Asteroid City (2023)

Two years after the release of The French Dispatch (2021), Wes Anderson brings Asteroid City (2023) to the big screen. Perhaps the most star-studded Anderson film cast to date, Asteroid City stars Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jake Ryan, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Margot Robbie, Jeff Goldblum, and many others.

            Set in a fictional American desert town, around 1955, a world-changing event spectacularly interrupts the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention. Organized to bring together children and adults from across the country, the convention was designed for fellowship and scholarly competition. Asteroid City delivers Anderson’s similar style, with a structure similar to The French Dispatch but with characters more loving like those from his 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel. Anderson’s typical colouring, camera angles and transitions are all used in Asteroid City and the audience feels a sense of familiarity with them.

            In his 11th feature film, unlike many of his feature works, Anderson stays clear of the “style over substance”. Even though the story is not perfect throughout, and there are some moments where his artistic/indie style come through more than a simple plot, Asteroid City is one of the best, if not my favourite, Anderson film I have watched to date.

            Through the use of his style, as well as brilliant performances from his ensemble cast, Asteroid City is a breath of fresh air (following The French Dispatch) and will most definitely be a rewatch to fully understand the plot, and to see the details that one might not see on a simple first watch.

Photo credits to Focus Features