Stargazing

Movie: Asteroid City

Wes Anderson does not miss. Even his "worst" movies (Bottle Rocket and The Darjeeling Limited, in my opinion) are still solid. But if you're not into Anderson's whole vibe, you'll never be into his movies because he doesn't stray far from said vibe.

Anderson's latest, Asteroid City, contains all the classic Anderson tropes: perfectly framed shots, Daddy Issues, quick deadpan dialogue, and a striking palette of colors. But it also has some extra weird shit thrown in for the true fans. The plot is a frame story. So, "Asteroid City" is the name of a play written by Conrad Earp (Edward Norton). The portions of the movie that take place in "reality"--Conrad writing the play, actors auditioning, Conrad attending an acting class to find talent, etc--are filmed in black and white and at a 1.37:1 ratio (basically, the screen is a square). The portions of the movie that represent the play itself are filmed in color at a widescreen ratio. This makes the "reality" portions of the movie feel fake and "fake" portions of the movie feel real. 

The play itself is about events that take place over one week in the very small, Southwestern town so named after an asteroid that landed in the area thousands of years ago. Asteroid City is hosting an astronomy convention where the scientific inventions of young "Junior Stargazers" will be celebrated. This convention brings together a large cast of interesting characters, including Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), a war photographer and recent widower with three daughters and a son (one of the Junior Stargazers). Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson), an actress, is also there with her daughter, Dinah (also a Stargazer). Like many characters in previous Anderson movies, Midge and Augie bond over their shared melancholy. 

The plot is pretty complicated and the cast, as is always the case with Anderson movies, is stacked. A partial list of all the actors in Asteroid City include Tilda Swinton, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Maya Hawke, Rupert Friend, Steve Carell, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, and Margot Robbie. While I really liked Asteroid City, this huge cast (especially given that Anderson's last movie, The French Dispatch, also featured an enormous cast) made me long for the relatively stripped down early Anderson movies, like Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums where there were fewer characters and more complex character development. 

Despite the consistency of Anderson's whole *gestures broadly* thing, the director really does try new stuff all the time. He's done animation, non-linear movies, and metatextual movies. Asteroid City strikes me as uniquely weird for Anderson, which is very exciting. It's a movie I will definitely need to watch a second time in order to pick up all the little things I missed the first time around. I like that his movies reward multiple watches. 

I feel like I'm rambling and also saying nothing in this review, but Asteroid City really is a movie you just need to watch to understand--and you'll probably need to watch it a couple times. If you're an Anderson fan, you'll probably appreciate the film even if it's not among your favorites. If you're not an Anderson fan, this won't be the movie to turn you into one. 

Grade: B+