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Asteroid City Reviews

With its over-saturated pastel desert landscapes and impeccably blocked compositions, Asteroid City foregrounds inauthenticity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 20, 2024

Anderson’s latest is near impossible to watch without a grin and is the outcome of utterly enchanting filmmaking from start to finish.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 17, 2024

The story-telling structure of “Asteroid City” is Anderson’s version of the Multiverse of Madness, minus the Marvel hyperactivity.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 7, 2024

Colourful and imaginative Wes Anderson whimsy.

Full Review | Jun 24, 2024

Asteroid City is a poetic, bright-colored mess, but it’s a mess that attracts people like me, and that’s sufficient.

Full Review | Apr 17, 2024

In a career that now spans nearly 30 years, Anderson's latest film – a carousel of astronomers, aliens and singing cowboys; of mid-century madness, deadpan soul and signature melancholy – might just be one of his finest.

Full Review | Apr 10, 2024

There is romance here. There is joy. There is a deep, terrified uncertainty.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 18, 2024

It sometimes feels as if Anderson is trying to tackle a little too much and wade a little too deep, but Asteroid City still manages to find its footing, if not its focus.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 3, 2024

How far the mediocre have fallen. Here is a movie you'll feel better about walking out on before it begins, than you will wasting the fifteen minutes it takes you to realize what a disastrous piece of inert garbage it truly is. Still, walk out you will.

Full Review | Original Score: ZERO STARS | Jan 13, 2024

Wes Anderson's Asteroid City is science-fiction of an entirely different stripe and the first movie of his I've wholly connected with since The Darjeeling Limited.

Full Review | Jan 4, 2024

I assume someday I'll grow tired of the Anderson Aesthetic but someday is not today.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Dec 27, 2023

A dance of emotions and a visual spectacle that ends up shaping the definitive film of its director, in which style and mise-en-scene are at the service of his story more than ever. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 26, 2023

...an almost prototypically oddball endeavor that remains hopelessly uninvolving for the duration of its running time...

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 24, 2023

This movie was bliss. It was great to see Jeffrey Wright, the standout player from The French Dispatch, solidify his standing among the Wes Anderson Players...

Full Review | Dec 22, 2023

In ASTEROID CITY, Anderson creates a feel of the 1950s that is more convincing than accurate. This isn't up to his best films, but Anderson fans won't want to miss it.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 8, 2023

For someone as memed as Wes Anderson, you’d think he’d stop surprising us.

Full Review | Oct 28, 2023

An exercise of self-indulgence and soulless nonsense. To say this film is style over substance is a giant understatement, as everything plays second fiddle to the director's trademark visuals.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 16, 2023

[W]hile it might seem the plot is just a shallow, zany, brightly coloured excuse to set Alex Colville paintings in a desert, Asteroid City (both Anderson's actual movie, and the play within it) are a mournful meditation on art, art-making and purpose.

Full Review | Oct 16, 2023

I know people who are bored and maddened by Anderson’s films, and I’m increasingly sympathetic to those views. Nevertheless, his methods are so idiosyncratic it would be glib to ever write him off.

Full Review | Sep 17, 2023

While Asteroid City does have some issues, when it comes to its pacing and some plot points, it’s a very quick watch.

Full Review | Sep 14, 2023

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‘Asteroid City’ Review: Our Town and Country

In his latest film, Wes Anderson and his all-stars go meta with a TV show about a theatrical play that, in turn, is about a small town, U.S.A.

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‘Asteroid City’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The director wes anderson narrates a sequence from his film, featuring jeffrey wright..

Hi. This is Wes Anderson. I’m the director of ‘Asteroid City.’ So this scene is near the beginning of our movie. We meet a general who has come to this town as one of the hosts of a gathering of young junior astronomers and scientists, kind of like a science fair in a meteor crater. And these are his opening remarks. The role was written for Jeffrey Wright, who I’ve worked with before and who I love. And what I thought is this character is going to come out and not just set the stage for this convention they’re doing, but more to set the stage for the decade. One of the sort of subtexts of our movie has something to do with how this placid period of the ‘50s is filled with anxiety and sort of these men with post-traumatic stress disorder that’s undiagnosed, that is being dealt with through their families. And by the time we get 10 years later, the effect that it will have had on the next generation will be so significant that there’ll be a complete shift. Anyway, that’s kind of a broad description of what’s in this little speech. “Chapter 1, I walk to school 18 miles each morning. Milked the goats, plucked the chickens, played hooky, caught fireflies, went skinny dipping in the watering holes, said my prayers every night, and got whipped with a maple switch twice a week. That was life.” We staged it in a way where it would happen in one shot, and it would be a performance like one that someone would give on a stage. And it was a dazzling thing to watch Jeffrey Wright take this scene and just expand it, and play it with a kind of momentum and also sort of a grandeur that was arresting to watch. Because on the day that we’re shooting it, I’m just the audience. “That was life. In the meantime, somebody else’s story. A man thinks up a number, divides it by a trillion, plus it into the square root of the circumference of the Earth, multiplied by the speed of a splitting atom, and voila. Progress. I’m not a scientist, you are. End of chapter 3.” The way we stage the scene, it’s sort of a complicated rig because we’ve got to start in one position, then we pull back. Then, Jeffrey comes to us, and then Jeffrey goes over here, and we go over there. And Jeffrey goes over here, and we go here. And Jeffrey goes over here, we move around side to side. And then, we push back in again. Well to do that, you’re either going to work with a techno crane or something that sort of telescopes and is a programmed remote head thing. Or you use what we use, which is a crazy set of sideways dolly tracks with a section of track that glides on the top of the three tracks. So you can slide forward and back and side to side, but it’s an extremely complex rig invented by our key grip Sanjay Sami. “To Dinah Campbell.” “It’s fueled by cosmic radiation instead of sunlight.” “For her work in the area of botanical acceleration.” “Unfortunately, it makes all vegetables toxic.” “The Red Giant Sash of Honor.” Then, we shift into him introducing us to the young people and what they’ve done, and they each get a prize. And so there’s a series of astronomical, celestially themed medals and badges and other kinds of things they get. But then, we see what each of these people has done. And I think they’re quite impressive, you know? I mean, from the perspective of real life, they’ve done some very good work, these teenagers, as we show in these scenes. [APPLAUSE]

By Manohla Dargis

“Asteroid City,” the latest from Wes Anderson, is filled with the assiduous visuals, mythic faces and charming curiosities that you expect from this singular filmmaker. It’s comic and often wry, but like some of his other films, it has the soul of a tragedy. It’s partly set in 1955 in a fictional Southwest town, a lonely four corners with a diner, gas station and motor inn. Palm trees and cactuses stipple the town, and reddish buttes rise in the distance. It looks like an ordinary pit stop save for the atomic cloud soon mushrooming in the sky.

Written by Anderson, the film is about desire and death, small mysteries and cosmic unknowns and the stories that we make of all the stuff called life. It opens in black-and-white on an unnamed television host (Bryan Cranston, severe and mustachioed) in a studio. Tightly encased by the boxy aspect ratio and speaking into the camera, he introduces the evening’s program, a “backstage” look at the creation of a new play, “Asteroid City,” that’s been made “expressly for this broadcast.” He then presents the playwright (Edward Norton), who rises from his typewriter to stand on a bare stage and present the characters.

The suited television host and the broadcast studio with its ticking clock conjure up 1950s live anthology dramas like “Studio One,” and you may flash on Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” when the host and playwright start speaking. Anderson quickly fills up the stage and the film, too. A train chugs in under the opening credits carrying a bounty of goods: gravel, avocados, pecans, John Deere tractors, plump Pontiacs and a 10-megaton nuclear warhead. Jeffrey Wright enters to play a five-star general, while Tilda Swinton shows up as a scientist. Tom Hanks plays a dashing curmudgeon; Adrien Brody makes the muscular theater director.

The drama starts soon after the playwright’s introductory remarks, except it doesn’t look anything like a theater production. It looks like a film, a meticulous, detailed, visually balanced wide-screen Wes Anderson one. There’s no proscenium, no stage, no wings, no audience. The blue sky stretches over the town; the yellow desert extends into infinity. The characters enter by car and bus, and are shot in long view and intimate close-up, beautifully framed by the camera. The palette is an astonishment, a dusty rainbow of hues. It looks like this story was left to bleach in the sun before being wrapped in transparent yellowed plastic.

The colors are mesmerizing and ever-so-gently destabilizing. These pigments signal that you’ve entered a new fictional realm that, like the television studio, is at once immediately recognizable and somehow foreign. The interplay between the familiar and the strange, like that between the theatrical and the cinematic, is a foundational theme in Anderson’s films, which, like most movies, look a lot like life yet are always different. What makes that difference is art — the voice, sensibility, technique, craft, money, luck and how the thrilling, terrifying mess of existence is gathered, organized and then set loose upon the world.

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Wes Anderson has outdone himself with 'Asteroid City'

Justin Chang

Jason Schwartzman as Augie Steenbeck and Scarlett Johansson as Midge Campbell in Asteroid City. Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features hide caption

Asteroid City is one of the most beautiful-looking movies Wes Anderson has ever made, and that's certainly saying something. Anderson is beloved — and sometimes derided — for his extraordinarily meticulous world building, and here he and his longtime production designer, Adam Stockhausen, have outdone themselves. Asteroid City is a 1950s Southwestern desert town, population 87, that's packed with gorgeous retro details: a diner, a motor-court motel, a one-pump filling station. There are also a few tourist attractions, including a giant crater left behind by a 3,000-year-old asteroid, and an observatory that hosts an annual Junior Stargazers convention.

Movie Review

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But the movie is also catnip for stargazers of a different kind. Like many of the director's films, it boasts an enormous ensemble that includes several of his regular collaborators, including Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe and Jeff Goldblum. There are also a few A-list newcomers like Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson, assuming you don't count her voice work in the animated Isle of Dogs . In Asteroid City , Johansson plays a movie star named Midge Campbell, who's like a cross between Ava Gardner and Marilyn Monroe. She's come to town with her gifted teenage daughter, Dinah, who's receiving an award at the astronomy convention. Midge is eating breakfast at the diner when she hears Augie Steenbeck, a photographer played by Schwartzman, take a picture of her.

Jason Schwartzman, left, as Augie Steenbeck and Tom Hanks as Stanley Zak. Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features hide caption

Augie is actually the movie's protagonist, and Schwartzman brings a real soulfulness to his deadpan-melancholy line readings. Augie has recently lost his wife — a tragedy he hasn't found the courage to share with their four kids, including his own astronomy-loving teenage son, Woodrow. Tom Hanks gives a sweetly curmudgeonly turn as Augie's father-in-law, who doesn't like Augie much but has come to Asteroid City to support the family and spend time with his grandkids.

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Child geniuses and cross-generational conflicts are a staple of Anderson movies like Moonrise Kingdom, The Royal Tenenbaums and especially Rushmore , the film in which Schwartzman made his acting debut. As usual, there's also some inconvenient romance: Woodrow develops a crush on Dinah, just as Augie begins flirting with Midge, a tough-minded kindred spirit who's experienced her share of loss. Eventually, strange things start to happen. Mushroom clouds erupt in the distance, where atomic bomb tests are being conducted. Later, Asteroid City receives a surprise visitor — let's call it a close encounter of the whimsical kind — that will force everyone in town to confront their fears of the unknown.

But that's not even the strangest thing happening in this movie. Here's where I should mention the extremely intricate framing device that Anderson has devised. We're informed at the outset that Asteroid City is actually a 1950s play that's being produced for television, and that production is basically the movie we're watching. But periodically we'll see — in black-and-white footage — what's going on behind the scenes.

Bryan Cranston as "Host" in Asteroid City. Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features hide caption

Edward Norton turns up as the playwright, clearly modeled on Tennessee Williams. Adrien Brody plays an Elia Kazan-style director. And all the characters we've met in the fictional Asteroid City turn out just to be actors, trying to figure out how to play their parts at a moment when Old Hollywood theatricality is giving way to the more psychologically grounded Method style. It's a radical moment for the movie industry — as cataclysmic, in its own way, as a visit from an alien.

'The French Dispatch' is a love letter to 'The New Yorker' — and to love itself

Anderson's narrative formulations get more elaborate with every movie; his previous one, The French Dispatch, was an ode to The New Yorker structured like an actual issue of The New Yorker. The first time I saw Asteroid City , its play-within-a-TV-show-within-a-movie conceit felt too tortured by half. But I warmed to it more on second viewing. Anderson's surfaces can be maddeningly busy, but the ideas he buries within those surfaces tend to reward a closer look. And there's something undeniably poignant about the ultra-rigidity of his style. It's as if he were showing us how little control his characters have, how hard it is for Augie and Midge — and the actors playing them — to cope with the random setbacks and tragedies of life.

