beautifies but still wins with India-journey favorite

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $

Box office: 29.4 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Asteroid City premiered 23 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 105 minutes. Shooting took place from August - October 2021 in Arizona and in Madrid, Spain. The film opened #10 to an 853k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it still plays. It has yet to open in several big markets that are set for August and September. It lost the Palme D'Or to Anatomy of a Fall. Anderson returns with The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023). Schwartzman has returned in a TV-series and a voice performance and is set to return with a physical theatrical performance in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023); Johansson has 6 upcoming films. Asteroid City is certified fresh at 73 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

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Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

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Wolfgang Petersen has died

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Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

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Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

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7/03/2023

Asteroid City (2023) - Enjoy Anderson's crisp star parade desert adventure from the comfort of a theater seat

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