Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City’ never quite comes together | Movie review
Was Wes Anderson maybe … TRYING to put us to sleep?
That is the recurring question in our mind as we absorbed “Asteroid City,” the acclaimed filmmaker’s latest star-packed and quirky affair, a slow, dreamlike comedy set in the 1950s and folding together the American West and Broadway.
A scene late into the writer-director’s 11th film suggests Anderson at least knows we may be on the verge of sleep by then, but we’ll say no more about that specifically.
On the surface, “Asteroid City” is set in the town of that name, a dot on the map in the American Southwest that’s home to 87 people, a one-pump gas station, a luncheonette, a small motor-court hotel and a telephone booth. Just outside of town resides a large meteor crater and an observatory.
We quickly learn, though, that it actually is a setting created for a broadcast of a play from the Tarkington Theatre, “in an area much like New York’s Great White Way,” as the film’s production notes state.
And so we have a few of the film’s cast members in dual roles, including Scarlett Johansson (“Jojo Rabbit”), who portrays Mercedes Ford, who in the theatrical piece is playing Midge Campbell, an actress who arrives in Asteroid City during what proves to be a memorable time. (“You’re ultimately seeing an actress playing an actress playing an actress,” Wes Anderson explains in the notes. Yup, we got that.)
Midge has brought along her daughter, Dinah (Grace Edwards, “IT”), one of a handful of Junior Stargazers to be honored during Asteroid Day. The holiday commemorates Sept. 27, 3007 BC, when it’s believed the Arid Plains meteor struck the nearby ground.
Another “brainiac” Junior Stargazer is Woodrow (Jake Ryan, “Moonrise Kingdom”), the teenage son of war photographer Augie Steenbeck (Anderson regular Jason Schwartzman), who also brought his three young daughters. He has told none of the children about the recent death of their mother — just the latest point of Augie-related frustration for his father-in-law, Stanley Zak (Tom Hanks, working for the first time with Anderson), who follows the family to the town.
During the Asteroid Day proceedings, hosted by General Gibson (Jeffrey Wright, “The French Dispatch”) and also attended by astronomer Dr. Hickenlooper (Tilda Swinton, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”) and others, the town is visited by an extraterrestrial, a VERY Wes Anderson alien, who descends from a flying saucer, grabs a souvenir and quickly leaves.
The town is locked and a cover story created. With no one able to leave, Augie strikes up a little something with Midge and Woodrow with Dinah.
While occasionally funny, “Asteroid City” ultimately is a meditation on grief. Scrape away all the slow-paced absurdity and the shot after shot that probably only could be framed by Anderson and director of photography Robert Yeoman, a regular collaborator, and we have people dealing with emotional pain.
Unfortunately, this is only so affecting and thought-provoking, especially with the story-within-the-story structure and the film’s distracting parade of recognizable faces. We haven’t even mentioned Edward Norton, Bryan Cranston, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreber, Hope Davis, Rubert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillion, Hong Chau, Tony Revolori, Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe.
Heck, by the time superstar Margot Robbie (“Babylon”) shows up — for a thematically relevant scene opposite Schwartzman — you’re too busy saying to yourself, “Wow! And Margot Robbie!” — to pay close enough attention to what is being said.
“Asteroid City” plays like Wes Anderson sent out an evite to every actor he’s either enjoyed working with or always wanted to work with, got more RSVPs than he anticipated and had to find something to do with everyone. As a result, this get-together is overcrowded, and the film never quite gels.
At least at first glance, “Asteroid City” isn’t among Anderson’s strongest works, including 2001’s “The Royal Tenenbaums,” 2012’s “Moonrise Kingdom” and his previous effort, 2021’s excellent “The French Dispatch.” That said, like any of his films, this one deserves a second viewing, one we’re optimistic will unearth a bit more of what Anderson wants the viewer to take away from the film.
And we’ll do our part by brewing a pot of coffee.
‘Asteroid City’
Where: Theaters.
When: June 23.
Rated: PG-13 on appeal for brief graphic nudity, smoking and some suggestive material.
Runtime: 1 hour, 44 minutes.
Stars (of four): 2.