ASTEROID CITY
US, 2023, 108 minutes, Colour.
Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan and Jeff Goldblum.
Directed by Wes Anderson.
For almost 30 years, writer-director, Wes Anderson has been making very personalised, idiosyncratic films. And he has won quite a reputation. Even when his drama/comedies seem realistic, there is so much about the characters, the situations, the dialogue which seems quite surreal. And this has been a strength, fascinating, intriguing. Fans of Anderson will have their own favourites, this reviewer will quote The Royal Tennenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Difficulties with some of the other films, The Fantastic Mr Fox, The French Dispatch.
While most of Anderson’s films have been live-action, he has made to animated films, Mr Fox as well as Isle of Dogs. With Asteroid City, he has combined both talents. The pastel backgrounds for locations belong to animation. And the cast, performing in front of these locations more often resemble characters in animation. And, even more tantalisingly, Anderson has created quite a theatrical background to his staging of these events of 1955 in the Nevada desert. In black-and-white scenes, he shows the discussions about putting on the play, interviews with the producer, the director, the continued commentary from Bryan Cranston, seeing the actors and their interactions with writer and director, discussions about their roles, even actors discussing a sequence omitted from the final cut but spoken by them. So, a moving backwards and forwards, from colour to black and white, from Asteroid City to the theatre. It is all very clever and can be admired (though those frustrated by the complexities have commented that it is too clever for its own good).
As mentioned, Bryan Cranston is the TV host/commentator throughout, with Edward Furlong as the writer, Adrien Brody as the director, Willem Dafoe as the acting coach, Margot Robbie is the actress whose scene was cut.
However, out in the desert with echoes of the testing of atomic bombs, there is a convention for up-and-coming scientists to receive awards. Asteroid City is where an asteroid landed 3700 BC. There is a service station, Matt Dillon alone at the pump. There is a motel, managed by Steve Carell. The principal dramatic focus is a war-photographer father with his son and three daughters whose wife has just died and he can’t tell his children (Jason Schwartzman), his sometimes irascible father-in-law (Tom Hanks). General Gibson (Jeffrey Wright) is presiding, Tilda Swinton as the local astronomer, a teacher (Maya Hawke) with a bus full of children, a musical band, the families of the candidate children, and a famous movie star with her daughter (Scarlett Johansson). One might say: who could ask for anything more!
While there is the central core of the Convention, the awards, interactions in the town, the screenplay is more or less a succession of sketches (including a close encounter of the third kind and a cartoon alien who steals the local asteroid). The father and the movie star bond. The youngsters bond even more. The general is in touch with Washington and everyone is quarantined in Asteroid City.
So, if those ingredients sound attractive, Asteroid City will be an enjoyable Wes Anderson entertainment.
1. A Wes Anderson film? His reputation, style?
2. The structure of the film, the background, the theatre, putting on a play, discussions between director and cast, between writer and cast (and a relationship with one of the stars), the drama coach, complexities behind the scene, logistics, the actor and actress whose scene was cut and their reciting it? The commentating by Bryan Cranston, entering into scenes, sometimes wrongly and exiting? The effect of this theatricality and its relationship to the drama of the film?
3. The structure of the film, the desert, the pastel and artificial backgrounds, Convention Centre, motel, gas station, the streets, the motel, people looking out windows…? The equivalent of animation?
4. The 1955 setting, the Eisenhower era, UFOs and aliens, the testing of bombs? Remote desert communities and their livelihoods, tourists, conventions? The family driving in with the car, the breakdown, the mechanic and his trying to help? The motel and the manager, selling plots of land in the desert, investments…? The busload of children? The children as aspiring scientists and the Convention, awards? The various families, domestic incidents, meals, showers, conversations? The movie star?
5. Audience response to the various characters, the episodes, the interactions?
6. The family, the father of the war photographer, the death of his wife, unable to tell his children, his young son, scientist, for the award, the three little daughter’s, precocious, the issue of burying the with their mother? The grandfather, his clash with his son-in-law, fostering his children?
7. The other families, parents, children, quarantined in Asteroid City? The film star, her reputation, the woman’s criticism of her role not being liked, her interactions with the father, the motel, the windows? With her daughter and her relationship?
8. The general, his speech, his assistant, the awards, the history of the city, the UFO, the alien, the stealing of the asteroid, checking with Washington, imposing quarantine, his being lifted, re-imposed…?
9. The children, science, knowledgeable, compared with the adults? The visit with the astronomer, the scientific background? The awards?
10. The teacher, the bus full of children, precocious comments, the lessons, the interrupted, experiencing the alien?
11. The band, travelling, Montana, attraction to the teacher? The dancing?
12. The alien, close encounters, cartoon alien, taking the asteroid, the later return of the asteroid? The alien embodied in Jeff Goldblum at the end?
13. The aftermath, the general’s death in the accident, the dispersing of the people, the father and the film star and the address, the future?