Scarlett Johansson as Midge Campbell Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features hide caption

Scarlett Johansson as Midge Campbell

If Asteroid City leaves us with anything, it's the idea that scientists and artists may have more in common than they appear. The desire to create a work of art, or to unlock the mysteries of the universe, spring from the same creative impulse. By the end of the movie, none of these mysteries have been solved, but Augie and his family, at least, have reached a place of understanding. Amid so many significant scientific milestones, Anderson suggests, connecting with another person might still be the grandest human achievement of all.

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Wes Anderson’s new movie Asteroid City is his most expansive — and most personal

Life, the universe, and everything, through both the telescope and the microscope.

by Alissa Wilkinson

A white woman in a pink robe sits, with apparent tears, mid-frame in a mid-century-looking house.

Nuclear bombs keep going off over the horizon of Asteroid City (population 87). “Another atom bomb test,” the characters declare, with some combination of intrigue and boredom. They trot out of the diner to look at the tiny mushroom cloud, snap a few pictures, and go back inside for more coffee. It’s 1955. This isn’t unusual anymore.

Living in the shadow of the bombs is what Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City is about — literal bombs, and also a host of other life-shattering things like loss, and existential dread, and a world changing so fast it’s hard to hang on to it. Real things, in other words, the kind everyone has to deal with. The emotions we can’t outrun, but we try to anyhow.

That Anderson set Asteroid City in 1955 is a bit of trickery, a degree of separation between the characters’ reality and our own. We live in (dare I say) uniquely frightening times, but so do these people, for whom the Cold War and a rapidly changing social order is their psychic wallpaper. Much of the movie is specifically set in September 1955, a month bookended by two events: the United States’ decision to embark on Project Vanguard, which would try unsuccessfully to beat the Soviets at putting a satellite into space; and the tragic car accident that took the life of James Dean, the iconic actor who embodied the rising rebellion of the youth. (I don’t think it’s an accident that a cop car in hot pursuit of a careening vehicle keeps rushing through the town’s one intersection.)

“If you wanted to live a nice, quiet, peaceful life, you picked the wrong time to get born,” General Gibson (Jeffrey Wright) exhorts a crowd of teenagers and their parents, assembled in Asteroid City to celebrate the landing of a meteorite there thousands of years earlier. The children have entered their wildly advanced science experiments in a contest, which the military plans to snap up; the space race is in their eyes. Later, when things go south, youths are interrogated in a manner suspiciously reminiscent of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Grown men fight, and others try to calm them down by reminding them, “We’re not in Guadalcanal anymore.”

Two men point guns at one another against the backdrop of a desert.

It feels reminiscent of something real, but this is also all fiction — as the movie’s narrator puts it, “an apocryphal fabrication.” Fiction puts a layer between us and real history, a way of looking at the past through different eyes. It has another function, too: Through fiction, we process our emotions by proxy, whether we’re the artists or the audience.

That’s the subject of Asteroid City , which nests fiction inside of fiction inside of fiction. (I promise it’s easier to watch than it sounds.) Here is the most succinct description of the levels of its made-up-ness: It is a scripted movie that pretends to be a TV show in which actors stage a fictionalized version of the making of a play telling the fictional story of a place that doesn’t exist. We also see the play, but it is shot like a movie. (I am Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole.)

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The central, in-color plot of the film centers on the group gathered in Asteroid City for a three-day meteorite celebration when their lives are upended by a, shall we say, unexpected visitor. But Asteroid City actually introduces itself to us as an old-school anthology TV show , shot in black and white, hosted by a sonorous host (Bryan Cranston). What we’re about to see, he gravely tells us, is the story behind the making of a play called Asteroid City , about a place that doesn’t exist. It’s both an apocryphal fabrication and an “authentic look into the work of a theatrical production.”

What follows intercuts the color story — which turns out to be kind of a hyperreal version of the “play,” which we see shot as a film — and black-and-white scenes, often staged like little mini-plays, about various moments during Asteroid City ’s production. (The play, not the movie we’re watching. If you need a walk or a stiff drink right now, that’s fine.)

This all means that in this movie Scarlett Johansson, for instance, plays an actress who plays an actress playing an actress. Similarly, Jason Schwartzman — the closest to a lead this absurdly stacked cast has — plays an actor who is desperate to figure out the motivations of his character, a war photographer who burns his hand on a sandwich iron. (Schwartzman is styled to reference several famous actors, perhaps most significantly a very famous photo of James Dean.)

A fairground teeming with attractions and also signs that say things like “Alien Parking” and “Spacecraft Sighting.”

Piling on these layers, each with its own combination of artifice and “authenticity,” is where Anderson shows what he’s doing. He’s interested in those piles. The impossible pursuit of authentic emotion through making art that can never really be all that “real” is one of Asteroid City ’s themes; a fair amount of the film dwells on an acting class and its students, who are trying, in the style of The Actors Studio and “the method,” to find ways to give authentic performances in the very contrived medium of the theater.

But there’s an added layer to what Anderson’s after. Humans have always processed their feelings through art, but modernity adds a wrench to the whole existence thing. There’s an aspect of alienation — of feeling as if the machines and inventions we build, which are terrifying enough to be able to wipe us out (like the bomb) or seemingly to take over our world altogether (like, say, generative AI), are estranging us from one another and even from ourselves. Art has always been the counterbalance to this, which is in part why groups like The Actors Studio sprung up in the early part of the 20th century. If you are working at a desk all day clacking on a typewriter, or operating a machine, or building a bureaucracy that might work like a machine, then going to the theater is supposed to jolt you back to remembering that you, at least, are not a machine.

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It’s tantamount to either a confession or an explanation from someone like Anderson, whose work employs considerable artifice in its pursuit of authenticity. I confess that I don’t really like Anderson’s style, and have not loved most of his movies . It took me two viewings to really figure out Asteroid City . But I do admire that he’s an artist whose aesthetic is so firmly defined that even non-cinephiles can make poor imitations of his work using AI; in fact, it’s those replicas’ inability to actually latch onto the emotion that powers his work (the melancholy, the grief, the impishness) that make me appreciate him more.

That’s what I came to appreciate about this movie, and the more I think about it, the more wise I think it is. In Asteroid City , Anderson builds several worlds mediated by layers of performance, artifice, and technology, in which nonetheless real humans grieve, long for one another, fall in love, get hurt, and feel wonder. The layers they’ve put between themselves and their emotions crack and crumble. Their worlds are rocked, which leaves them thinking about things like the meaning of life, the existence of God, and whether they’re as alone as they feel like they are. The answer, he suggests, is found by sinking into the apocryphal fabrications of the artist’s imagination. “You can’t wake up,” the characters chant near the end of the movie, “if you don’t fall asleep.”

Asteroid City is playing in theaters.

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‘asteroid city’ review: scarlett johansson leads stacked ensemble that gets marooned in cloying wes anderson whimsy.

New additions to the director’s informal repertory company in this cosmic comedy about love, family and precocious geniuses also include Tom Hanks, Steve Carell, Hong Chau and Margot Robbie.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Scarlett Johansson in director Wes Anderson's ASTEROID CITY.

With apologies to Guns N’ Roses: Don’t take me down to the Asteroid City / Where the tropes are tired and the gags ain’t witty / Make it stop (Oh, won’t you please make it stop).

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‘Asteroid City’ Review: Wes Anderson’s Cosmic Grief Comedy Is One of His Very Best Movies Yet

David ehrlich.

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Focus Features releases the film in select theaters on Friday, June 16, with expansion to follow on Friday, June 23.

As expected, the world of “Asteroid City” is meticulously arranged with clockwork precision, and — as expected — that world is then populated with memorable characters who try to assert the same degree of control over their own lives. Characters like Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), a quietly grieving war photographer waiting for the perfect moment to tell his four young kids that their mom just died, as if there were a correct way to drop that kind of bomb on someone. “The time is never right,” he laments to the father-in-law who never liked him (a wonderfully sour Tom Hanks as Stanley Zak, a pistol always jammed down the front of his shorts). “The time is always wrong,” Stanley replies.

Perhaps the most notable of the many other figures in town for the weekend is famous movie star Midge Campbell (a Scarlett Johansson, in full control of her own star power), who looks like Liz Taylor, takes after Marilyn Monroe, and materializes in the window opposite Augie’s motel room with the cosmic alignment of a solar eclipse. She’s always rehearsing for something, and never misses her cue. Her daughter Dinah, also being fêted in Asteroid City, will inspire a similar awe from Woodrow; par for the course in a film where love and loss orbit around each other in an endless chase, bound together by the gravity shared between them.

Soaking up the “clean light” of the desert sun, Robert Yeoman’s camera reveals most of these sights to us in the span of a single 360-degree swivel, a flex that underlines Anderson’s absolute command over the film’s Chinchón set where his characters will soon be trapped against their will, thus forcing them to surrender the delusion of control that has defined so many of Anderson’s characters over the course of his career. It’s maybe the most radical thing that has ever happened in one of his movies — the sort of transformative moment that A.I. could never dream up no matter how much data it ingested — and it spins “Asteroid City” in a cosmic new direction. What until then was just another immaculate Wes Anderson film suddenly becomes one of a kind.

Like any Wes Anderson hero worth his salt, Augie Steenbeck is simply hoping to outrun his grief and self-doubt in the hopes that what comes next will magically reveal itself to him like the photographs that he develops in his portable darkroom. “Am I doing him right?,” Augie asks himself in a self-reflexive aside that takes full advantage of the movie’s spectacular framing device, posing the same question that so many of Anderson’s characters are implicitly asking themselves. But then an ellipsis appears in the space above him, interrupting the run-on sentence in Augie’s mind, and in a brilliant flash of green light it becomes clear that he will have to find his own way forward in this world, using the tools and people available to him. After that moment, neither he nor anyone else in Asteroid City will ever be able to shake the feeling that — quoth someone else — we’re all just characters in a play that we don’t understand.

At first, that context and its subsequent intrusions upon the story — complete with scene headings that let you know exactly where you are in the film and what might be happening next — might feel like the overly fussy directorial flourishes of a filmmaker who’s often accused of indulging in such things at the audience’s expense. But, as is often the case in this filmmaker’s work, the self-reflexive layering is ultimately revealed to be for our benefit.

And so it goes with many of the characters in a movie that never lets you forget that Scarlett Johansson is an actress playing an actress who’s playing an actress. But if the interstitial scenes in “Asteroid City” are destabilizing by design (in a why is Augie suddenly making out with a Kentucky fried Edward Norton? sort of way), you don’t need an airtight grasp on the mechanics of how everything fits together in order to be knocked flat by the effect of feeling it all click into place.

This is a film that sneaks up on you — that fools you into thinking it’s just a scattershot collection of discrete little details and gags. There’s Matt Dillon as a deadpan mechanic, and there’s Maya Hawke singing a ditty with Jarvis Cocker, and… is that Bob Balaban hiding in the background over there? Some of the bits and bobs immediately feel like top-flight Anderson (e.g. the high-speed chase that loops through town, Liev Schreiber running around with a purple death ray), while others (the Junior Stargazers’ memory games, Steve Carrell’s ubiquitous hotel manager) left me wondering if “Asteroid City” were spreading itself too thin to mine anything meaningful from the grief comedy at its core.

If all of Anderson’s movies are sustained by the tension between order and chaos, uncertainty and doubt, “Asteroid City” is the first that takes that tension as its subject, often expressing it through the friction created by rubbing together its various levels of non-reality. Some might see that as self-amused navel-gazing, but the unexpected moment towards the end when Anderson finds a certain equilibrium between those contradictory forces — with a major assist from a movie star whose name you suddenly remember seeing in the credits some 100 minutes earlier — is so crushingly beautiful and well-earned that the artifice surrounding it simply falls away.

Will Augie ever see his wife again? It’s hard to say. But somewhere in Asteroid City, or in the play called “Asteroid City” within the play called “Asteroid City” within the television show whose title we either never learn or instantly forget, he will come to appreciate that death is just another of the great unknowns that we all have to live with in the waking dream we share together; a mystery both as cold as a meteorite at the bottom of a crater, and as infinite as the stars in the night sky above.

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‘Asteroid City’ Review: Wes Anderson’s New Film Is a Piece of 1950s Desert Americana That’s Visually Dazzling and Dramatically Inert

The director's creation of a tiny desert town is an ingenious act of world-building, but what happens there has the turgid ironic whimsy of Anderson's "The Darjeeling Limited" and "The Life Aquatic."

