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| 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.]
What do you think of Asteroid City?
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