Sometimes a movie can just be a movie, can’t it? Because if that were the case then there is a lot to recommend about director Wes Anderson’s new film ‘Asteroid City’.
Real sets were built to create an indelible new type of look for a production that is both retro and artificial to the point it will make your eyes blur, but have you ever seen anything quite like it? There is a plethora of stars in this movie, many speaking in monotones that alternate between being meta, and holding you at a remove, and being vulnerable and tugging at your heart strings. It is undeniably funny and clever, but for some. . . It may fail to be charming. After all, if you want to hold your audience at a remove – well, two can play at that game.
Yet if we had never seen a Wes Andersen picture, wouldn’t this be wildly original? Isn’t it a little unfair to have a filmmaker put so much care and diligence into the constructed layers of his narrative and set design, and then criticise him for doing more of the same? Furthermore, while there is an undeniable style to the work of Wes, none of his films look alike and he has continued to expand or challenge himself over the years, experimenting with techniques and shifting the focus generationally of his characters. You may note here Jason Schwartzman is playing a father having once played a schoolboy for Wes’s second movie.
That father, Augie Steenbeck, is taking his four children to the titular Asteroid City where the son is competing in a science competition at the small desert town where an asteroid crashed thousands of years ago. Another parent present is movie starlet Midge Campbell played by Scarlett Johansson fitting the line delivery of Wes Anderson characters like a glove. Their attraction to each other, mostly played out over conversations they share at the window of their neighbouring hotel shacks, is one small part of the plot which is actually a plot within a plot.
You can see the joy some of the actors are having in such a production like the ever dependable, Edward Norton, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston, Tony Revolori, Hope Davis and Steve Carell. A real delight is some of the new additions to the Wes Anderson ensemble like Tom Hanks comfortably owning grandfather roles now, Matt Dillon’s strained faces and Margot Robbie showing up in a small but crucial role. Jason and Scarlett are particularly good, and Jake Ryan as Augie’s son is a revelation. The heartfelt moments still stir, but in Wes’s wish to celebrate something about the creative process and the people who put on a show, we never quite achieve liftoff.
The director seems to be saying something about life and death, the way routine brings people together and crisis can give perspective, but how we seldom seem to acknowledge the real dangers instead choosing to worry about perceived ones.
The film doesn’t quite figure out if it wants you to care about artists having something to say about the human condition or the story they are telling, which deals with the human condition. Yet, Wes remains a talent, this is a funny quirky movie and how sad would the world be if Wes Andersen stopped making funny quirky Wes Anderson movies.
Yes, it may not be his best, but even his average still leaves most wanting.
