Asteroid City (2023) (1 Viewer)

[Wayne_j]

I'm seeing this tonight. I will let you know how it is when I return.

 

[MartinP.]

I saw this film last Sunday. Landmark re-opened the Sunset 5 Theatre this month in West Hollywood after AMC left a month ago. For two weeks they are showing nothing but this film on all screens. When you buy your ticket it also includes an extra half-hour before the movie begins to roam around various sets and props, vignettes from the film...where you and your friends can immerse yourself into various scenes from the film while employees can use your cellphone to take photos for you.

That is interesting, though not having seen the film you really don't know what any of it means.

But that's okay, after the movie, I and my two friends were still unsure of what to make of this film. Even reading a couple spoiler articles about what it all entailed I was still unsure. The film was never tedious or boring, but I never felt invested in any of it, sorry to say.

 

[Wayne_j]

I just got back, it is very much standard Wes Anderson faire. If you are a Wes Anderson fan you will like it and if you aren't you might not. It was very packed for a Thursday night, but I don't expect it to do exceptionally well this weekend since I saw it in an arthouse theater and this film was made by an arthouse icon director.

Near the end of the movie the picture froze while a rhythmic clicking noise kept looping. The theater said that they had to reboot their server, but it happened in a point of the movie where I wouldn't be shocked if Wes Anderson actually intended that to happen.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I'm a WA fan, but I felt "eh" about AC for the most part. The long-winded dialogue was a verbal work-out for a few of the actors in the ensemble cast. Maybe a re-watch might smooth over the edges, I dunno.

 

[Alex...]

76% Certified fresh

 

[MartinP.]

^^^

A few days ago it was 89%. Audience 49%. Audience is now 66%.

 

[benbess]

Perhaps you need to be a big Wes Anderson to really get into this movie, but I more or less am, and so I enjoyed it. Surreal, sometimes witty, and sometimes slightly insightful and/or emotional, I give it a B+.

 

[Josh Dial]

I watched this in the theatre last night.

I think Asteroid City is my favourite Wes Anderson movie. It's certainly his smartest and best-looking. The sun drenched, often dappled scenes were gorgeously framed and coloured.

Style-wise, Anderson is leaning into Brecht and Beckett more than any of his other films, and indeed more than any in recent memory. The opening sequence introducing the movie as a play within a TV show is one of the most "Brechtian" things I've seen in a while. And I loved it!

At its core, the movie explored how we use science and art (two sides of the same coin) to know the unknowable. Adrian Brody's director character, for example, struggles to understand his own play, doesn't know the lead's motivation until he encounters the Jason Schwartzman's character (the actor who will play the lead).

The director doesn't know how to create a dream sequence so he "crowd sources" it to a group of actors. Interestingly, the meta solution about showing the dream sequence is to have Jason Schwartzman (as the actor playing Augie) listen to Margot Robbie's character (the actress who was going to play the wife role until her one scene--the dream sequence!--was cut for time) say the scene's lines. It was sort of brilliant.

Everyone is making art and doing science, striving hoping for answers and control over their lives. What's my motivation? It doesn't matter, you're doing great! What happens when we die? What's the solution to the celestial flirtation theory? Does everything have meaning? Does anything? Does it matter?

We're all sort of just "out here" doing the best we can. Maybe we can make it to the show 20 minutes before we go on stage.

10/10

Favourite line: (From Tilda Swinton's character, Dr. Hickenlooper) "I never had children. Sometimes I wonder if I wish I should've..."

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The film was never tedious or boring, but I never felt invested in any of it, sorry to say.

That was sort of how I felt about it, too.

It's an ambitious bit of filmmaking, with a pretty unique visual palette, some inventive uses of a confined setting, and some multi-level storytelling that blurs the lines between the framing device and the story proper.

I enjoyed the ride well enough, but I never felt emotionally invested, like I do with the best Wes Anderson pictures.

Near the end of the movie the picture froze while a rhythmic clicking noise kept looping. The theater said that they had to reboot their server, but it happened in a point of the movie where I wouldn't be shocked if Wes Anderson actually intended that to happen.

I'm assuming you saw it at the Spectrum. No freezing or rhythmic clicking for my afternoon showing today.

I'm a WA fan, but I felt "eh" about AC for the most part. The long-winded dialogue was a verbal work-out for a few of the actors in the ensemble cast. Maybe a re-watch might smooth over the edges, I dunno.

I didn't feel like any of the actors weren't up to the challenge. But Scarlett Johansson was the clear standout for me, while Margot Robbie and Sophia Lillis both made the most of their very limited screen time.

Favourite line: (From Tilda Swinton's character, Dr. Hickenlooper) "I never had children. Sometimes I wonder if I wish I should've..."

That one got a laugh in our showing, too.

 

[Wayne_j]

I'm assuming you saw it at the Spectrum. No freezing or rhythmic clicking for my afternoon showing today.

Correct.

