ASTEROID CITY - Review | Cannes Film Festival 2023

Wes Anderson’s latest film in a way feels like a commentary on criticisms made towards his work as he creates a meta-story structure where the characters playing actors acknowledge how stilted the story and characters are while they examine their purpose in the universe. That ends up being the most distinct aspect to a film that mostly feels too familiar and like a step down in terms of production value and creativity compared to his other work. His precise and lavishing direction is still present where scenes that lean more towards sci-fi give him an opportunity to present visuals unlike any of his other films. But despite remaining enjoyable, the story and its enormous cast don’t offer much that makes the entire experience resonating.

Still Courtesy – Focus Features

The film starts out with The Host (portrayed by Bryan Cranston) guiding viewers through the story of the play Asteroid City both within its narrative and what’s going on backstage during the performance. Its story takes place in 1955 where a Junior Stargazer convention is being held in Asteroid City that brings together an ensemble of characters. This includes photographer Augie Steenbeck (portrayed by Jason Schwartzman) along with his children, actress Midge Campbell (portrayed by Scarlett Johannson), and school teacher June Douglas (portrayed by Maya Hawke). As the convention plays out, everything gets disrupted and altered with an alien lifeforce arrives.

It might sound jarring when hearing how the film is structured, but this is nothing new coming from Wes Anderson. Some of his previous work like The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The French Dispatch (2021) have told their stories within other stories which made their symmetrical and storybook style feel appropriate. However in Asteroid City (2023) while that structure is still present, his choice to focus on theatre has given him an opportunity to make acknowledgments towards the reception to his style. Basically, during the film’s black and white segments which don’t involve the actors in the film performing the play Asteroid City, we’ll follow them questioning and being perplexed by the story and characters that they're portraying and why they're doing it (most prominently the scene that introduces Adrien Brody's character). In a way it felt like Wes Anderson satirizing his own style which was certainly the most unique and engaging aspect of Asteroid City that really pays off when reaching the climatic scene that blends both colour and black-and-white in a purposeful and creative manner.

Honestly, without the film containing that self-referential storyline which is what makes it unique to the rest of Anderson’s body of work, the praises would be kept at a minimum level. Anderson is a filmmaker that may be called out for lacking versatility for how all his films incorporate an identical tone, execution, and composition of shots. It gets to the point when there’s already a clear idea as to what a “Wes Anderson” movie looks and feels like to the average viewer. However, he’s someone who takes his style and always finds new ways to enhance it by telling stories with different structures, setting them in new locations, and advancing his production value. Most recently, Isle of Dogs (2018) demonstrates an advancement in animation and maturity from Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) while The French Dispatch (2021) contained a story being told through anthologies with a clear enhancement for lavishing designs and framing.

Still Courtesy – Focus Features

For Asteroid City (2023), there’s certainly some new aspects that none of his films have had before, mainly that it’s the first time that he’s focused on the sci-fi genre. Thus, scenes in the narrative that heavily lean into that, like the ones involving a UFO arrival. Those end up being the most memorable and uniquely presented parts of the film as we see Anderson getting creative with the use of colours and stop-motion animation during these live-action sequences. However, they take up a small portion of the film and most of the narrative along with its execution doesn’t hold up to the elevation of using his style in distinct manners that he’s continued to show with every new film he makes. The opening titles certainly do a great job at hooking the audience to its world and atmosphere as “Last Train to San Fernando” by Johnny Duncan & His Bluegrass Boys plays while a train heads towards Asteroid City. Afterwards though, we’re presented and follow a large ensemble of talented actors where they can’t seem to stand out from one another. Since it’s hard to differentiate their personalities and the depth that Anderson tries to give them doesn’t feel earned as he tries to balance giving each character significant roles, it ends up giving the actors not much to work with.

This feels prominent during a scene with Augie confessing to his children regarding the status of his wife which should serve as an emotional moment. But the wooden acting and writing make the scene lack any weight even though the actress who plays the wife ends up having a stand-out scene towards the end of the film during the black-and-white segment. To Wes Anderson’s credit, by choosing to write the script using two storylines: one representing fiction which shows the play Asteroid City and the other representing the real-world in the film’s universe showing what the actors are doing while not performing. It makes the flaws with the writing and acting during the Asteroid City storyline more forgivable since the core of the whole story relies on the real-world segment making fun of the characters and structure of the Asteroid City segment. It still doesn’t excuse the fact that no one can master the craft of Wes Anderson’s style other than him since he’s continued to make each one of his films stand out from one another despite being executed similarly. Therefore, Asteroid City (2023) doesn’t compare with most of his work for lacking the resonance and impressive scope that his other movies contain to a larger extent despite there still being plenty to appreciate about it.

Verdict

7/10

Still Courtesy – Focus Features