Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jake Ryan, Grace Edwards, Maya Hawke, Rupert Friend, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Steve Carell, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Liv Schreiber, Aristou Meehan, Ethan Josh Lee, Sophia Lillis, Matt Dillon, Tony Revolori, Bob Balaban, Fisher Stevens, Ella Faris, Gracie Faris, Willan Faris, Deanna Dunagan, Vandi Clark, Pedro Placer, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Jeff Goldblum, Rita Wilson.
The more you see of Wes Anderson’s work on screen the more it is possible to completely be overwhelmed by the genius of it all. You might not understand the minutia of the interaction between actor and the moulded thought that the director/writer has patiently crafted, but it has to be acknowledged that in each of his films what transpires is a close approximation of human existence boiled down to the most ridiculous and the perfectly normal; and as with The Grand Budapest Hotel a decade before it is in the considered vision of every detail, of the people involved and the sparsity of the setting, that makes Asteroid City a film of absolute legend and gravitas.
Transported back to 1950s United States of America, the procession of characters arriving at the isolated pit stop on the lonely American highway is one that becomes a gift to the film lover, the tone set against the scene of the Meta, the bleached pure clean look of the distant atomic test explosions in the distance adding doubt to the future, and as what can be often interpretated as the inner monologue of those who become trapped by the events of the course of the film, so the decade of scientific enhancement and post war remoteness grabs the attention with the aid of minimalism and solitary views of the writer at his machine.
It is to the stirring complexity of the narrative that brings actors such as Ed Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, and Tilda Swinton rushing to the foreground, and especially in the characters that you would perhaps associate more keenly with perhaps Williams and O’Neill than anything in the 21st Century, and with minor, but considerably well-endowed performances from the great Matt Dillon, Sophia Lillis, Rupert Friend, and Jeffrey Wright adding to the beauty of the film, Asteroid City becomes one of those towering films that the film lover falls desperately and deeply in love with.
One of the greats of the 21st Century, Wes Anderson once again provides solace in the breath between doubt, and it is a film of intellectual sincerity.
Ian D. Hall