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MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Right from the start, Asteroid City announces itself as something special. Bryan Cranston (presented in black-and-white) introduces us to a documentary (circa 1955) of the filming of a play by a famous playwright. The play is “Asteroid City” and it takes place in a fictional desert town adjacent to a nuclear testing ground. A large group of precocious children are gathering to attend a Junior Stargazers space camp, accompanied by their parents. As the kids prepare to present their inventions to the judges, there is a mysterious extraterrestrial event that brings in the military and places everyone in a lockdown.

In this isolated setting, we meet a diverse cast of characters including Augie Steenback (Schwartzman), a professional photo journalist, his son Woodrow (Jake Ryan), his triplet daughters Andromeda, Pandora, and Cassiopeia (Ella, Gracie, and Willan Faris), and his father-in-law Stanley Zak (Tom Hanks). Augie hopes to use this family time together to share some sad news with the kids.

Woodrow soon develops feelings for another Junior Stargazer named Dinah (Grace Edwards), whose accompanying mother is Midge Campbell (Johansson), a famous Hollywood actress who is drifting into melancholy in preparation for an upcoming film role.

And there are dozens of other personalities crammed into this film, including the actors practicing to play their parts in the play.

Although this is supposedly a documentary about a play, all of the action takes place in a vibrantly colored widescreen outdoor set.

For a while, I was content to enjoy Asteroid City for its humor and loving homage to the 1950s and the mid-century themes of UFOs, space exploration, televised dramatic plays, military interventions, and science fairs, but its pretentions about being something more important kept getting in the way.

What is Asteroid City really about? I know that after just one viewing, I couldn’t say for sure, but there are enough hints in the movie that imply that it might be about grief, mortality, gun violence, American exceptionalism, the importance of creating art, life after death, isolation, racism, existentialism, and The Meaning of Life Itself.

It’s also a movie about Wes Anderson movies. Writer-director Wes Anderson has created a signature style of filmmaking that includes meticulous set designs, symmetrical compositions, deadpan dialogue, inventive camera movement, and soundtracks filled with evocative song choices.

Asteroid City goes down like a Tupperware© bowl of leftovers from a second-rate family buffet restaurant, it’s too much and not good enough.

I give Wes Anderson a Participation Ribbon for this one. He showed up and did his best.

Halo and Pitchfork Rating:

Three halos: Ingenious filmmaking, quirky characters, and big themes do not necessarily add up to a satisfying movie.
Two pitchforks: Mild swearing; talk about suicide; two seconds of full-frontal nudity.

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