Asteroid City

In cinemas now

I’d forgotten just how talented a filmmaker Wes Anderson is. Between my viewing of Isle of Dogs earlier this year (a movie I wasn’t particularly a fan of) and the ongoing TikTok trend attributable to the style of American auteur’s films, I felt that he’d become somewhat of a parody of himself in recent years. The marketing for Asteroid City also didn’t particularly pique my interest, with the film looking to be fairly standard Wes Anderson fare. 

Thankfully, I was proven completely wrong and I came to find that there is much more to this 1950s sci-fi adventure than meets the eye. One of my favourite things about this movie is how Anderson appears to dissect his own approach to movie-making, with characters often breaking barriers that the story creates and questioning the very nature of the narrative that envelops them. The typical nonchalant Anderson delivery is also explored and deconstructed in some parts of the film, which I found to be particularly interesting. The ideas surrounding art and anti-art are rife here, with it also taking a surprising deep-dive into existentialism towards the end. It almost feels like the director had watched recent hits Everything Everywhere All At Once and Nope and decided to blend them together. 

As a big sci-fi fan, I also loved those elements of the film. One sequence in particular proved to be jaw-dropping in its execution. However, this is not the main focus of the film, it is merely a cover-up for the deeper story underneath it all. No spoilers here, but there’s certainly a lot to digest here and I think Asteroid City will prove to be a very special film for many people.