Asteroid City

The twin plots and many subplots of Asteroid City all center around relationships and creation. Hanks lends himself well to Anderson and Coppela’s material as Augie’s father-in-law. Johannson and Schwartzman share a perfect world-weariness and provide commentary on their character’s motivations and complexity. Johansson alone plays a character in a production about a TV broadcast of a play (created solely for said broadcast). She is actually an actress preparing for a role. The whole cast helps create the memorable, whimsically idiocentric atmosphere that shined so well in Grand Budapest Hotel. As Act II begins to close, the movie reminds the audience how much is centered around the characters and those bringing these characters to the screen.

Title cards announcing each scene or new act are just one of the many ways Anderson and Coppola focus on performance and production. If The French Dispatch was a love letter to art, journalism, and world culture, then this is a love letter to acting, writing, and the space age. Like Anderson’s prior work, there’s a lot of visual delight, continuing his mantra of symmetrical framing, vibrant colors, and extensive set pieces. The story comments on the labors of production, casting, and actors attempting to tap into their character’s psyche. Everything from the story to how Anderson tells his narratives feels like the freedom of indie filmmaking inside the production of an Anderson picture. It’s a movie for cinephiles; Anderson, Coppola, and the whole cast and crew know it.

(L to R) Liev Schreiber as “J.J. Kellogg”, Steve Carell as “Motel Manager”, Stephen Park as “Roger Cho”, and Hope Davis as “Sandy Borden” in writer/director Wes Anderson’s ASTEROID CITY, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features

“…vibrant colors, and extensive set pieces.”

Wishing to do something worthwhile is a major theme of Asteroid City. Young Woodrow even proclaims this idea to Swinton’s Dr. Hickenlooper, but the message is as much to the viewer as it is to the characters and the characters they are playing. The multiple threads are secondary to the characters and the realizations they have with each other within a fictional play on a fictional broadcast in a very real film.

Moments might be haphazard and even a little too stream of consciousness to make sense of, even with repeated viewings. However, Asteroid City stays with you. Playing the director of the fictional play, Adrian Brody, states, “It doesn’t matter, just keep telling the story.” This serves as a strong thesis for everything that happens on screen. Even in the more chaotic moments, the filmmaker still delivers a beautiful, exciting, and interesting movie in a way only Wes Anderson could.