Director Wes Anderson (The French Dispatch, 2021) has distinctively eccentric films that all have similar styles in their production design, acting performances and storytelling. With these similarities being so consistent through Wes Anderson's films, I was thinking his new release, Asteroid City, might feel monotonous or complacent.
Like I might ask myself during the film, "Have I seen this before?" or "Doesn't this story feel too recycled?" But I didn't find myself asking any of these kinds of questions while watching Asteroid City. And that's a testament to Wes Anderson's charm, the wit of his writing and the craftsmanship of his magical team.
Asteroid City is a PG-13 comedy about a group of strangers who arrive in the tiny titular town to attend an award ceremony for junior scientists and stargazers. The random guests get to visit the Arid Plains Meteorite at the bottom of a giant crater and watch an astronomical ellipses in the night sky. But the arrival of a UFO sends the cast into a flurry of uncertainties, government inspections, and quarantines, prompting some of them to ask difficult questions.
Asteroid City manages to feel fresh and entertaining because it's not just centered around the people gathered in the remote southwestern desert. Part of the film is about a playwright and his creative process in writing/casting the story of Asteroid City, which is presented as a televised theater production set in the 1950s. All the actors give terrific deadpan line deliveries, and the expectedly quiet awkwardness is presented with a smooth vaudeville-style artificiality.
With all the dialogue about scientific theories and the implications of an alien visitor, this film isn't about science-fiction ideas. It's about how people try to make sense of the unknowable parts of our universe both big and small.
The mid-century look of the dusty desert setting has manicured roads stretching into the empty horizon and a freeway ramp leading to nowhere, indefinitely waiting for its construction to continue. Starting and ending this film on these pieces of scenery create funny child-like metaphors on the unexplored cosmos and the daunting questions of:
What happens when we die?
How do you move on from a horrible loss?
When will scientists tell us what's beyond our galaxy?
And
Why do humans create stories?
The philosophical leanings in Asteroid City are not for everyone. (The cerebral climax of the film near its ending is a bit too abstract and unresolved.) But this remains a fun and endearing comedy to brighten anyone's summer visit to the movie theater.
