Asteroid City – A Stylish Yet Incohesive Misfire

Once the kings of the indie scene of the 2000s, Wes Anderson has enjoyed mainstream success, as his profile has continuously been raised throughout the past fifteen years. Hits like Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel has sparked a fascination with his symmetrical visual style and meticulous world building, that has only grown as we’ve ushered in the age of TikTok. Curiously, the international film contingent has seemed to embrace Anderson more than ever, despite overexposure, a clear decrease in quality, and an onslaught of impersonators consistently trying to replicate his style. His latest feature recently premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, marking his second in competition title in a row after The French Dispatch premiered there two years ago.

Asteroid City may be Anderson’s most star-studded endeavor to date, featuring a slew of A-listers and Anderson regulars including Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman, Margot Robbie, Maya Hawke, Adrian Brody, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Jeffery Wright – the list goes on. Much like Anderson’s recent work, the film follows a loose narrative that is strung together through a series of reoccurring vignettes. It follows a quirky cast of characters attending a Junior Stargazing convention in a rural American dessert town that is suddenly disrupted by the strange appearance of an extraterrestrial being.

The film sees Anderson’s style on full display, boasting some of his most impressive cinematography and production design to date. Working with his regular collaborators, DP Robert Yeoman and set designer Adam Stockhausen, they have crafted a colorful and wholly unique world that is dazzling to look at. He continues to push his aesthetic forward in unique ways, this time introducing science-fiction elements into his repertoire and using stop motion to playfully portray extra-terrestrial life.

While it has more to latch onto than his previous effort did, Asteroid City once again sees Anderson at his most self-indulgent. Far removed from the once scrappy filmmaker who used to craft visually eccentric yet cohesive and emotionally fulfilling films about family dynamics, it seems like Wes is hyper-fixated on meta-narratives and seeing how far he can expand his aesthetic, rather than telling a compelling story. The film may feature some of Anderson’s most eye-popping visuals to date, but it’s a completely hollow film full of wasted potential.

Despite assembling a cast of some of the greatest actors of our generation, most of them are giving nothing to work with. Scarlett Johansson and Jason Schwartzman are the only cast members with enough screen time to at least attempt to develop interesting characters. Every other actor is thrown on screen in a chaotic fashion to ramble off some ridiculously quirky dialogue that is at this point more obnoxious than endearing. Anderson uses the preparation for a stage play as a framing device to tell the story of Asteroid City, but it always feels like two co-existing narratives are kept at an arm’s length from each other. The way he brings the two together in the third act does provide some cohesion, but it doesn’t help that both narratives are exploring completely different themes, and in the most surface level way possible. This formula unfortunately makes for a messy and frustrating watch.

At the end of the day, Asteroid City is visually stunning, but serves as yet another reminder that Wes Anderson may be past his prime as a storyteller. Diehard fans of his aesthetic will surely enjoy what he brings to the table, but for those looking for something more meaningful, the film doesn’t have much else to offer.

still courtesy of Focus Features

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Tristan French