{"id":4469,"date":"2024-10-07T02:37:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T02:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4469"},"modified":"2024-10-12T20:55:44","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T20:55:44","slug":"asteroid-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/07\/asteroid-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Asteroid City"},"content":{"rendered":"

As\"\"teroid City<\/strong> (2023)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Focus\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (brief graphic nudity, some suggestive material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Wes Anderson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Wes Anderson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alexandre Desplat\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robert Yeoman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 16, 2023 (US, limited)\/June 23, 2023 (US, wide)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carrell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, Jeff Goldblum, Kim Keukeleire, Sophia Lillis, Fisher Stevens, Ethan Josh Lee, Grace Edwards, Aristou Meehan, Rita Wilson, Jarvis Cocker, Bob Balaban, Seu Jorge.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

I recommend Asteroid City<\/strong> to fans of Wes Anderson. You know who you are. He\u2019s an acquired taste and if you haven\u2019t yet acquired it, it\u2019s probably best to sit this one out. His fans, on the other hand, are going to love his latest work, a comedy about the strange goings-on in a small desert town during a youth astronomy convention. That, of course is an oversimplification. Those familiar with the idiosyncratic filmmaker know nothing he does is ever simple. That\u2019s what\u2019s so cool about him.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a well-known fact that Wes\u2019 films are highly stylized. They have an aesthetic all their own. Every scene is meticulously composed and symmetrical. Every shot looks like one of those dioramas we used to make for school. I love that! Wes also has a flair for presentation. Asteroid City<\/strong> is presented as a televised play complete with a nattily suited narrator (Cranston, Breaking Bad) who talks us through the multi-character\/multi-narrative piece by playwright Conrad Earp (Norton, Moonrise Kingdom). These scenes are in black and white and shown in a boxy aspect ratio of 1.37:1 (aka academy ratio). When the scene shifts to the action of the play of the movie\u2019s title, the visual style changes as well- i.e. color and widescreen. This is the work of Wes\u2019 longtime cinematographer Robert Yeoman who shot it all on 35mm Kodak film and an old Arriflex camera. It\u2019s gorgeous and brilliant!<\/p>\n

Many people converge on the town of Asteroid City, so named for the asteroid that landed there 5000 years ago, in early fall 1955. The main character is Augie Steenbeck (Schwartzman, Rushmore), a war photographer and recent widower who can\u2019t bring himself to tell his four children their mother is gone. His oldest Woodrow (Ryan, Moonrise Kingdom) is one of the honorees at the convention. When their car dies, Augie calls his cantankerous father-in-law Stanley (Hanks, A Man Called Otto) to come pick up his three weird young daughters. Others start to arrive including world weary actress Midge Campbell (Johansson, Jojo Rabbit) and her genius daughter Dinah (Edwards, Call Jane), also an honoree. Three other genius teens arrive with their parents along with a busload of elementary school children with their teacher (Hawke, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), a group of singing cowboys led by manly Montana (Friend, Homeland) and convention host General Griff Gibson (Wright, The French Dispatch).<\/p>\n

Things take a weird turn when a UFO lands during the awards ceremony. An alien emerges, takes the meteorite and leaves. The General, acting under orders by the President, immediately places Asteroid City under quarantine. The military is there with rifles in hand to make sure nobody gets in or out. Phone service is cut off. The government can\u2019t have news of a UFO landing getting out, can they? During the lockdown, Augie and Midge become close-ish as do Woodrow and Dinah. A lot of other drama ensues, but to list it all would take time and space. Let\u2019s just leave it at this. I\u2019ve told you all you need to know anyway.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have any real complaints about Asteroid City<\/strong>. I think it\u2019s good, very good in fact. It just doesn\u2019t quite measure up to great Wes titles like Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums (my personal #1 fave), Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel. Still, I enjoyed every minute of it. It\u2019s filled with the director\u2019s trademark deadpan humor which I LOVE! Now that\u2019s the kind of humor that makes me LOL. I laughed more at Asteroid City<\/strong> than I did at the last several comedies I saw at the multiplex. The entire cast does a great job keeping straight faces amidst all the bizarre goings-on. In addition to those already mentioned, the cast also includes Steve Carrell (Little Miss Sunshine) as the manager of the town\u2019s only motel, Tilda Swinton (The French Dispatch) as a scientist, Adrien Brody (The French Dispatch) as the play\u2019s director and Willem Dafoe (The French Dispatch) as an acting teacher and colleague of Norton\u2019s character. It\u2019s a large cast, but Wes has enough of a handle on crowd control that they\u2019re not tripping over each. Like his shots, he has complete control.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to give special mention to Schwartzman who has matured considerably since playing the lead in Rushmore. It took a lot of effort on my part to forgive him for starring in the rancid teen \u201ccomedy\u201d Slackers, a disgusting bucket of swill that\u2019s thankfully gone largely forgotten in the 20+ years since its release. He plays a dual role in Asteroid City<\/strong>. In addition to Augie, he also plays the actor playing Augie in the TV play. It\u2019s a delicate balance that he manages perfectly. He brings the right amount of gravitas as he struggles to cope with his loss. It\u2019s an incredible performance.<\/p>\n

Getting back to the visual aspect of Asteroid City<\/strong> for a bit, I get a real kick out of taking in the details of each scene. The town diner has their offerings and prices advertised on the front. There\u2019s an unfinished on-ramp that just stands out. Looking at the movie is just fascinating. I also like all the strange touches like the out-of-nowhere musical number during an attempted lesson by the teacher. There\u2019s so much joy to be had watching a Wes Anderson film. That\u2019s my opinion anyway. The more casual movie viewer might beg to differ. HOWEVER, if you\u2019re a fan, you\u2019ll dig it.<\/p>\n

WARNING: If you want to see Asteroid City<\/strong>, DO NOT HESITATE. It might not be around for long. I have a feeling the bigger upcoming releases will push it out of theaters in a week\u2019s time, maybe two. So hurry. This is one movie that deserves to be seen on the big screen.<\/p>\n

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Asteroid City (2023)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Focus\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 105 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (brief graphic nudity, some suggestive material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Wes Anderson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Wes Anderson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Alexandre Desplat\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Robert Yeoman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 16, 2023 (US, limited)\/June 23, 2023 (US, wide)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Asteroid-City-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4472,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4469\/revisions\/4472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}