‘Asteroid City’ (2023) Movie Review: A Parody that Dares to be Unique

‘Asteroid City‘ is directed by Wes Anderson and stars Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Hanks, among others.

This film is all about style, and more than just style: it’s a powerful statement of style that encapsulates a seemingly trivial yet insightful and intuitive message.

Some say that only fools like Wes Anderson, but I must confess that this retro fable about nothing has delighted me.

Movie Review

Just based on the visuals, the Looney Tunes-inspired treatment, the framing, and the entire parody of cinema within cinema, ‘Asteroid City’ is worth it. And when I say it’s worth it, I mean that you haven’t seen anything like it, including other films by the director. Whether we like it or not, the cinematography is daring, brutally stylish, and brilliant, in a way that only Wes Anderson can achieve.

Is Wes Anderson copying himself? Definitely, and Wes Anderson is mocking the director himself and using a landscape that only lacks the Road Runner. Then, the screenwriter crafts a story that parodies multiple timelines within a single vintage setting, twisting it to make jokes about quantum physics and mock the very filmic-narrative space in which the movie is contained.

It may sound like a tongue twister, but it’s simple: it’s a film mocking cinema itself, using television narrative as the format for the joke and ultimately creating a work that is unique in style and content.

‘Asteroid City’ also has the virtue of hiding its substance in absolute frivolity, in the aliens and the parody of ‘Mars Attacks!’ (Tim Burton), in absurd dialogues, and in its ability to escape traditional storytelling, to laugh at itself, at cinema, and to turn tragedy into comedy.

But, without a doubt, it’s a Wes Anderson film and, indisputably, aesthetically speaking, this guy has managed to create a whole style, very similar to animation if you will, very childish if you insist, very frivolous if you wish, but it will always be a Wes Anderson movie.

Our Opinion

A film that has the audacity to be unique.

Plot

Set in a fictional desert town around 1955, the itinerary of a convention for young astronauts/space cadets (organized to bring together students and parents from across the country for camaraderie and academic competition) is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.

Release date

June 16, 2023

Director

Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their symmetry, eccentricity and distinctive visual and narrative styles, and he is cited by some critics as a modern-day example of the auteur. Three of his films, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) appeared in BBC Culture’s 2016 poll of the greatest films since 2000. Anderson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), as well as the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for the stop-motion films Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and Isle of Dogs (2018). With The Grand Budapest Hotel, he received his first Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Picture, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay. He currently runs the production company American Empirical Pictures, which he founded in 1998. He won the Silver Bear for Best Director for Isle of Dogs in 2018.

The Cast

Jeffrey Wright
Tilda Swinton
Bryan Cranston
Willem Dafoe
Edward Norton
Adrien Brody