We may have reached peak Wes Anderson. He has taken his structured, artificial aesthetic, his actors' flat, stoic affect, his over literalized dialogue, and his technicolor sets, and crafted the most meta wink-wink film he has ever made. His story is presented with a framing sequence which implies it is a play crafted by an off screen playwright (only seen in the framing sequence) and we are lectured at the beginning that what we are seeing is fictional, with the cast playing both the actors playing their roles and executing the roles themselves. None of it is to be seen as real, an idea he has played with and evolved towards overtime through his entire filmography til we are here, in this completely constructed, artificial world.
I've heard a general consensus that Asteroid City will not win over new converts to Anderson's fan base. No shit. Asteroid City takes all that is Wes Anderson and amplifies it ten-fold. And this includes the hollow, emotionless sentiment that pervades his films to the extreme as well. By the end of Asteroid City one is asking themselves, why? I find Anderson's films often leave me feeling a little used, like the whole exercise is just pretension and smarm but at least The Grand Budapest Hotel had jokes and slap stick, and at least Moonrise Kingdom feigned a love story.
But everything about Asteroid City just feels like the facade that he often presents his stories in. None of the character arcs feel fleshed out. The jokes all feel a little on the throw away side. And by the end little to nothing has changed. And since it's all "just a play" anyway, none of it is real. And I sat there asking myself, why?
I get that Anderson buffs eat up this sort of shit but if there was ever a the-emperor-has-no-clothes moment, Asteroid City might be Anderson's.
Asteroid City
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Ryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Stephen Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hung Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jeff Goldblum, Sophia Lillis, Rita Wilson
Writer/Director: Wes Anderson
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