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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(L to R) Jake Ryan, Jason Schwartzman and Tom Hanks in director Wes Anderson's ASTEROID CITY, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features

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Set in a tiny red-rock Southwest Americana desert town in 1955, it may be the director’s most intricately ornate and fetishistic piece of world-building. Watching the movie, one glories, for a while, in the retro kitsch nostalgia and sheer stylized play that went into the creation of Asteroid City (pop. 87), with its ’40s-meets-’50s diner and motor court and one-pump gas station, its mesas that look like they’re made out of balsa wood, its occasional scrubby cactus, its giant meteorite crater that serves as a tourist attraction, and its intermittent atomic-bomb-test mushroom cloud that goes off in the distance. There are some good jokes, like the row of vending machines that includes one that sells tiny plots of land, as well as archly obvious ones, like the police-vs.-crooks demon car chases that occasionally rip through town.

“Asteroid City” presents itself as a stylized meditation on grief, though it’s not the kind that anyone’s going to shed a tear over. As military officers and astronomers, including the technobabble-happy Dr. Hickenlooper (Tilda Swinton), gather to honor the achievements of the Junior Stargazers (of which Woodrow is one), Augie’s crusty father-in-law ( Tom Hanks ) shows up, and so does Midge Campbell ( Scarlett Johansson ), a movie star with short brown hair, orange lipstick, and her own hostile hauteur. Did I mention that the lead characters are, at the same time, stage actors who are “playing” these very same roles back in New York in a black-and-white teleplay called “Asteroid City,” presented by The Host (Bryan Cranston)? If your reaction to that is “Huh?” you won’t be alone.

At one point, an alien shows up with a disarming look that consists of popping white eyes and skin that looks like it was made out of a black shower curtain. He disappears in his flying saucer as quickly as he arrived, but this extraterrestrial visit results in Asteroid City being placed under quarantine, which means that everyone who has come to town is trapped there. The audience will know just how that feels. “Asteroid City” looks smashing, but as a movie it’s for Anderson die-hards only, and maybe not even too many of them.

Reviewed at Universal Screening Room, May 12, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 104 MIN.

Production: A Focus Features release of a Focus Features, Indian Paintbrush, American Empirical Picture production. Producers: Wes Anderson, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson. Executive producers: Roman Coppola, Henning Molfenter, Christoph Fisse, Charlie Woebeken.
Crew: Director, screenplay: Wes Anderson. Camera: Robert Yeoman. Editors: Barney Pilling, Andrew Weisblum. Music: Alexandre Desplat.
With: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jake Ryan, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Hong Chau, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Grace Edwards, Aristou Meehan, Sophia Lillis, Jeff Goldblum.

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Review: Wes Anderson’s gorgeous ‘Asteroid City’ is more starry than stellar

Jason Schwartzman, left, and Tom Hanks in "Asteroid City."

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“Asteroid City,” Wes Anderson’s half-irritating, half-intoxicating desert bloom of a movie, unfolds mostly in 1955 in a small Southwest town — a postcard-perfect oasis surrounded by cactuses, red rocks and vast horizons.

Our first glimpse of it is deeply transporting: No sounds break the silence, and no actors (or tumbleweeds) disrupt the vast spaces of Robert Yeoman’s impeccably framed widescreen compositions. Instead, the camera nimbly rotates nearly 360 degrees, pausing mid-pan to register the glories of Adam Stockhausen’s Wild Wild Wes production design: a diner, a motel, a filling station, a highway ramp to nowhere. That last one is a symbol: of unrealized promise, yes, but also of the-sky’s-the-limit possibility.

Welcome to Asteroid City, a gorgeous piece of scenery even by Anderson’s standards and an open-air museum of antiquarian delights, with its 40-cent milkshakes, vintage vending machines and pastel-hued automobiles. It is also, at this early stage, a museum happily devoid of visitors. Not that you’ll mind when Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Jeffrey Wright and other familiar and newly minted members of Anderson’s company turn up, bringing with them a swirl of persnickety, precisely choreographed human activity. But there’s something captivating about that early stillness: Asteroid City, we see, is not just a town but a carefully constructed set, and not just a carefully constructed set but the scaffolding for a typically elaborate formal and narrative conceit.

The conceit itself is by turns intriguing and laborious, and depending on your willingness to unpack it, it will be either the revelation that sends this movie soaring into the stratosphere or the heavy stone that drags its featherweight pleasures down to earth. (My first go-round, at last month’s Cannes Film Festival , tended frustratingly toward the latter; a second viewing proved eye-opening, if a few pans short of a 180-degree reversal.) “Asteroid City,” you see, is not just a movie we’re watching but a “hypothetical play,” in the words of a genial host-narrator (Bryan Cranston), that’s being staged and produced for 1950s television.

Steve Carell, Aristou Meehan and Liev Schreiber in a faux-perfect desert town.

It’s an archly overarching framing device delineated by boxily framed black-and-white images and given prominent positioning throughout Anderson’s two-act screenplay (drawn from an idea conceived with his regular collaborator Roman Coppola). Early on, we meet some of the creative forces behind this production, including a Tennessee Williams-ish playwright (Edward Norton) and an Elia Kazan-esque director (Adrien Brody). And then there’s the cast, which is where things get especially meta-tortured: Schwartzman, Johansson, Hanks et al. are actors playing actors (in black-and-white), but they are also actors playing actors playing characters (in color).

For simplicity’s sake, let’s leave aside the behind-the-scenes stuff and treat the play as the thing, which the movie for the most part does. Schwartzman, bearded and moody, is a war photographer named Augie Steenbeck — a surname he shares with the old flatbed editing machines of Hollywood yore, in keeping with this movie’s obsessive retrophilia. He pulls into Asteroid City in a rickety station wagon with three adorably witchy daughters (Ella, Gracie and Willan Faris) and a brainy teenage son, Woodrow (Jake Ryan), who’s receiving a prize at the town’s annual Junior Stargazers and Space Cadets convention.

You’ll do plenty of stargazing yourself during “Asteroid City,” and not just of the celestial variety. That’s Steve Carell puttering away as the motel’s eager-to-please manager, busily preparing rooms for various harried convention guests played by Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis and Stephen Park. Matt Dillon tools around in an auto garage, Maya Hawke teaches a class of science whizzes, and Rupert Friend sings, plays the guitar and wears beautifully stitched denim.

The most glamorously aloof visitor is Midge Campbell (Johansson), a movie star who’s an amalgam of different movie stars — she’s Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe and Kim Novak, though seldom all at once — and who has a Junior Stargazer daughter of her own, Dinah (Grace Edwards).

Youthful precocity is a given in Anderson’s movies, as are the stirrings of young love. Woodrow, who soon falls for Dinah, is spiritual kin to the love-struck teenagers in “Moonrise Kingdom,” the neglected geniuses of “The Royal Tenenbaums” and, most of all, the thwarted romantic hero of “Rushmore,” and not just because Schwartzman, who made his screen debut as Max Fischer 25 years ago, is playing his dad.

Scarlett Johansson, with her face resting against her upturned palm, looks out a hotel window.

The Steenbecks themselves are a classically Andersonian fractured family, fluent in the filmmaker’s familiar language of deadpan-melancholy pronouncements but less adept at direct communication. Augie hasn’t yet managed to break the news to his kids that their mother died recently after a long illness. Nor does he have the words to win over his disapproving father-in-law (Tom Hanks, in an affectionate growl of a performance), who comes to Asteroid City to spend some time with his grandchildren.

All this family drama unfolds against a backdrop that, with its local observatory and historic meteorite crater, thrums with technological innovation and postwar possibility. Anderson takes obvious delight in his characters’ ingenuity, mainly because it can serve as a conduit for his own. But that delight is also tempered by anxiety and alarm. If Woodrow and his fellow junior astronomers represent the next generation of scientific minds, the ominous mushroom clouds rising from atomic-test sites suggest something much darker on the horizon. In time, a flying saucer will zip into view, bringing the story’s first act to a close and sending Asteroid City into government-imposed lockdown. As usual, Anderson hurls his characters into a collective crisis that gives rise to individual bursts of resistance and reconciliation.

All of which would be more than enough to occupy your attention even if the movie slowed its tempo, attenuated its gags or paused to give each actor more than a drolly robotic witticism or two. (Blink and you’ll miss Bob Balaban and an especially underused Hong Chau.) But the director, operating by his own laws of compression and acceleration, instead piles layer upon Brechtian layer. In movies like “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and, more recently, “The French Dispatch,” he has insisted on nesting stories within stories, chasing intricate narrative structures that draw on literary and cinematic inspirations alike.

In “Asteroid City,” he adds a third and perhaps even a fourth representational mode to the mix: By focusing on the interlocking worlds of theater and television, he turns an eerie extraterrestrial action-comedy into a series of close encounters of the thespian kind. Even as Asteroid City the fictional town is rocked by alien visitations, “Asteroid City” the TV production must weather its own cataclysms behind the scenes. Anderson and his performers pay witty, self-conscious homage to the groundbreaking work of the Actors Studio in the 1950s — a moment when the heightened theatricality of Old Hollywood was giving way to the subtler psychological realism of the Method.

Men in various uniforms and hats sit in front of a glass wall that looks onto a field of satellite dishes.

Method acting, of course, could scarcely be more antithetical to Anderson’s own rigidly mannered performance style, which makes “Asteroid City” a fascinating, sometimes brain-melting collision of aesthetic modes. For Anderson’s admirers — and I count myself among them half the time — that style is a deliberately self-imposed obstacle, one that doesn’t conceal so much as magnify the emotions that his characters feel but can never properly express. On that logic, is it a flaw that so many of the great if familiar faces in this ensemble leave so little impression? Or is it a kind of trade-off, one that allows the movie’s two stellar leads, Schwartzman and Johansson, to leave as poignant an impression as they do?

One of the movie’s most wistfully lovely scenes finds Augie and Midge carrying on a window-to-window conversation from neighboring motel rooms, discussing their lives, their losses and especially their art. Their professional commiseration tilts into a kind of chaste (at first) seduction; in Anderson’s world, what people do is all but inextricable from who they are. The scene becomes more affecting still when it’s echoed, sometime later, outside a New York soundstage — and you begin to see, if only for a moment, the meaning in Anderson’s relentless visual and narrative symmetries, the beauty in his incessantly toggling design.

Scientists and artists, he suggests, are driven and indeed united by the same restlessly inventive spirit, the same desperate desires for human connection. That notion admittedly comes together more coherently in your head afterward than it does on the screen in front of you, which isn’t necessarily a knock. Some great movies do play better in the memory, even if “Asteroid City,” light-fingered and leaden by turns, never quite ascends into their company. It soars, stalls and sometimes alienates. It also lands on a conclusion as moving as it is undeniable: We are not alone.

‘Asteroid City’

Rating: PG-13 on appeal, for brief graphic nudity, smoking and some suggestive material Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes Playing: Starts June 16 at AMC Burbank 16; AMC Burbank Town Center 6

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Asteroid City

Tom Hanks, Liev Schreiber, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Bryan Cranston, Hope Davis, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Park, Aristou Meehan, Maya Hawke, Rupert Friend, Jake Ryan, Ethan Josh Lee, and Sophia Lillis in Asteroid City (2023)

Following a writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event, ... Read all Following a writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event, only to have his world view disrupted forever. Following a writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event, only to have his world view disrupted forever.

Wes Anderson
Roman Coppola
Jason Schwartzman
Scarlett Johansson
684 User reviews
293 Critic reviews
76 Metascore
3 wins & 79 nominations

Top cast 99+

Augie Steenbeck

Midge Campbell

Stanley Zak

General Gibson

Conrad Earp

Sandy Borden

(as Stephen Park)

J. J. Kellogg

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Wes Anderson Films as Ranked by IMDb Rating

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Did you know

Trivia Bill Murray was originally cast in Steve Carell 's role, but contracted COVID-19 shortly before filming. He had to withdraw from the production. This is actually the second time Carell has taken over a role from Murray, as Murray was the first choice for the role of Frank in Little Miss Sunshine (2006) .
Goofs The newspaper shows a photo of the alien with a shadow, as if taken with a flashbulb, but Augie did not use a flash.

Augie Steenbeck : I still don't understand the play.

Schubert Green : Doesn't matter. Just keep telling the story.

Crazy credits At the very end of the end credits, over a black screen a voice whispers, "Wicked."
Alternate versions Theatrically, the film is presented entirely within a 2.39:1 frame; the corresponding academy ratio 1.37:1 scenes are windowboxed within that frame. The Blu-Ray, DVD, and streaming version presents everything within a 1.78:1 framing, letterboxing the 2.39:1 segments and pillarboxing the 1.37:1 segments. The opening Focus Features and Indian Paintbrush logos are presented in full 1.78:1.
Connections Featured in Amanda the Jedi Show: Never Trust the Standing Ovations | CANNES 2023 Indiana Jones, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Soundtracks Last Train to San Fernando Written by Sylvester DeVere, Randolph Padmore, Kenneth St. Bernard Performed by Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass Boys Courtesy of Columbia Records Nashville By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment

User reviews 684

bastille-852-731547
Jun 12, 2023

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 45 minutes
Black and White
Dolby Digital
12-Track Digital Sound
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Surround 7.1

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Asteroid City Review: Wes Anderson's Big-Hearted Masterpiece

The director’s latest film–and maybe even greatest–is full of stars, style, and mournful searching.