 

[jayembee]

My wife and I saw this last night. Both of us loved it. Typical "theatre of the absurd" from Anderson, though in this case it's a nesting doll TOTA (it's a movie of a TV broadcast about the creation of a play). Best part: the beginning section of the end titles with a roadrunner dancing to "Freight Train". Well, no, that wasn't really the best part, but it was a delightful way to end the movie.

 

[SamT]

This was both tedious and boring and I give it the lowest rating possible.

 

[JoeStemme]

ASTEROID CITY is Anderson's most intriguing live action film since RUSHMORE. Wes Anderson has gotten to the point in his career where his public image and trademark filmmaking tics are fully set. It seemed inevitable that he would turn inward and try his hand at his own Fellini's 8 1/2 style film within a film opus.

Bearing an outward resemblance to Andrew Patterson's 2019 VAST OF NIGHT*, the sci-fi-ish ASTEROID CITY's gimmick is that it's an episode of an old 50s TV show with a pseudo Rod Serling type host/narrator (here Bryan Cranston). The program is devoted to the staging of a new play written by Conrad Earp (Edward Norton) and directed by Schubert Green (Adrien Brody).

The play within the play is filmed as a garish widescreen pastel technicolor production (filmed in 35mm by Robert Yeoman) and starring Jason Schwartzman as Augie Steenbeck. Augie has three children including a son Woodrow (Jake Ryan) who have traveled to this one meteorite town in the middle of the desert for a Junior Inventor's convention. A Hollywood actress, Midge Campbell (Scarlet Johansson), is also there with her daughter. Tom Hanks plays Augie's father-in-law who joins the family.

The retro 50s locale is a playland for Anderson and his Production Designer Adam Stockhausen who go all out in creating the faux town complete with a half-constructed highway on-ramp. The sets are like giant three-dimensional theater backings and set pieces pulled from the stage and plunked down in the middle of the desert. Beautiful to look at while also being intentionally artificial. The illusion isn't quite complete because Anderson insists on calling attention to his editing and camera movements. The 16mm faux newsreel footage should also have been in B&W. One could charitably say it's a conscious choice on the filmmaker's part, but that's too cute by half -- even for Anderson. The filmmaker's wit has always been bone dry, so setting the film in an arid desert seems like the ultimate extension. Anderson breaks the fourth wall on a couple of very explicit occasions, but the effect is lessened because he's already pulled back the cape so early in the film. There are nods to such 50s topics as the Red Scare, Project Blue Book, Billy Wilder's THE BIG CARNIVAL (aka Ace In The Hole) and Marilyn Monroe. The retro stop motion animation of the alien is a nice touch.

Where ASTEROID CITY is most engrossing is in how it appears to be a deconstruction not only of how this particular production was made, but all of Anderson's filmography by implication. Long accused of devolving into self-parody, so it's interesting to ponder how much of hisscreenplay is actually an explicit commentary on himself. Unfortunately, one never loses the perception that Anderson's ego won't allow for deeper self-reflection. The autobiographical aspects always feel a step removed. Look, but don't touch. Examine. But, not too closely. A more self-effacing Director would have brought more joy and fun to the proceedings. Hence, ASTEROID CITY is stuck in neutral for far too much of its length, thought-provoking an experiment as it may be. It's fascinating, but so studied it becomes inert.

Schwartzman and Johansson are excellent, and the huge supporting cast is also spot on, with special mention to the youth cast who Anderson challenges by his highly specific dialogue. In addition to Yeoman's fine camerawork and Stockhausen's art direction, the costumes, makeup & hair -- Alexander Desplat's whimsical score is top notch.

The tagline to Terry Gilliam's (no slouch as a stylist himself) BRAZIL was: “It's only a state of mind.” ASTEROID CITY's is Wes Anderson's ode to his own.

* VAST OF NIGHT is also set in a 50s desert southwest and involves alien visitation

ASTEROID CITY is currently streaming on Peacock and for rental. It's on DVD and Blu Ray.

 

[Richard Kaufman]

Fascinating film. The essence of Americana ... filmed in Spain!

 

[Edwin-S]

I was able to finally watch this. My initial impression is It is the worst and most unfocused of all the films of his I have watched. By the end of the 2+ hours I still had no idea what exactly he was trying to say by making it. It felt like two films running in parallel with a few shreds of actor interaction with the Director to supposedly tie the two stories together.

I might give it another go in the future but, right now, being subjected to it once was enough. It is a film filled with quirky characters, but quirk isn't enough to supportba two plys hour film. It stills needs a meaningful story.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I was able to finally watch this. My initial impression is It is the worst and most unfocused of all the films of his I have watched. By the end of the 2+ hours I still had no idea what exactly he was trying to say by making it. It felt like two films running in parallel with a few shreds of actor interaction with the Director to supposedly tie the two stories together.

I might give it another go in the future but, right now, being subjected to it once was enough. It is a film filled with quirky characters, but quirk isn't enough to supportba two plys hour film. It stills needs a meaningful story.

I couldn’t make it to the end- definitely not among his finest work.

 

[John Sparks]

Three words sums this movie up…POS