FILM REVIEW
ASTEROID CITY
Rated PG-13
104 Minutes
Released June 23rd
To really experience a Wes Anderson film, you must be willing to enter an alternative universe of visuals, color, sound, and words. Anderson takes an environment that does or did exist, and he riffs on it, as do poets, musicians, and painters, until it morphs into a world of its own, a wonderful product of his imagination. If you look hard enough, you can see the threads, the seeds, the remnants of the reality that has been molded into his new dreamscape. Most directors are more literal in their style because the medium lends itself to realism. Anderson is more poetic. His movies are not stories. They are poems or songs. This one, on the surface, is structured as a play, but it’s more of a complex series of recurring dreams. One message within is, “If you don’t sleep, you can’t dream.” Originally Anderson’s idea was to make a movie set in the world of Broadway theatre. As he researched 50’s playwrights of the time, he became inspired by the desert culture of the period. That environment seems to have taken the form of the heat-baked desert outpost of Asteroid City circa 1955.
On entering Asteroid City, at first, you may find it cute and colorful. But as you surrender yourself to the colors, the shapes, the words, and the music, you will find a realm of communication. Anderson strips his actors of outward emotion so you can effortlessly enter their thought bubbles without distractions. The desert provides the perfect “rabbit hole” for the characters to inhabit, with its enervating heat and stillness creating a vacuum that sucks away their outward emotions as the action, or inaction, is played out on several levels.
As you move through this movie, you will feel that you are getting to know the vivid characters better and better. They appear and reappear through the fluid, almost shape-shifting timeline, like quicksilver. This cast of well-known award-winning actors disappears into their roles. There is a pivotal character played by Jeff Goldblum, and you won’t recognize him but for his movements which seem hauntingly familiar. The players move through death and mourning, PTSD, boredom, and yearning for the meaning of life. Scarlett Johansson’s character is in a malaise that permeates her being. Three little girls, played by actual triplets, replay a Shakespearean scene with incredible realism and a good dose of straight-man comedy. Anderson had never worked with Tom Hanks before. When the actor walked onto the set, in costume, and in character, Anderson’s reaction was, “Wow, look at that.” I would love to find out if Tilda Swinton’s “Dr. Hickenlooper” is based on George Hickenlooper, a talented, imaginative director who died unexpectedly before his time in 2010, as one theme brought into play by this character is the importance of curiosity and the chance to create art in our lifetime.
It has become a popular Tik Tok pastime to create AI-generated “Wes Anderson” memes of classic movies. Anderson refuses to view them. As for his style, he says, “I have a recognizable handwriting that’s beginning to take shape.” Asteroid City plays like a dream, with the narrative threads getting lost and found again as we move through it. The desert lighting and colors are perfect – anyone who has ever lived in or visited the desert of the Southwest US will feel the atmosphere.
To reprise one of my favorite Maya Angelou quotes, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This movie, if you let it, will make you feel. You must get out of the way of your own expectations and know that you are going to feel the importance of dreams and what it means to be a storyteller.
Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com