That play is Asteroid City . After introducing its author, Conrad Earp (Ed Norton), and the main cast, the movie bursts with magnificent, pastel-hued color, Johnny Duncan’s grainy skiffle tune “Last Train to San Fernando” comes galloping on, and we’re transported via freight train to Asteroid City, an 87-person desert town in the American Southwest.

Anderson, both the consummate sentimentalist and sensualist, delights in depicting—and, yes, embellishing—the iconic emblems of the West. Besides the freight train, there are roadrunners and tumbleweeds, Close Encounters -esque rock formations, a luncheonette serving bright pie and tall ice cream sundaes, and a motel with vending machines dispensing everything from martinis to land deeds. As cynical as modern audiences may be about America, it’s hard to resist being swept up in Anderson’s—or, rather, Earp’s—vision of it. (I’ll say it: Trains are cool!)

But we’re not in Asteroid City merely to marvel at all the midcentury Americana. The town is playing host to the Junior Stargazers Convention. Which is why Augie Steenbeck (an out-of-this-world Jason Schwartzman), a war photographer and recent widower, is here with his four children. His eldest, Woodrow (an equally fantastic Jake Ryan), is one of five young brainiacs being honored for their inventions—his is a device that projects images on the moon.

Augie, like all of the characters we meet in Asteroid City, is a role within a role. Schwartzman’s Jones Hall (a bohemian, James Dean type) dons a sturdy beard, is always squinting in the sun, and speaks in terse sentences, jaw clenched like Stanley Kubrick—all choices that reflect a form of postwar masculinity rooted in erecting walls and suppressing feelings. At first, when Augie casually uses a gas pump to ignite an empty lighter and smoke his cigarette, it all seems like classically cool and clever Andersonian affectation. But there’s a simmering sense of malaise drifting through the desert air, embodied foremost in Augie. Not just because he’s seen some things overseas. We soon learn that Augie’s wife died three weeks ago, and he still hasn’t told his children. “It’s always the wrong time,” his country club father-in-law ( Tom Hanks ) tells him over the phone. Which is to say: Just do it .

.css-f6drgc:before{margin:-0.99rem auto 0 -1.33rem;left:50%;width:2.1875rem;border:0.3125rem solid #FF3A30;height:2.1875rem;content:'';display:block;position:absolute;border-radius:100%;} .css-1r4wn2w{margin:0rem;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;font-family:Lausanne,Lausanne-fallback,Lausanne-roboto,Lausanne-local,Arial,sans-serif;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-1r4wn2w{font-size:1.75rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1r4wn2w{font-size:2.375rem;line-height:1.2;}}.css-1r4wn2w em,.css-1r4wn2w i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;}.css-1r4wn2w b,.css-1r4wn2w strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-1r4wn2w:before{content:'＂';display:block;padding:0.3125rem 0.875rem 0 0;font-size:3.5rem;line-height:0.8;font-style:italic;-webkit-transform:translateY(-1.5rem) rotate(180deg);-moz-transform:translateY(-1.5rem) rotate(180deg);-ms-transform:translateY(-1.5rem) rotate(180deg);transform:translateY(-1.5rem) rotate(180deg);font-family:Lausanne,Lausanne-fallback,Lausanne-styleitalic-roboto,Lausanne-styleitalic-local,Arial,sans-serif;} No matter how much you want to know the answers to the deepest mysteries of the universe, you probably won’t ever find them—or, for that matter, be satisfied by them.

As their busted car is being repaired, Augie finally sits the kids down in the hot sand and breaks the news: Mom’s in the tupperware. Woodrow suspected it. The three young girls can’t fully get their heads around it. Since its nature is so internal and varied, grief is a hard thing to portray on screen—or on the stage, for that matter. Credit to Earp; his play doesn’t overdo it. There aren’t a lot of tears, nor talk of feelings. But also, credit to the actors: You can feel the weight of the loss, and sense them pushing it down. If anything, the reality of death provokes a quiet, sullen searching.

All the more so when—time for spoilers—the alien visits. This, I should say, is at the end of Act I, as all the kids and their parents are viewing the “Astronomical Ellipses” (... Wes ) through mirrored cardboard box contraptions. A green glow engulfs the celestial punctuation, and everyone removes their box and watches as a lanky alien descends from a UFO… and snatches the town’s asteroid. Augie snaps a picture—which, naturally, the alien poses for. ( Wes!! )

It’s a playful scene, and one that is, like much of this movie, very funny. But it’s also a turning point. Various characters have moments of earnest reflection; the visitation is something of an existential Rorschach. Augie worries that the alien looked at them “like we’re doomed.” Woodrow wonders if the existence of aliens indicates that there is indeed a meaning of life. One of the other young brainiacs (played by Aristou Meehand, with shades of Max Fisher) hypothesizes that he’s always wanting to be dared to do things because “I’m afraid no one will notice my existence.”

Offstage, the actors are similarly flailing for meaning. “I still don’t understand the play,” Schwartzman’s Jones Hall tells the director, Schubert Green (Adrien Brody, of course), after his character purposefully burns his hand on a Quicky-Griddle while flirting with movie star Midge Campbell (a note-perfect Scarlett Johansson).

“It doesn’t matter. Just keep telling the story,” Green responds.

For such a meticulous director, there’s a palpable sense that Anderson (along with co-writer Roman Coppola) is giving himself over to intuition in Asteroid City —not so much in his precise-as-ever blocking and immaculate set design, as in how he allows the story to unfold. Earp’s play may be divided into three acts, but Anderson takes a looser, more poetic approach to narrative, paying little mind to characters’ wants or any sort of classic hero’s journey. After all, life doesn’t move that way; we’re constantly feeling around in the dark, dreaming and waking. Brainiac or not, no matter how much you want to know the answers to the deepest mysteries of the universe, you probably won’t ever find them—or, for that matter, be satisfied by them. So, maybe what’s left is having fun, making art with your troupe, and moving through the world with the sort of spunk and wit that Anderson loves to instill in his child characters?

The movie’s emotional climax comes during a gut-wrenching scene backstage, in which Jones Hall vents his uncertainty to the character who would’ve played his wife had her scene not been cut—and then, in the play, when the children bury their mother for good. For me, the key to the movie occurs earlier—when the alien returns the asteroid and ecstatic chaos breaks out. The Junior Stargazers had previously been brainstorming the most meaningful symbol to project onto the moon, with Woodrow saying, “This is our chance to be actually worthwhile.” When the moment comes, rather than an American flag or a religious symbol, Woodrow projects a heart with his initials and his new girlfriend’s initials in it.

It’s played as a joke. But really, in the mad frenzy of life, what could be more beautiful and worthwhile than declaring your love to someone you’ve only known a week for all the universe to see?

@media(max-width: 73.75rem){.css-1ktbcds:before{margin-right:0.4375rem;color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1ktbcds:before{margin-right:0.5625rem;color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;}} Movies

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<i>Asteroid City</i> Is Too Stiff and Stylized—Even for a Wes Anderson Movie

Asteroid City Is Too Stiff and Stylized—Even for a Wes Anderson Movie

W es Anderson’s Asteroid City is what happens when a filmmaker’s world of wonder and whimsy becomes a prison. Love Anderson or hate him , he at least has a gift for creating mini universes of eccentric style ; it’s usually relatively painless to drop in for a bit and see what he’s up to. But Asteroid City —a story-within-a-story about a group of smartie kids who come to the desert with their families for a science-award ceremony, only to be quarantined there when an alien touches down and steals a rock—is so stiff and aggressively stylized that it seems to have been designed only for hardcore Andersonites. Everyone else should proceed with caution.

The story in Asteroid City is framed as an anthology-style televised play—a little Playhouse 90, a little Twilight Zone —hosted by Bryan Cranston, channeling Rod Serling. Kicking off the show, he introduces us to the writer of the material we’re about to see: it’s Edward Norton’s Conrad Earp, seen typing away in some western-themed hideaway, wearing an admittedly awesome smoking jacket dotted with jacquard broncos. (Too bad Asteroid City doesn’t have its own shopping app .) This framing section, to which Anderson returns throughout the film, is rendered in old-school-TV black-and-white. The play-within-the-show is painted in vivid souvenir-postcard hues. This is how you know what’s reality and what’s fantasy, relatively speaking.

In Asteroid City, the televised play, set in 1955—this would be the stuff in color, for those trying to follow along at home—Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) is a very recently widowed war photographer who has brought his four children to the small desert town of the movie’s title for a special Asteroid Day event. His oldest, Woodrow (Jake Ryan), will be receiving an award. The younger ones, a triple threat of quirky junior witches (Ella, Gracie and Willan Faris) are just along for the ride, but Augie has not yet told his children that their mother has recently died. The details of her death are unclear, but it seems she’s been “away” from the family for a while—a convenient elision for a filmmaker who doesn’t really like to deal with feelings.

Also arriving in Asteroid City are suave movie star Midge Campbell ( Scarlett Johansson ) and her daughter Dinah (Grace Edwards). Dinah will also be receiving a medal during the event (these will be bestowed by an authoritative Army general, played by Jeffrey Wright), and she and Jake will strike up a tentative teenage romance. Midge and Augie, with their respective kids, happen to have booked rental cabins right across from other. Through their facing windows, they speak to one another in crisply delivered self-centered phrases, and somehow fall in love, or at least tumble into an affair. This development is the emotional core of Asteroid City, to the extent that it has one.

Other performers doodling through Asteroid City include, but are not limited to, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hong Chau, Hope Davis, Steve Carell, Maya Hawke and Willem Dafoe. Tilda Swinton plays a scientist in a page boy. Rupert Friend is a winking, pedal-steel-guitar-playing cowboy. The alien rock thief is Jeff Goldblum, though you don’t see much of his face. Tom Hanks plays a gruff, sensible father-in-law with a gun stuck in the waistband of his golf pants. At one point I squinted and saw Bob Balaban.

The clown car of a movie into which these actors are jammed is, admittedly, handsomely presented . In one of the black-and-white scenes, we see Johansson’s Midge Campbell riding in a train car, her blonde hair styled in a Vertigo swoop, wearing an approximation of Kim Novak/Madeleine’s pearl-gray suit . Clever! The sets, built on location in Spain, include rusty-toned desert landscapes and an old-timey train station. (The production designer is Anderson regular Adam Stockhausen.) The movie’s color sequences include a riot of turquoise greens, reddish browns and wowser blues: there are gleaming lunch counters, aqua-toned enameled metal desks, sleek linoleum-tile arrangements, automobiles with gently rounded contours. The movie’s best invention may be a vending machine proffering sparkling martinis; if only this were a real thing.

Yet even the glorious colors of Asteroid City become eyeball-numbing after a while, and the novelty of its Tinkertoy sensibility wears off practically within the first 10 minutes. Anderson, who wrote the script after conceiving the idea with Roman Coppola, certainly has smarty-pants credentials: one of the black-and-white sequences is a vivid fantasy of a ’50s Actors Studio session. Can you spot the guy who’s probably modeled on John Garfield? Anderson’s affection and enthusiasm for a world that no longer exists is one reason to love him.

Yet even as Anderson purports to delight his audiences, he always holds them at arm’s length. He’s not the warmest of filmmakers; there’s an inherent exclusivity in his style. Many of his fans don’t seem to mind that, and probably even like it—he can make you feel like part of a secret club. But Asteroid City, as extravagant and hermetic as one of King Ludwig’s crazy castles, is more excessively mannered than any other Wes Anderson picture. Late in the movie, one of the story’s actor characters, struggling to grasp the material he’s trying to perform, protests that he still doesn’t understand the play. “It doesn’t matter,” he’s told. “Just keep telling the story.” Eventually, though, you’ve got to know when it’s time to get the hell out of Dodge.

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Asteroid City review: Wes Anderson prizes style over substance in an allegory for storytelling

Though Asteroid City delivers heady philosophical concepts and exquisite visual mastery, it's short on cohesive storytelling. But it almost doesn't matter given the film's attempt to allegorize narrative.

Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine , The Hollywood Reporter , and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight , is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen.

"Don't worry about it, just keep telling the story."

So says Adrien Brody 's director Schubert Green when Jones Hall ( Jason Schwartzman ) frets that he doesn't understand the play (within the movie) that he is currently starring in. It could also be the mantra of Asteroid City and the entire oeuvre of director Wes Anderson .

For Asteroid City — in theaters June 16 with a wider release June 23 — isn't merely a mid-century Southwestern jewel box of Americana as diffused through Anderson's piquant eye. It is also an American Playhouse-style black-and-white special detailing the 1950s Actors' Studio approach to writing and mounting the "play" we are predominantly viewing.

