Movie Review – Asteroid City

Asteroid City (2023)
Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
Directed by Wes Anderson

“All Wes Anderson movies are the same,” they shout. From an aesthetic point of view, the director is exceptionally consistent these days with a particular visual sensibility. I would argue that it has changed over time. Go back and watch Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, then compare it to this film and The French Dispatch. They are very different in how they look but share similar rhythms. That’s what I find is true about all his work, the rhythm of the stories, characters, and comedy. Asteroid City is no exception, but I would argue a need to look deeper than the surface level or study how what’s happening aesthetically flows into the themes explored in the story. Asteroid City is a profound film about big emotions, particularly grief, and how we process them.

Set in Anderson’s movie version of 1950s Southwestern America, the film is made up of a framework around the central story. That framework tells us we are watching a televised production of a play. That play is about a group of people gathering in the desert town of Asteroid City to participate in the Junior Stargazer convention, an event for aspiring teenage scientists. Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) has brought his son Woodrow and his three girls here just as their car breaks down again. The father & war photojournalist has hidden that his wife has died from his children, telling them she is still sick and staying in the hospital. He confides this in his father-in-law Stanley (Tom Hanks), who lives a few hours from Asteroid City and agrees to drive over, attend the convention, and bring them to his place.

Also in attendance is Midge Campbell (Scarlet Johansson), a famous actress worn down by time & tragedy. Her daughter, Dinah, is one of the participants in the convention. While Midge and Augie begin to feel sparks between them (while treading carefully due to recent heartbreak), Dinah and Woodrow also seem to be developing feelings. More people arrive until the convention starts, led by General Grif Gibson (Jeffrey Wright) and Dr. Hickenlooper (Tilda Swinton). Everything is going smoothly until, during the awards ceremony, an alien ship descends from the sky, and its pilot emerges to swipe the asteroid that gave this small town its name. Everything is thrown into chaos as people try to make sense of this encounter and what it means for their understanding of the world and life.

Anderson has combined the anthology structure of The French Dispatch with his typical storytelling trademarks to construct an incredibly complex meditation on grief & death. While the film pivots around Asteroid City, taking peeks into the lives of the visitors, it also steps backward to reveal behind-the-scenes information about the fictional actors playing these roles. Jones Hall (also Schwartzman) was romantic partners with the playwright Conrad Earp (Edward Norton). Six months into the play’s run, Earp is killed in a car accident, leaving Hall reeling. He doesn’t know how to make sense of a world without Earp, paralleled by Augie’s difficulty in grieving his wife. 

The critical moment in this dual arc comes when Hall walks out of the play and into the behind-the-scenes world amid the play’s story falling into anarchy. He confronts the play’s director Schubert Green (Adrian Brody), wanting to know if he is “doing him right” concerning the role of Augie. Hall also confesses he doesn’t really understand what is going on. Schubert’s response is that uncertainty is part of it. Hall steps out on a fire escape for smoke, where he encounters The Actress (Margot Robbie), who is performing next door. She was almost cast as Augie’s wife until the producers removed her from the story. They go back and forth, reciting the lines from a deleted scene they would have shared. 

Ironically, this film is about accepting that we have little to no control over life. This might be surprising for a director like Anderson, who is meticulous and exact in how his movies look. He would argue that aesthetics are one of the few things we can shape and guide. However, the trajectory of other people’s lives, especially when they end suddenly, can leave us paralyzed with fear. We don’t know how to play the role of the grieving survivor. Are we crying enough? Are we crying too much? How long should we grieve? Should we ever stop? Can we ever stop? There will never be a moment when we suddenly understand our lives and what they mean. We can come to an understanding about some things but only part of it. That is okay, Anderson assures us; being confused is part of being alive.

The alien’s arrival and disappearance is that moment for the characters in the play. What does it mean that humans are not the only intelligent life form in the universe? Why did it take the asteroid? Will it bring it back? Was it a threat or an utterly neutral action? Because most of our characters are “knowledgeable people,” we expect them to have answers; they expect the same. When it proves too difficult to grapple with, they turn on each other and become irrational. 

Anderson has said the COVID-19 pandemic had a direct influence on this feature. In the film, the characters get quarantined and behave nastily toward each other for a bit. In a short time, they go from having confidence in their understanding of the universe to being completely lost. Because so many characters exhibit neurodivergent behaviors, we see that frustration manifests in ways that might not be common to most media. I found his characters incredibly diverse in personality here, but all showed signs of neurodivergence to different degrees. I also believe that Anderson is likely on the spectrum after watching interviews of him dating back to the Rushmore days. In this way, Asteroid City examines grief in a manner that doesn’t feel cliched. We haven’t seen these emotions explored from this perspective, which feels incredibly fresh.

I always understand if Wes Anderson is not every person’s cup of tea. In college, I joked that he was the Michael Bay of arthouse cinema in that both directors have particular styles that appeal to specific people. I’ve never seen an Anderson film that I disliked, but I have enjoyed them to varying degrees. Asteroid City showed a way of thinking I personally connect to. I don’t immediately feel grief in the same way as other people. I often intellectualize those feelings and dissect them. However, just because I don’t exhibit emotions in a neurotypical manner doesn’t mean I don’t feel them in my own way. Emotions can sometimes become a public performance and Anderson strips that away with characters who are unique & exciting. In a sea of copy/paste movies, it is always refreshing to have this director make the kinds of films that appeal to him.