Title: Asteroid City
Year: 2023
Director: Wes Anderson
Country: US
Language: English
In 2010, Michael W. Boyce introduced me to Wes Andersons' work with Royal Tenenbaums (2001) in relation to his Mise-En-Scene lesson for Introuduction to Cinema, I immediately became a fan & made effort to see Anderson's newest pictures in the theatre.
A grieving writer (Jason Schwartzman) travels with his tech-obsessed family to a small rural town called Asteroid City. The narrative is framed through an Inside the Actor's Studio show, in which a narrator (Bryan Cranston) is framing everything we experience as a play.
Post his most artistic (Royal Tenenbaums) and most profitable (Grand Budapest Hotel) pictures, an aging Wes Anderson is finding himself in his twilight years and wondering "why?", What is the purpose of film-making? Is Wes Anderson just imitating Wes Anderson? It's a very self aware, self- reflective movie.
Asteroid City is not an easy viewing. Many people are turned off by the "play within a movie" aspect and the shift from play to broadcast to play can make the picture feel unevenly paced. I didn't mind the change, but I would have preferred if we just stayed in the whimsical pastel-fused Asteroid City.
Even though it doesn't fully work the way Anderson would like it to, I appreciate a film-maker who is willing to experiment & create a narrative that is different from the norm. I hope he continues to be creative and finds a way to change the Wes Anderson style,
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