Anderson, who directed and co-wrote the film, has always used a Matryoshka doll-esque approach to his storytelling, the layers of his masterfully designed sets and vast ensemble casts collapsing and expanding with the precision of a Mozart symphony. But Anderson compounds that tiered confectionary storytelling structure here, in his 11th feature, with this play-within-a-TV-special-within-a-movie framework.

The special's host, as played by a stentorian Bryan Cranston who seems to be channeling some combination of his stage work in All the Way and Network, wants us to remember that Asteroid City is also a fiction, the drama and ensuing mythology around its mounting as false as the Monument Valley-esque peaks in the background of the titular city.

The plot of the special revolves around dissolute playwright Conrad Earp ( Edward Norton ) attempting to write and perfect the play, Asteroid City , while the play itself is focused on a Southwestern town whose annual Junior Stargazer convention is upended by the sudden appearance of an alien.

Schwartzman, an Anderson regular, is New York actor Jones Hall, uncertain of his grasp on the play Asteroid City. Within the play, he is widowed war photographer Audie Steenbeck. Schwartzman has always been adept at playing the tragic clown and here, he might give his most wistful performance yet as an actor struggling to understand a play about a man who can only make sense of the world through his camera lens.

He stars opposite Scarlett Johansson 's Mercedes Ford, a veteran NY stage actress, who is portraying Midge Campbell, a mid-century movie star in the vein of Elizabeth Taylor or Susan Hayward. Johansson has made something of a career of playing brassy women of this era in projects such as Hail, Caesar! and Jojo Rabbit . But she elevates that to a new level here, barely tamping down Midge's inner melancholy, while also fully giving herself over to the melodramatic tableaus she enacts in her bungalow bathroom.

Johansson and Schwartzman give two stellar performances within a galaxy of gripping ensemble work that treads the line between pastiche and pathos with ease. There's no shortage of films set in the 1940s and '50s, movies that try to replicate the rat-a-tat patter of the Golden Age of Hollywood. But often, contemporary actors feel like they're playing dress-up, their all-too modern selves packaged in the trappings of the time.

One might think that would feel even more the case within the purposeful artifice of Anderson's world — the meticulously framed tableaus; the exquisite Southwestern sets that feel more like Disneyland than the real world; and the comedic language of the tilts, pans, and close-ups of his camera.

What can be said that hasn't been already about the visual style of Anderson's filmmaking (so recognizable that it's a meme )? Suffice it to say that Asteroid City both meets and exceeds the sumptuous artistry and fastidious invention of his previous work.

The deliberate contrivance of the world of the play, Asteroid City , feels more akin to the filmmaking of the era that Anderson is probing than other recent projects that aim for naturalistic verisimilitude to the time. It's clear that's entirely by design when you juxtapose the play's brightly lit exteriors, which conjure a classic studio's overexposed approach to natural light, with the black-and-white classic aspect-ratio realism of the TV special that details the making of the play.

The plays — and artists — that defined Broadway in the '40s and '50s (and reinvented the American theater) were about truth and realism. For artists engaged in the "Method," like the ones we see in a class near the film's conclusion, a good performance is less about acting than it is about being . Yet, the films that built Hollywood and coalesced the concept of movie-making are steeped in a purposeful disconnect between reality and fantasy. There's a reason they called the studios "dream factories."

With Asteroid City, Anderson seems to be philosophizing about that gap between the truth we seek in storytelling and the lush, bravura craftsmanship required to tell it. Asteroid City isn't in any way a cohesive story; it plays as a series of vignettes that don't necessarily build to any grand climax or clear purpose. But like Brody's Schubert instructs Schwartzman's Jones, it isn't really about reaching some greater sense of understanding anyway. Just keep telling the story. (Though admittedly, Anderson seems to care more about theory and style than narrative at this point in his career.)

Near the film's conclusion, the acting students with whom Conrad Earp meets are seized by the mania of repeating the mantra: "You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep." It could be dismissed as "Method" pretension, but it's also potentially the thesis statement of the film and Anderson's views on storytelling as a whole — to find the truth in art, you have to give yourself over to the artifice of the dream. Grade: B

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Asteroid City Review

23 Jun 2023

Asteroid City

Yes, Wes Anderson has — as the jibe goes — made his film again. For some, that’s seen as a negative: that somehow the whimsical Texan auteur is simply a one-trick pony. Certainly, few filmmakers have visual hallmarks so culturally ingrained that they could spark a TikTok trend. But Asteroid City , his 11th feature, proves that making your film again is no bad thing when said film is always beautifully, painstakingly, lovingly crafted to within an inch of its life. (You’d never criticise Picasso for making yet another cube-y painting.) It also demonstrates that Anderson still has the capacity to surprise.

Perhaps most surprising is that it’s never entirely clear what is real, and what isn’t. As with The Royal Tenenbaums or The Grand Budapest Hotel , Asteroid City has a meta framing device, an in-universe piece of fiction driving the action: a 1950s black-and-white television broadcast of “a new play created for the American stage” presented by Bryan Cranston ’s Rod Serling-esque ‘Host’. The main story we are watching — of a sleepy 1950s desert town which plays host to a meteorite crater, and later alien life — is told in parallel with a behind-the-scenes theatrical drama about that desert town. Admittedly this can be, at least until the bow-tie ending, a little more confounding than compelling, but that’s only because the primary story is, to its core, Vintage Wes.

Anderson’s fondest, most familiar themes return here: family, fatherhood, grief, love.

From minute one, the retro setting proves ripe for his artistic sensibilities, all sunblushed, saturated hues, sharp costuming, and handsome, hyperreal production design (the town looks like a kind of papier-mâché Monument Valley). He remains cinema’s most astonishing stylist, the rigour and detail in every frame never better. Wherever you care to look, his visual wit is all there, too, from the “Intermission (optional)” title card that pops up halfway through, to the highway-to-nowhere built due to “route calculation error”. Even Anderson’s camera moves are funny. (Look out for one very droll extraterrestrial cameo swoop past the lens.)

But if you let him in, the director still wants you to care for these people, to find some attachment in his detached approach. Anderson’s fondest, most familiar themes return here: family, fatherhood, grief, love. In yet another stacked, starry cast, the focus is mainly on Jason Schwartzman ’s Augie Steenbeck; his Max-from- Rushmore -esque son, Woodrow ( Eighth Grade ’s Gabe); Augie’s father-in-law Stanley (Anderson newcomer Tom Hanks ); and movie star Midge Campbell ( Scarlett Johansson ), all dealing with heartbreak in their own ways. When Stanley says, “I never really loved you,” to his son-in-law, there’s real pathos there, even if the performance is carefully hemmed in by Andersonian restraint.

As with his last effort, the brilliant-but-exhausting The French Dispatch , Asteroid City still might prove too much for Ander-sceptics. It is occasionally a bit unfocused, and always a bit indulgent. If you don’t like The Wes Anderson Film, you won’t like this. But we others must hope he keeps making it.

Movies | 07 07 2023

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Asteroid city.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 7 Reviews
Kids Say 17 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Wes Anderson comedy has smart teens; also nudity, smoking.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 14+?

Full-frontal nudity of a fragmented female body (head out of frame). Through a w

Constant smoking, including cigarettes and a pipe. An older elementary school st

Viewers are constantly being reminded that they're watching a play, so the viole

Infrequent swearing includes "bitch" and "what the hell."

Brands are used to help set the 1955 scene and define characters: A giant bottle

Any Positive Content?

Trust and follow your curiosity.

Teen "Junior Stargazers" are celebrated for their intelligence and ability to be

Most primary characters are White. Supporting/ensemble characters are more diver

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Full-frontal nudity of a fragmented female body (head out of frame). Through a window, a teen watches her mother have sex, which is depicted by showing the moment before activity occurs, with a close-up of the mom's bare feet on the bed next to a man standing above her. Kissing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Constant smoking, including cigarettes and a pipe. An older elementary school student smokes cigarettes with adults. Adults drink martinis.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Viewers are constantly being reminded that they're watching a play, so the violence clearly isn't real -- e.g., police chasing suspects with a "shoot-out" that sounds like popping sounds. Many characters carry guns in their waistbands, though it seems more to indicate the era and their characters' attitudes than to be used to hurt or threaten. Military personnel hold guns and, in one heated moment, point them at a person with a threat. Suicidal references. Father chases and smacks his son in a way that's portrayed as humorous rather than abusive. Family dealing with the loss of a parent.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Brands are used to help set the 1955 scene and define characters: A giant bottle of Chanel is seen prominently in the bathroom of a glamorous Hollywood movie star, and a wealthy older man drives a Cadillac.

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

Teen "Junior Stargazers" are celebrated for their intelligence and ability to be comfortable in their skin, and they display wise-minded behavior about themselves and their parents.

Diverse Representations

Most primary characters are White. Supporting/ensemble characters are more diverse, including a decorated Black general, a Guatemalan attaché, and female astronomers. Minor characters include a Black cowboy and a Native American soldier. Religious diversity: A school teacher leads children in prayer, and there's frequent mention of one family being Episcopalian, while others declare atheist beliefs (and several of the actors are Jewish). Gay men shown in respected, creative roles.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Asteroid City is a star-studded Wes Anderson comedy that deconstructs the acting and writing process. It's about a TV show that tells the story of how a play came to the stage, while simultaneously presenting a colorful realization of that production that looks like a film. The layered storytelling isn't too confusing because Anderson keeps character identities and time periods clear. Because viewers are reminded frequently that they're watching a play, iffy content has less impact, as we know it's not "real." What is likely to drop a jaw or two is a moment of full-frontal female nudity (the body is fragmented, with the head out of the frame) and a reference with a confirming image to the fact that a young voyeur watches her mother having sex. One plot line involves a family coping with the death of a parent, and many characters carry guns in their waistbands, though it seems mostly to indicate the era and their characters' attitudes (though one is pointed at someone in a heated moment). There are some suicidal references. It's set in the 1950s, so it's not especially surprising that everyone smokes, including a 10-year-old. Adults sip martinis and drink beer. Swearing isn't frequent but includes "bitch" and "what the hell." The movie's teen characters are celebrated for their intelligence, innovation, and curiosity. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Asteroid City Movie: A woman in the 1950s wearing black sunglasses and red lipstick gives a hard look while sitting next to a teen girl

Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (7)
Kids say (17)

Based on 7 parent reviews

Not for children

What's the story.

Junior Stargazers and their parents travel to ASTEROID CITY in the 1950s to receive awards in scientific achievement. When an alien encounter leads to a military-enforced quarantine, a variety of families find community -- and themselves -- in their unexpected week-long stay in the desert. The cast includes Bryan Cranston , Jason Schwartzman , Scarlett Johansson , Tom Hanks , Margot Robbie, Jeffrey Wright , Tilda Swinton , Steve Park, Liev Schreiber , Maya Hawke , Adrien Brody , Matt Dillon , Willem Dafoe , Hope Davis , Rupert Friend , Hong Chau, and Edward Norton .

Is It Any Good?

All of writer-director Wes Anderson 's hallmarks are present and accounted for as he takes viewers on a journey of creativity that's unexpected and unusual. But "unique" doesn't always translate to "entertaining." In the case of Asteroid City, your brain may be trying to understand and interpret what's happening so quickly that it could be hard to assess whether it was actually good -- for some, a second viewing may be required.

Teens have frequently sparked to Anderson's movies, perhaps because tweens and teens are frequently the most level-headed characters in his films. Here, there's a whole set of young "brainiacs" who are wise and confident beyond their years, including possessing a high emotional intelligence. But to truly appreciate this endeavor, you need to have an understanding of the 1950s and what was going on then in America at large, as well as in the theater and on screen. Ultimately, it's likely that only teens who identify as students of STEM, drama kids, film nerds, or Wes Fandersons will find Asteroid City out of this world.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what was happening in the United States in the 1950s and how the characters, situations, and behaviors shown in Asteroid City reflect that.

What are the trademarks of a Wes Anderson film, and how are they in evidence in Asteroid City ? Do you have a "signature style"?

Many of the characters, the TV show, and the play are a tip of the hat to existing people and properties from the mid-20th century. Whom or what do you recognize?

How are smoking and drinking portrayed? Are they glamorized? Are there realistic consequences ?

Anderson says, "You're watching an actress play an actress play an actress." How does he manage to keep the characters and the stories straight for viewers? Did you find any of it confusing?

Movie Details

In theaters : June 16, 2023
On DVD or streaming : August 15, 2023
Cast : Jason Schwartzman , Scarlett Johansson , Tom Hanks
Director : Wes Anderson
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Focus Features
Genre : Comedy
Topics : Brothers and Sisters , High School , Space and Aliens
Character Strengths : Curiosity
Run time : 104 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : brief graphic nudity, smoking and some suggestive material
Last updated : January 1, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

Moonrise Kingdom

The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Royal Tenenbaums

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Asteroid City is a masterful puzzle — and likely to be Wes Anderson fans' most hated movie

Nested meta-narrative will challenge audiences more than they like.

