Asteroid City

Wes Anderson goes full Wes Anderson in his latest film Asteroid City. For those who don’t know the quirky director with a cult following, his latest movie probably won’t make sense. For fans of Anderson’s work, the movie still may not make sense, and that seems to be the point.

Asteroid City (rated PG-13 for brief graphic nudity, smoking, and some suggestive material) is a play within a play. The movie opens by introducing playwright Conrad Earp (Edward Norton) who’s casting various actors for his newly finished script in which a wartime photographer named Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) brings his children to the desert town of Asteroid City.

In the play, Augie’s oldest son Woodrow is supposed to participate in the Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet camp. After checking into the only motel around, Augie tells the children that their mother has died, and he proves it by showing them her ashes in a Tupperware bowl. As is typical of an Anderson film, Augie has not yet processed his grief and has trouble relating to his children, particularly his oldest son Woodrow (Jake Ryan).

The play features several other families who are attending the Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet camp, and one of the moms, Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson) becomes Augie’s love interest. Space camp is interrupted when an alien arrives in a neon green flying saucer.

The movie cuts back and forth between the behind-the-scenes of the play and the play itself, attempting to show Conrad Earp’s vision for the show. But back and forth between the play and commentary on the play really just makes everything more confusing.

Asteroid City includes some mild swearing, but language isn’t the problem with the movie. One scene includes jarring nudity, and later there’s implied sex between an unmarried couple. There’s also a bizarre scene in which two men kiss. It’s a cringey bit of pandering to the LGBTQ crowd.

Earp’s play mocks Christianity and seems to suggest that having faith in an all-powerful God is just as realistic as placing faith in aliens, so, why bother?

The film promotes the importance of family and parental involvement, and some of the moments are quite funny. (Jeff Goldblum’s two minutes of screen time do not disappoint.) But, while quirky and colorful, Asteroid City is too meta.

The movie has everything you’d expect from Anderson: banjo music, symmetrical shots, and somewhat relatable characters. But Anderson is too caught up in his own auteurism to offer moments in which the characters break through the awkward set up and communicate real human emotion. The conceit of watching great actors pretend to be amateur actors got old quickly.

“I still don’t understand the play,” says the actor playing Augie. He’s not the only one.