Movie Review: Asteroid City

4 stars out of 5

Wes Anderson is one of my all-time fave filmmakers so if he wants to continue experimenting with the form — puppets, anthology, and now, a story within a story — it’s certainly OK with me. Whether these “exercises” create a bit of distance between film and viewer and thereby prevent the emotional wallop of a truly great motion picture, well, that’s another discussion. But Wes Anderson intends to surprise you and make you smile and he again scores big on both fronts.

Aside from Bill Murray (reportedly absent due to Covid), many of Wes’s regular players are here: Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, and Bob Balaban, and returning for a second time, Scarlet Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, and Liev Schreiber. Newbies include Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, and Matt Dillon.

Story-wise, we’re watching a TV broadcast of a play called… Asteroid City. Recently widowed Schwartzman has driven his kids to the aforementioned middle-of-the-desert Asteroid City where the 1955 Junior Stargazers convention is taking place. The collection of quirky kids here recalls Rushmore and Moonrise Kingdom and there’s nothing wrong with that. (Only two teens have starring roles, but Anderson gives all the young actors — including money-in-the-bank Sophia Lillis — fun scenes to do.) A sudden quarantine — hey, where’d he get that idea? — keeps everybody in town longer than expected. Then things get madcap. In addition to Stargazers and their parents, we also have a field-trip class of younger kids, whose teacher is Anderson’s latest nerd crush, a terrific Maya Hawke, as well as a band of cowboy musicians (including Jarvis Cocker and Seu Jorge), who provide one of the more delightful scenes.

There are a couple of “serious” topics here — grieving and moving on, and the parent/child dynamic — but they don’t much weigh down the zaniness and all the cool stuff to look at. As usual, Anderson has a blast with sets and signs and gadgets — details, details, details. I can imagine watching this again just to sit back and enjoy. You can come with me if you want.