You better not act like you're in a Wes Anderson film for your latest review...

Social sharing.

The recently deceased, overwhelmingly successful and famously reclusive Cormac McCarthy is a better comparison to Wes Anderson than you'd think.

First off, if you play a little fast and loose with the numbers, their most recent releases came about at roughly the same stage in their career. Stella Maris , McCarthy's 2022 book, was technically his twelfth, though it's a companion to The Passenger , released just a month before.

It took that long (let's call it his 11th book) for McCarthy to switch up his game, for the first time leaving behind his rugged male protagonists for a woman, and trading his southern gothic theme for a midwest tale of quantum theory and philosophy.

The second is that McCarthy, like Anderson, is in the vanishingly small club of artists allowed to care less about what they say than how they say it.

In McCarthy's case that was shown through sparse punctuation, run-on sentences and a dark, almost biblical manner of speaking that allowed him to craft a powerfully unique aesthetic atmosphere instantly recognizable as his own. I mean, who else can get away with the sentence "a trance bepopulate with chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a mudded field is unspeakable and calamitous beyond reckoning"?

Anderson's playing the same game — if in a different medium, and from the opposite emotional spectrum. That immediately identifiable style (symmetrical, colour-specific, nostalgic for time frames so purposefully jumbled together they don't seem to exist) and tone is so identifiable it's become a meme — something he himself, by all accounts, despises.

And while the vast majority of other artists have realism, clarity and economy of words hammered into them by critics and overzealous English teachers, McCarthy and Anderson are given a pass to turn their artifice into an art form all on its own. From the subtle pinks of The Grand Budapest Hotel 's walls to the inexplicable but beautiful painted backgrounds of Moonrise Kingdom , no one asks Anderson to colour within the lines. His whimsical pseudo fairy-tales are attractive because they so often cover them up, use the everyday in absurd ways that feels closer to play and make-believe than most adults get to experience.

Enter Asteroid City .

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The director's newest movie is deceptively simple, and more difficult than any of his others to define. On its simplest level, it's about the recently widowed war photographer Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) on a road trip with his four children — including one son (Jake Ryan) smart enough to earn the nickname "Brainiac." He's quickly dropped off at camp for genius kids in the titular Asteroid City, where the basic events of the story play out.

One step below that, the movie's events are actually a play written by solitary genius Conrad Earp (Edward Norton) and directed by passionate but irascible Schubert Green (Adrian Brody). And below that, the creation of that play is being documented in a WXYZ-TV broadcast led by "The Host" (Bryan Cranston), guiding us through all the neuroticisms and crises of confidence at the centre of every creative addicted to an audience.

It's a nested meta-narrative à la House of Leaves , an ouroboros of a story that asks more from its watchers than anything Anderson has put out before. And, like McCarthy, his eleventh movie takes risks he hasn't before, while hiding a puzzle in its centre you're forced to unlock to find the enjoyment. But that's all as the Andersonian touches — a stop-motion roadrunner; girl witches with the names Andromeda, Pandora and Cassiopeia performing spells in the dust; and one of the most delightfully absurd deus ex machinas of all time (you'll know it when you see it) — keep you aware this is indeed an Anderson production.

The puzzle, though, is the point. Because while it might seem the plot is just a shallow, zany, brightly coloured excuse to set Alex Colville paintings in a desert, Asteroid City (both Anderson's actual movie, and the play within it) are a mournful meditation on art, art-making and purpose.

A woman leans through a window with crossed arms. She has a quizzical look on her face.

Like Spielberg's The Fabelmans , Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood and even Scorsese's subtly self-referential examination of mortality The Irishman , Asteroid City is a late-career masterpiece by a director grappling with the ultimate meaning of their success.

Though it takes a bit of doing to find, the hints are there. Virtually everyone here is deeply talented, though shockingly unable to believe it: Scarlett Johannsson's Midge Campbell is a famed actor so deeply concerned with how believable her suicide scene looks she recreates it, spilled pills and all, for Augie to judge — a scene to be performed in the aptly titled play The Death of a Narcissist.

At another point, child genius Woodrow is hellbent on a mission that involves displaying messages on the moon, and talking it over with Tilda Swinton's Dr. Hickenlooper.

"This is a chance to actually be worthwhile in our lifetimes!" goes the argument.

"It's all worthwhile," is the response. "Your curiosity is your greatest asset. Trust it."

Augie meanwhile, is a renowned war photographer so committed he took a load of shrapnel to the back of his head, but too timid to oppose his father-in-law (Tom Hanks) or tell his kids about their mother's death three weeks back.

A black and white image of a man in a suit is shown, in front of a symmetrical model of a city behind him. Numerous signs are shown on the buildings, including 'The Death of a Narcissist.'

And on the meta level, his character leaves the play to talk about how he doubts himself, and his performance. Finding director Schubert Green, they have a conversation that does more to unlock the message than nearly anything else.

"I still don't understand the play," says Augie.

"That doesn't matter," responds Green. "Just keep on telling the story."

That is hard to read as anything other than a message from Anderson to himself. As an artist so buried under accolades and recognition that his style has become a shallow, imitated TikTok gimmick branded with his name, it is almost impossible to produce something that measures up. While that message has more relevance to any other generationally defining talents, it can be useful for any artist struggling with their own meaning: how can we be sure anything we create is worth creating? If I need approval, is any art actually pure?

The Canadian behind The Flash explains what it takes to design a blockbuster

Anderson's answer is an unequivocal yes, buried beneath layers of story that feel more mournful than anything in his catalogue. And for that reason, it's likely to be many Wes Anderson fans' least favourite Wes Anderson movie — it's already tracking to be his most poorly reviewed film on most critic aggregate sites.

And that's a shame, as Anderson turning the camera back on himself gives us an artistic rumination with depth and unlikely hope beyond anything we've seen before. And he does it all in the spirit of that vanishingly small club: those who care, as short-story author Amy Hempel once said , more about the "acoustics of a sentence" than what it says.

But even with the aesthetics, Asteroid City has a lot to say — if you feel like deciphering it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Jackson Weaver is a reporter and film critic for CBC's entertainment news team in Toronto. You can reach him at [email protected].

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Asteroid City review: Wes Anderson’s enrapturing cosmic comedy is an offbeat Close Encounters

Anderson newbies scarlett johansson, tom hanks and margot robbie adapt brilliantly to his trademark wit and style, article bookmarked.

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Even some of Wes Anderson ’s most die-hard fans were put off by his 2021 film The French Dispatch , with its three-story structure and stilted, self-conscious evocation of literary France. Anderson hasn’t changed his storytelling technique in the slightest for his new film Asteroid City , but his recent detractors will be relieved nonetheless: this is his most enrapturing feature since The Grand Budapest Hotel nearly a decade ago.

As in many of Anderson’s films, the plot comes with multiple framing devices. We first see Bryan Cranston in black and white as an Edward R Murrow-esque TV host who introduces us to an earnest playwright called Conrad Earp (Edward Norton), who is working on the story we are about to watch. Asteroid City , then, is a film within a play within a TV show, or something like that. It is, we are told early on, an “apocryphal fabrication” – and it even has an optional intermission.

As soon as the action begins in earnest, the director switches his palette to iridescent Kodak colour. The main setting is Asteroid City, a desert town in the American southwest known for its observatory and enormous meteor crater. The military uses the empty plains to test atomic weapons, while junior stargazers and space cadets flock here to look at the night-time sky. Augie Steenbeck ( Jason Schwartzman ), a pipe-smoking photographer, rolls into town in his station wagon with his children in tow. His wife has recently died and he has her ashes with him. Then the car conks out, meaning he is stuck here. The genial but dim-witted local mechanic (a strong cameo from Matt Dillon) can’t do anything to help. Augie asks his father-in-law Stanley ( Tom Hanks ), with whom he doesn’t get on, to drive over and rescue them.

Anderson has put together one of his huge, familiar ensemble casts. Much of the pleasure here comes from the perfectly calibrated and very deadpan performances from his actors, even those in the minor parts. Rupert Friend excels in a cameo as a singing cowboy with a nice line in folksy, homespun wisdom. Jeffrey Wright is very funny as the gruff military commander who locks down the town after an alien (Jeff Goldblum) puts in an appearance. (The spaceship scenes seem intended as a gentle parody of Close Encounters of the Third Kind .) Steve Carrell is the manager of the motel where our heroes are staying, a place where new settlers can buy themselves parcels of land from vending machines. Tilda Swinton is a scientist in a white coat, desperate to crack the secrets of the universe.

While junior stargazers are peering through telescopes or having their first experiences of young love, Augie starts up a strange romance with Scarlett Johansson ’s Midge, a suicidal Hollywood star staying in the cabin opposite to him. Johansson is brilliant, embuing her character with both sex appeal and pathos.

No Hard Feelings review: Jennifer Lawrence comedy didn’t need the full-frontal nudity and slapstick violence

Many of the actors here are Anderson regulars. Newcomers, including a late-arriving Margot Robbie as a worldly stage actor and Maya Hawke as a prim school teacher, adapt brilliantly to the minimalist comedic style that the director favours. Some of the best scenes here involve fellow Anderson neophyte Tom Hanks and his on-screen grandchildren debating what precisely they should do with their mother’s ashes.

In its own offbeat way, Asteroid City is an Anderson patchwork of Cold War paranoia and American family values in all their often hypocritical glory. It is every bit as arch as his best work, while still managing to tug hard on the heartstrings.

Dir: Wes Anderson. Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, Jeff Goldblum. 12A, 105 mins.

‘Asteroid City’ is in cinemas from 23 June

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Wes Anderson

Reviews (1)

Wes Anderson is simply this generation's Woody Allen.

I do not, in any way, mean this comparison based on their personal lives... one is a very gross person.

Everyone who's anyone wants to be in a WA movie (the initials work both ways lol) AND their movies are so incredibly similar in tone, style, & writing... not with each other, but their OWN personal style.

Every new WA release (or WA release) is the "who's who" of actors, in a movie, you feel like you've seen before...

that being said, this one is decent.

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Scarlett johansson, adrien brody, jeffrey wright, bryan cranston, seasons (4).

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10 Bold Sci-Fi Movies to Stream on Prime Video Right Now

From close encounters to iconic superheroes, Prime Video delivers the sci-fi goods.

Christopher Reeve's performance as the Man of Steel still stands tall.

The streaming world is rife with wonderful sci-fi entries, and when it comes to fun movies to add to your watch list, Prime Video 's library is stacked. Science fiction is a genre that can take viewers anywhere they want to go. Whether it's a highly conceptual drama or a nutty joyride into the apocalypse, sci-fi entertainment consistently explores relevant themes while providing the escapism audiences seek.

Do you want stories about UFOs, an iconic Man of Steel and time-traveling astronauts ? You've beamed down to the right place. From Stephen King to Steven Spielberg, the sci-fi list below is worth your time. But don't take our word for it. Scroll on and find out for yourself.

Read more: 17 Epic Sci-Fi TV Shows You Need to Watch on Netflix Right Now

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

This sci-fi classic, directed by Steven Spielberg, follows an average man named Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) who, after experiencing an alien encounter, becomes obsessed with the existence of UFOs. Close Encounters shines a light (or two) on humanity's enduring curiosity about what exists beyond our world. Deeper still, it's a poignant exploration of mental health.

The Tomorrow War

It's hard to leave The Tomorrow War off this list, because it's Prime Video's big sci-fi actioner starring Chris Pratt. It follows a schoolteacher who's drafted into a war with aliens, in the future. An easily digestible flick that you can watch while looking at your phone.

Interstellar

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar takes the filmmaker's cerebral narrative talents to outer space. Matthew McConaughey is Cooper, a NASA astronaut tasked with finding a planet that can sustain life, in order to ensure humanity's future. Loss, trauma and grief play big parts in the storytelling here. Nolan's got a knack for stitching together an engaging yarn, which he does in this flick. In short, Interstellar doesn't disappoint.

Superman: The Movie

Superman: The Movie is an example of a comic book movie done right. Richard Donner's superhero epic set the standard for how modern day films of this ilk can operate. Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor is a legendary portrayal of the DC Comics villain. Through an effortless balance of heroism, physical power, humor and heart, Christopher Reeve's portrayal of Kal-El remains as iconic as ever.

After carving his niche in the horror genre with the first two Evil Dead movies, Sam Raimi marked his big budget feature debut with Darkman -- a disruptive superhero film that's tough to pin down. Is it sci-fi? Yes. But the movie, which stars Liam Neeson and Frances McDormand, mishmashes horror, action, comedy and romance together into a fun and entertaining cult classic.

