{"id":20319,"date":"2023-06-15T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=20319"},"modified":"2023-06-14T13:49:47","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T20:49:47","slug":"review-asteroid-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/review-asteroid-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Asteroid City<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wes Anderson\u2019s Asteroid City<\/em> opens with an aircheck, an old broadcast from WXYZ-TV, with Bryan Cranston doing his best Rod Serling as \u201cthe host,\u201d introducing a television presentation of \u201ca play in three acts,\u201d set in September 1955 (so presumably airing sometime not LONG thereafter). This was not unusual; much of what we now call the \u201cGolden Age of Television\u201d consisted of live broadcasts of popular plays, ingeniously staged to allow then-primitive television cameras to capture a rough approximation of the theatrical experience, while still remaining visually dynamic. But that\u2019s not what Anderson does. We watch that three-act play (called, coincidentally enough, \u201cAsteroid City\u201d) as neither a 4×3 black-and-white TV broadcast nor within the stage proscenium, but as a wide-screen, richly saturated movie epic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, as in his previous The French Dispatch<\/a><\/em> and throughout his filmography, the story Anderson tells here is presented within a frame, and then maybe within another frame or two inside that, just for fun. His detractors will claim that this is yet another case of the sui generis <\/em>director being unnecessarily\/unreasonably clever, perhaps merely for the sake of being clever.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And make no mistake about it\u2014there\u2019s a real temptation, at this point in his career, to review a new Wes Anderson movie primarily by mounting a defense<\/a>. By now his signature flourishes have become familiar enough to inspire parodies, rip-offs, and even AI imitations: intricate tracking shots, perfectly symmetrical compositions, multi-level narratives, meticulous production design, a bursting-at-the-seams rep company, carefully placed running gags, and casual incorporation of models and puppets. (The latter results in perhaps my favorite opening credit line of the year so far: \u201cJEFF GOLDBLUM as the alien.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cast of characters here is so rich, pulling from such a deep bench of both Anderson regulars and newbies, that to run them all down and summarize the events therein would take up the rest of the allotted space for this review and leave no room for criticism. (Perhaps this is a deliberate ploy by Mr. Anderson, the clever boy.) All you need to know is that the central action\u2014that is, the action of the play within the TV show within the movie\u2014is confined to the titular city, a nowhere pit stop in the middle of the desert notable only as the landing spot for a bowling ball-sized asteroid, many centuries ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now it is where \u201cJunior Stargazers and Space Cadets\u201d (read: science nerds) gather once a year to receive awards for their achievements and partake of the private sector-funded facility nearby, and as you\u2019ve probably put together from that Goldblum credit, unexpectedly meet an alien. Much of the complicated narrative derives from its unpeeling, so I\u2019ll leave it at that; suffice it to to say that we have Edward Norton doing Tennessee Williams, Scarlett Johansson doing Elizabeth Taylor, Tom Hanks doing Bill Murray, and Tilda Swinton continuing to use Anderson\u2019s pictures as an outlet for her silliest comic characterizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The familiar elements are all in place, of course, as are a couple of others that aren\u2019t mentioned as often (perhaps because they aren\u2019t as easy to smarmily name-check). There\u2019s something sort of miraculous about his blocking, in both the square and wide screen; his carefully composed two-and-three shots allow sparks of comic timing and performance-friendly rhythm that beats cutting and coverage all to hell. And his dialogue is especially witty this time around (of his recently deceased wife, Jason Schwartzmann tells his children, \u201cLet\u2019s just say she\u2019s in Heaven, which doesn\u2019t exist for me, of course, but you\u2019re Episcopalian\u201d), which is perhaps more noteworthy because of the successful addition of Johansson to the company. Her rough, flat vocal quality is a good vehicle for the bone-dry wit and matter-of-fact emotion of his writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as there so often is, there\u2019s more to Asteroid City<\/em> than meets the eye; he\u2019s not just playing his greatest hits, but gently nudging the borders of his canvas, satisfying our desire for a \u201cWes Anderson movie\u201d while subtly expanding the scope of what that might be. The theatrical setting of the story (sorta) allows him to indulge in his theatricality a bit more, with a handful of monologues that aren\u2019t quite like anything he\u2019s written before, in a very satisfying way. The complicated scaffolding of the structure allows him to break the fourth wall a bit, and then bust a couple more for good measure. And there\u2019s a glorious weirdness to its closing passages\u2014a risk, which his critics seem to doubt his ability to take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the moment that matters comes late, when Schwartzmann (not as his character but the actor playing him\u2014in the play, though also in this film), who\u2019s been in nearly every Wes Anderson film to date, asks his director (Adrien Brody) if he\u2019s doing ok, and despairs, \u201cI still don\u2019t understand the play.\u201d What his director says in response, and the sum total of that exchange, may well be the most profound thing Wes Anderson has ever written about what he does. And then it\u2019s over in a blink, and he\u2019s moved on to something else that\u2019s playful, or odd, or sweet. Asteroid City<\/em> is not as furiously funny as The French Dispatch<\/em>, nor as quietly pointed as The Grand Budapest Hotel<\/em>. But it\u2019s a deeply pleasurable picture, with a thing or two to say besides, and that\u2019s not nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B+<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“Asteroid City” is out Friday in limited release. It goes wide on June 23.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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