The Dead Zone

Stephen King delved into sci-fi territory with The Dead Zone, a story that follows a teacher named Johnny Smith (played by Christopher Walken) who, after waking up from a coma, discovers he has psychic abilities. Being able to see the future leads Johnny on a mission to try and save it -- putting him face-to-face with Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen), a presidential candidate who, according to his visions, will start a nuclear war if he gets elected.

Rian Johnson's sci-fi thriller explores a future where time travel exists. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a hitman who waits in the past for the mob to send him targets to eliminate. Things get complicated when his future self, played by Bruce Willis, is sent back in time for him to kill. Twisty smart writing, solid performances and savvy filmmaking make this movie a thoroughly entertaining ride.

Asteroid City

Wes Anderson takes on the sci-fi genre with Asteroid City and, as you'd suspect, he flips the script on things and delivers a movie that is quintessentially him. Whimsy, nostalgia and drama mix effortlessly as this UFO-themed story takes audiences back to a fictional version of 1950s America. The ensemble is a who's who of Anderson faves, featuring wonderful performances from Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Maya Hawke, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston and more.

Face/Off follows a rather simple, and silly, premise: FBI agent Sean Archer (Nicolas Cage) goes under the knife for a controversial face transplant procedure in order to discover the location of a bomb planted by comatose terrorist Castor Troy (John Travolta). Things get crazy when Troy wakes up and undergoes the same surgery. It all sounds ridiculous and it very much is, but thanks to the all-in performances by the two leads, and the guidance of legendary director John Woo, the whole thing works. And delightfully so.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

This movie doesn't really make sense, but it sure is fun to watch. Packed with noteworthy talent, including Peter Weller, Jeff Goldblum, Clancy Brown, Ellen Barkin, John Lithgow and Christopher Lloyd, the '80s cult classic follows Dr. Buckaroo Banzai (Weller) as he fights a group of alien enemies in order to save the world. It's thematically reminiscent of Doctor Who and features a delightfully unhinged performance by Lithgow.

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Between the Temples

Nathan Silver ’s “Between the Temples” opens with a loud, keening blast from the shofar. If you haven’t heard it before, imagine the sound of someone slumped forward in the driver’s seat, face pressed against the steering wheel, and you’ll be in the ballpark. It’s a perfectly bracing note to open this year’s most anxious comedy, about a cantor in a crisis of faith who has recently lost his wife, his voice, and his will to live.

Antic, endearing, and often achingly funny, the film stars Jason Schwartzman as Ben Gottlieb, who hasn’t felt at home in his sleepy upstate New York community since the death of his novelist wife in an accident months earlier—literally, given that he’s moved back in with his overbearing mothers ( Caroline Aaron and Dolly De Leon), whose well-meaning if clueless efforts to get him back in the dating game haven’t exactly lifted his spirits. (“In Judaism, we don’t have heaven or hell,” Ben cracks with a small smile. “We just have upstate New York.”)

Unable to get the words out when asked to sing at his first Shabbat back at the pulpit, Ben flees the synagogue still wearing his tallit and walks home in the dark, replaying his wife’s dirty voice messages until he abruptly has had enough and lies down in the road. An 18-wheeler rounds the bend but stops just short. “Keep going,” he begs. “Keep going, please!” Humiliating and profound, this punchline isn’t quite introductory—indeed, it’s hard to think of another comedy that starts so strikingly in the moment as this one—but it evokes the dynamic, dizzying swirl of pain and pleasure that, as devised by Silver and co-writer C. Mason Wells, constitutes the film’s comic locus.

Naturally, the driver can’t grant Ben’s request, but he does drop him off at a dive bar, where he throws back mudslides, gets punched out, and at this lowest of lows encounters his grade-school music teacher, Carla Kessler ( Carol Kane ), herself a widow in search of her next chapter. Though his mothers make no secret of their eagerness to set him up with a nice Jewish girl—perhaps Gabby (Madeleine Weinstein), the daughter of their local rabbi ( Robert Smigel )—Ben finds himself spending more time with Carla instead. In hopes of reconnecting with their Jewish roots, Carla has decided she wants to finally have the bat mitzvah denied to her all those years ago by her Russian Communist parents and that she left behind when she married her now-deceased Protestant husband—and she wants Ben to give it to her. He’s caught off guard when Carla suddenly appears at the synagogue and signs herself up for lessons, given how much older she is than his typical students, but she only has to twist his arm so far before Ben gives in.

After all, they’re kindred spirits, in ways immediately obvious and less so; both have lost their spouses, but Ben and Carla are drawn to each other for more reasons than their mourning. Ben remembers “Mrs. O’Connor” as a warm and encouraging teacher, though the cantor’s even more taken with her candor—she doesn’t remember him at all, she says—and garrulous demeanor, not to mention the freedom he senses in her selectiveness with following only the religious customs that suit her. Carla, meanwhile, admires Ben’s sensitivity to faith and that he listens when she speaks to him. Both have been kicked around by life and sense in each other a tendency to keep laughing through the pain—even if, before this point, only miserably and to themselves. Perhaps the unexpected ease of their friendship makes it so undeniable. Bonding over Hebrew lessons, non-kosher burgers, and mushroom tea, these two improbably help each other out.

This is Silver’s ninth feature and, like his previous ones, it revels in capturing the alchemical, off-kilter chaos of oddballs in proximity; what makes it special has as much to do with the strange, spontaneous energies that fill the air between his characters as what it is they’re saying. “Between the Temples” could be broadly described as a behavioral comedy; it’s not a critique of organized religion but an empathetic study of how people constantly organize and reorganize their relationships to religion—and within that, their relationships to themselves and one another, in response to constantly fluctuating cross-currents of need, desire, and circumstance.

To that end, Schwartzman and Kane make for a winning screen duo, their chemistry alternately jagged and tender as Ben and Carla settle into a kind of shared neurosis—not a discovery nor a delusion, but something in between—that neither can quite define or really cares to. Schwartzman, so affecting in last year’s “ Asteroid City ” as another widower stopped by sorrow, plays Ben as a more slack, disorderly sad-sack whose grief has blotted out his sense of self. That’s until Kane, with her zany comic stylings and that unmistakable voice, enters the frame with the irrepressible zest of a rising sun, clearing his clouds away; with her curiosity, ebullience, and raucous humor, Kane is the film’s animating force.

Both actors are elevated by a note-perfect ensemble, including a particularly welcome Smigel (known best for his work in a very different comic register as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog) as a rabbi who, focused less on faith than finances, putts golf balls into the shofar, as well as relative newcomer Madeline Weinstein as his newly single daughter, Gabby. Though she enters the film an hour in, Weinstein shakes up its second half while enabling two of its standout sequences.

An anxious actress who’s returned home after a failed engagement, Gabby struggles as much as Ben to get her head on straight, as becomes apparent during an erotically charged interlude in a Jewish cemetery that’s about as morbidly hilarious as “Between the Temples” gets. In terms of soul-deep discomfort, though, it has nothing on a disastrous Shabbat dinner at which an intricate latticework of emotional dynamics—confessions, grievances, revelations, humiliations—comes undone in such transcendently shambolic fashion that one suddenly sympathizes with how the door to Ben’s basement door keeps shrieking with the agony of thousand damned souls.

“Between the Temples” was shot in gloriously textured 16mm by frequent collaborator Sean Price Williams , at this point a mainstay of the New York independent film scene whose expressionistic lens is second to none when it comes to capturing the beating heart of chaos. The sense of total immersion in a scene his handheld camera conveys (especially his electrifying focus on faces and facial reactions) modernizes the film’s screwball melodrama. He observes the minutiae of human interaction, often in tight close-ups that move in concert with rapid-fire volleys of incisive dialogue to reach past characters’ deadpan self-defense mechanisms and reveal poignant inner tensions. John Magary ’s unpredictable editing, with its skewed staccato rhythms, provides the film with a cheerfully chaotic locomotion that does perhaps even more to keep the audience on their toes.

The film’s premise most immediately recalls the bittersweet May-December romance of “ Harold and Maude ,” a comparison that the presence of Schwartzman—a frequent collaborator of Wes Anderson , whose tragicomic sensibility and affinity for eccentrics, underdogs, and Cat Stevens certainly owe a debt to Hal Ashby —makes unavoidable. But Silver is working in a more warmly improvisational key, letting in both light and life with such buoyant naturalism that you don’t question the honesty of his characters’ questioning nor the humility—and humanity—of their struggle to self-determine. There’s a core sweetness to “Between the Temples” that shines through. Gently but firmly, the film insists upon the miraculous nature of all the meandering paths we end up taking: in search of our lives, without a clue where we’re going, toward those who’ll give us meaning.

“Between the Temples” is in theaters Friday, via Sony Pictures Classics.

Isaac Feldberg

Isaac Feldberg is an entertainment journalist currently based in Chicago, who’s been writing professionally for nine years and hopes to stay at it for a few more.

Jason Schwartzman as Ben Gottlieb
Carol Kane as Carla Kessler
Dolly de Leon as Judith Gottlieb
Caroline Aaron as Meira Gottlieb
Robert Smigel as Rabbi Bruce
Madeline Weinstein as Gabby / Ruth
C. Mason Wells
Nathan Silver

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The 10 Best Liev Schreiber Movies, Ranked

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Liev Schreiber has consistently been one of the most underrated actors working in Hollywood , as it's easy to forget how many great projects that he has been involved in. Although he’s become best known for his work on dramatic television thanks to his acclaimed role on the crime series Ray Donovan , Schreiber has been a staple of both independent films and major blockbusters ever since his string of breakout roles in the late 1990s.

Schreiber is the type of actor who can elevate a film , regardless of how much screen time he is granted. While his work as Sabertooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was infamously met with negative reviews from fans of the X-Men franchise, Schreiber has many exciting upcoming projects, including a collaboration with the Academy Award nominated director Darren Aronofsky . Here are the ten best Liev Schreiber movies, ranked.

10 ‘Chuck’ (2017)

Directed by philippe falardeau.

Chuck is a very empowering sports movie in which Schreiber plays a real boxer that was supposedly the real inspiration for the character of Rocky Balboa that Sylvester Stallone created. Although it's a film that plays all the right notes for a biopic , Schreiber is so charismatic as an unlikely superstar who becomes a local hero that Chuck is eminently watchable. Although there are a lot of nods to the Rocky franchise, Schreiber ensures that the film succeeds on its own merits.

Schreiber is so often cast in supporting roles that it is nice to see him play the lead , as his enough dramatic pathos to spare in Chuck that makes the film far more compelling than it would have been otherwise. It is also a testament to his physical prowess, as Chuck features some nail biting boxing scenes in which Schreiber is completely vulnerable.

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9 ‘Pawn Sacrifice’ (2015)

Directed by edward zwick.

Liev Schreiber and Tobey Maguire as Boris Spassky and Bobby Fisher playing chess in Pawn Sacrifice

Pawn Sacrifice proved that chess could be an exciting conduit for historical drama long before The Queen’s Gambit became a smash hit on Netflix in the fall of 2020. Set during the height of the Cold War , Pawn Sacrifice stars Schreiber as the highly respected Russian chessmaster Borris Spassky, who goes up against the rising American player Bobby Fischer ( Tobey Maguire ) in a heated series of games that experts would rank among the greatest ever played.

Pawn Sacrifice does a great job at investing the audience in both characters , with Schreiber managing to show how Spassky’s reclusive upbringing colored his ability to communicate with others. Although Maguire seems to enjoy chewing the scenery with a very over-the-top performance, Schreiber is able to reign things in with his more nuanced work, ensuring that the film feels like a balanced portrayal of history.

Pawn Sacrifice

Not available

8 ‘Kate & Leopold’ (2001)

Directed by james mangold.

Hugh Jackman and Breckin Meyer singing around the piano in 'Kate & Leopold'

Kate & Leopold is a highly underrated romantic comedy from director James Mangold , who is best known for directing more exciting films like Ford v. Ferrari, Logan, Walk the Line , and 3:10 to Yuma . Schreiber gives one of his funniest performances ever as a brilliant inventor from New York City that allows him to travel back in time, where he ends up bringing an English duke ( Hugh Jackman ) into modern day.

Kate & Leopold offered a much better opportunity to see Schreiber and Jackman interact than X-Men Origins: Wolverine did , as the story is surprisingly involving and emotional. Jackman is saddled with a majority of the physical gags and humor, but Schriber delivered the type of quick-witted one-liners and snarky jokes that prove that he is capable of not taking himself too seriously. It’s frankly a shame that he has not been in more romantic comedies.

Kate & Leopold

7 ‘asteroid city’ (2023), directed by wes anderson.

Asteroid City is one of the best films that Wes Anderson ever made , as it serves as a powerful examination of moving on in the wake of a tragedy and finding oneself through artistic expression. Although Asteroid City features just as sprawling of a cast as anything that Anderson has ever directed, Schreiber delivers a scene-stealing performance as the comically aloof parent J.J., whose teenage son is participating at a strange asteroid camp.

Schreiber’s character connects to the film’s themes about familial dysfunction , and showed once again that he was capable of delivering Anderson’s snarky, witty dialogue. Considering that Schreiber also had a role as one of the main voices in Isle of Dogs , it would be exciting to see if he has any other projects with Anderson lined up in his future, as the two are well-suited to work together.

Asteroid City

6 ‘the hurricane’ (1999), directed by norman jewison.

Deborah Kara Unger and Liev Shrieber in The Hurricane

The Hurricane is much more than a standard biopic , as it merges the courtroom and sports genres into an unbelievable encapsulation about how the boxer Ruben Carter ( Denzel Washington ) was falsely imprisoned for murder and spent years in prison. Norman Jewison ’s underrated masterpiece focuses on the many advocates that fought for Carter’s release, including Schreiber in a limited role.

Schreiber gives a serious, and occasionally rigid performance that shows what a serious subject the film is addressing , as it's heavily implied that Carter’s wrongful arrest was the result of systematic racism in the justice department and rampant abuse of the prison system. Although Washington’s transformative performance into a real life hero earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor that couldn’t have been more deserved, Schrieber is arguably the glue that keeps this intensely moving portrayal of perseverance together.

The Hurricane (1999)

Rent on Amazon

5 ‘Scream’ (1997)

Directed by wes craven.

Scream is a film that flipped the slasher genre on its head, as Wes Craven was well aware of the cliches that had become dominant in the genre in the many years since he directed the original A Nightmare On Elm Street . One of the best aspects of Scream is that it is a whodunit where the audience is unclear who the real killer is until the very end; Schreiber co-stars as Cotton, a man who Sidney Prescott ( Neve Campbell ) initially believes to be responsible for the death of her mother.

Cotton proved to be one of the best characters in the Scream franchise , as Schreiber was able to give the role a very satisfying sendoff in the underrated sequel Scream 2. Although the film’s sequels leaned more heavily into the satirical side of the series, the original Scream is still the scariest and most satisfying entry in the legendary franchise.

4 ‘RKO 281’ (1999)

Directed by benjamin ross.

RKO 281 was a made-for-television film that aired on HBO in 1999 , but was no less exciting than a majority of the films released in theaters that same year. The film stars Schreiber as a young Orson Welles , whose popularity as a rising theater star leads him to write, direct, and star in Citizen Kane . Although Citizen Kane is often cited as the greatest film ever made by film scholars and critics alike, RKO 281 seeks to unpack the legend by exploring Welles’ dynamic with screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz ( John Malkovich ).

RKO 281 is a fun biopic for any cinephile , and Schreiber does a great job at capturing why Welles was so ahead of his time. Although playing one of the most widely acknowledged geniuses in film history was certainly a challenge, Schreiber was surprisingly able to ground Welles in reality and make him feel like a relatable protagonist.

Watch on Max

3 ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ (2004)

Directed by jonathan demme.

Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw smiling while on the phone in 2004's The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate is one of the rare remakes that suprasses its predecessor in every way, as director Jonathan Demme was able to completely reinvent the Cold War paranoia of the 1962 film by John Frankenheimer , and turn it into a chilling examination of the aftermath of the Gulf War. Schreiber stars as a war hero who begins campaigning as the Vice President of the United States, even though his malicious mother ( Meryl Streep ) is the one that is pulling the strings behind a conspiracy.

Schreiber does a great job at playing a noble character who becomes inadvertently involved in a malicious plot , adding a sense of tragedy to the remake that wasn’t present in the original. Playing the son of Streep was no easy task for any actor, but Schreiber proved himself worthy of sharing the screen with one of the greatest actresses of all-time.

The Manchurian Candidate

2 ‘spotlight’ (2015), directed by thomas mccarthy.

Spotlight is one of the best films about investigative journalism ever made , as Thomas McCarthy ’s devastating biopic explores the efforts that the Boston Globe reporters took to break a haunting news story about the rampant examples of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Although Spotlight won the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards and was heralded for its strong writing, Schreiber gives a powerful and nuanced performance as the new editor that inspired his reporters to start digging into the investigation.

Schreiber captures the needed tenacity of an editor , who knows that making rash decisions could potentially thwart his reporters’ intentions. Although both Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams ended up receiving Oscar nominations for their performances, it feels a bit unfair that Schreiber’s quieter, more nuanced work was overlooked entirely. It’s surprising that one of the industry’s best actors is still waiting on his first nomination.

1 ‘The Daytrippers’ (1996)

Directed by greg mottola.

The Daytrippers is one of the best independent comedies of the 1990s , and solidified Schreiber as one of the most unique character actors of his generation. Greg Mottola ’s ensemble dramedy starred Schreiber, Stanley Tucci, Hope Davis, and Parker Posey as a group of friends that are forced to take a road trip together to visit family for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Daytrippers captured all the inherent awkwardness that comes with meeting family for Thanksgiving , and never gets so superficial that it feels like the characters are there simply to make the viewers break out into laughter. Although Schreiber arguably gives the funniest performance of his career thus far, The Daytrippers is actually quite earnest in how it examines splintering friendships and mental health issues. While not instantly heralded upon release, The Daytrippers has emerged as a cult classic that any fan of Schreiber’s work on Ray Donovan owes it to themselves to check out.

KEEP READING: The 10 Best Spy Movies With Great Acting, Ranked

Liev Schreiber

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Trailer of “Asteroid City”: A Wes Anderson Film
ASTEROID CITY Review
'Asteroid City' Movie Review: Wonderfully Weird and Adorably Quirky
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Asteroid City (2023) Movie Review from Eye for Film

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Asteroid City movie review & film summary (2023)
"Asteroid City" portrays a gorgeous gallery of people in various guises, performing art and performing life, all trying to do it right. It's a sui generis contraption that nevertheless has its heart in the modern classics—I felt echoes of "Our Town" and "Citizen Kane" and such throughout. But most clearly, by the end, I heard ...
Asteroid City
Asteroid City. PG-13 Released Jun 23, 2023 1h 45m Comedy Drama Romance. TRAILER for Asteroid City: Trailer 1. List. 76% Tomatometer 360 Reviews. 62% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Verified Ratings. NEW ...
Asteroid City
Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 16, 2023. [W]hile it might seem the plot is just a shallow, zany, brightly coloured excuse to set Alex Colville paintings in a desert, Asteroid City (both ...
'Asteroid City' Review: Our Town and Country
Written by Anderson, the film is about desire and death, small mysteries and cosmic unknowns and the stories that we make of all the stuff called life. It opens in black-and-white on an unnamed ...
'Asteroid City' review: Wes Anderson has outdone himself : NPR
Asteroid City is a 1950s Southwestern desert town, population 87, that's packed with gorgeous retro details: a diner, a motor-court motel, a one-pump filling station. There are also a few tourist ...
Review: Wes Anderson's new movie Asteroid City is a meditation on
It's 1955. This isn't unusual anymore. Living in the shadow of the bombs is what Wes Anderson's Asteroid City is about — literal bombs, and also a host of other life-shattering things like ...
'Asteroid City' Review: Scarlett Johansson in Wes Anderson Trifle
Rated PG-13, 1 hour 44 minutes. Premiering in the main Cannes competition ahead of its June 23 release through Focus, the archly cutesy new film joins the ranks of Anderson's more distancing ...
Asteroid City Review: One of Wes Anderson's Best Movies
May 23, 2023 1:15 pm. "Asteroid City". Focus Features. Editor's note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Focus Features releases the film in select theaters ...
'Asteroid City' Review: Wes Anderson's Film Is Dazzling but Inert
Watching the movie, one glories, for a while, in the retro kitsch nostalgia and sheer stylized play that went into the creation of Asteroid City (pop. 87), with its '40s-meets-'50s diner and ...
'Asteroid City' review: A trip to the Wild Wild Wes
Review: Wes Anderson's gorgeous 'Asteroid City' is more starry than stellar. Jason Schwartzman, left, and Tom Hanks in "Asteroid City.". (Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features) By Justin ...
Asteroid City (2023)
Asteroid City: Directed by Wes Anderson. With Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Jake Ryan. Following a writer on his world famous fictional play about a grieving father who travels with his tech-obsessed family to small rural Asteroid City to compete in a junior stargazing event, only to have his world view disrupted forever.
'Asteroid City' Review: Is This the Best Wes Anderson Film?
Asteroid City. Review: Wes Anderson's Big-Hearted Masterpiece. The director's latest film-and maybe even greatest-is full of stars, style, and mournful searching. Wes Anderson is a man of ...
Review: Wes Anderson's Asteroid City
By Stephanie Zacharek. May 24, 2023 11:39 AM EDT. W es Anderson's Asteroid City is what happens when a filmmaker's world of wonder and whimsy becomes a prison. Love Anderson or hate him, he at ...
Asteroid City
Generally Favorable Based on 60 Critic Reviews. 76. 73% Positive 44 Reviews. 23% Mixed 14 Reviews. 3% Negative 2 Reviews. All Reviews; Positive Reviews; Mixed Reviews ... If you asked an AI program to create a Wes Anderson movie, you'd get Asteroid City, the latest — and worst — film from the writer-director of "The French Dispatch ...
'Asteroid City' Review
Wes Anderson's 'Asteroid City' is a visually flawless film that stands head and shoulders above most other films. Read on for our review. ... Movie Reviews. Asteroid City (2023) Wes Anderson ...
Asteroid City review: Wes Anderson again prizes style over substance
review: Wes Anderson prizes style over substance in an allegory for storytelling. Though Asteroid City delivers heady philosophical concepts and exquisite visual mastery, it's short on cohesive ...
Asteroid City
Asteroid City Review. People: Photographer Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) and his children make a stop in the remote desert town of Asteroid City (population 87) to repair his car. While ...
Asteroid City Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 7 ): Kids say ( 17 ): All of writer-director Wes Anderson 's hallmarks are present and accounted for as he takes viewers on a journey of creativity that's unexpected and unusual. But "unique" doesn't always translate to "entertaining." In the case of Asteroid City, your brain may be trying to understand and interpret ...
'Asteroid City' review: Wes Anderson spreads his wings for this mostly
Movie review. Wes Anderson's "Asteroid City" is both more and less than what I was expecting; ultimately it's more, and happily so, but it's not an entirely smooth ride.
Asteroid City is a masterful puzzle
Wes Anderson's newest film, Asteroid City, is a nested meta-narrative with a deep message about the merits of making art. Its confusing style will likely make it a failure in many fans' eyes.
Asteroid City review: Wes Anderson's enrapturing new movie is an
Wes Anderson's new movie Asteroid City. Even some of Wes Anderson's most die-hard fans were put off by his 2021 film The French Dispatch, with its three-story structure and stilted, self ...
Review: 'Asteroid City' is like being stuck inside Wes ...
After that introduction, the movie switches to color and to its setting, Asteroid City, a town of 80 people at the intersection of Nevada, California and Arizona. "Asteroid City," which includes Tom Hanks (left), Hope Davis, Damien Bonnard, Tony Revolori, Sam Marra and Liev Schreiber, takes place in 1955 in a small town at the intersection ...
Asteroid City (2023) Movie Review
This is my official Asteroid City Movie Review, talking about the movie that I finally saw in theaters! I need your thoughts on my Asteroid City Review and R...
Asteroid City Summary and Synopsis
Asteroid City: plot summary, featured cast, reviews, articles, photos, and videos. Asteroid City is a comedy/romance film by director Wes Anderson and follows several parents and children brought together across the country for a Junior Stargazer convention.
10 Bold Sci-Fi Movies to Stream on Prime Video Right Now
Asteroid City Wes Anderson takes on the sci-fi genre with Asteroid City and, as you'd suspect, he flips the script on things and delivers a movie that is quintessentially him.
Between the Temples movie review (2024)
Schwartzman, so affecting in last year's "Asteroid City" as another widower stopped by sorrow, plays Ben as a more slack, disorderly sad-sack whose grief has blotted out his sense of self. That's until Kane, with her zany comic stylings and that unmistakable voice, enters the frame with the irrepressible zest of a rising sun, clearing ...
10 Best Liev Schreiber Movies, Ranked
Asteroid City is one of the best films that Wes Anderson ever made, as it serves as a powerful examination of moving on in the wake of a tragedy and finding oneself through artistic expression ...
POV: Asteroid City Movie Review
54.6K Likes, 860 Comments. TikTok video from lily ella ੈ ‧₊˚ (@lilyellaa): "Experience the most boring film ever with Asteroid City. Did you fall asleep 30 seconds in only to wake up at the credits? Find out more! #wesanderson #film #cinema #movie #sleep #lilyellaa #asteroidcity #filmbro".

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