Asteroid City Review: A Shallow Wes Anderson Take On Post-War Americana

If there's one director in the entire world who can be relied upon to put his unique stamp on a film, it's Wes Anderson. When his name is on a movie, you know exactly what you're getting — for better or worse. With "Asteroid City," Anderson trades the elegant European eccentricities of some of his previous works for post-war Americana. A Matryoshka doll of a film, "Asteroid City" features a double framing device with a television show about a play about a group of strangers who encounter an alien while in a remote desert town deep in nuclear testing territory. But while it features his trademark visual style and a color-grading scheme that makes every shot look like a Life Magazine cover, "Asteroid City" lacks substance and narrative thrust. It's let down by a featherweight story that lacks the pathos and unexpected depths of some of Anderson's best work.

The story begins (well, the story within a story, anyway — technically, it begins with the playwright creating the script for the play that the televised version of the show is based on, and honestly if you spend too much time thinking about it you'll probably give yourself a headache) in Asteroid City. At a 1950s-era Junior Stargazer convention, a group of gifted teenagers are about to be awarded substantial research grants for their contributions to science, including Woodrow "Brainiac" Steenback (Jake Ryan). Woodrow arrives in town with his father (war photographer Augie, played by Jason Schwartzman) and three younger sisters, when a series of bad things happen to them. 

Firstly, their car breaks down, and Asteroid City's number one mechanic (Matt Dillon) has no clue how to fix it. But more importantly, Augie finally decides to confess to his children that their mother died three weeks earlier. This grief has to be temporarily sidelined, however, as they settle in for the convention, which receives a surprise visitor in the form of an alien who has come to retrieve the town's famed meteorite. As a result, the government puts the town on a strict lockdown until they can ascertain the threat to national security, leaving its inhabitants uneasy and restless.

As is usually the case in Wes Anderson's films, "Asteroid City" is a joy to look at. It luxuriates in its artificiality, with desert vistas that feel as though they were pulled straight from a classic Hollywood backlot. His meandering camera, always eager to move onto the next frame, almost makes you wish you could pause the film to avoid missing anything. Anderson's trademark visual cues are all here, but he's a great deal less maximalist than usual in "Asteroid City." The emptiness, it seems, is treated less as an absence and more as a different kind of object inhabiting its own space in the frame.

But aside from its aesthetic value, "Asteroid City" feels hollow. Anderson builds a complicated framing device, which is not unusual for him, but unlike "The French Dispatch," the actual story of "Asteroid City" is so slight that a stiff gust of wind could blow it over. There's just not enough substance to support the convoluted narrative structure. It's obvious why actors continue to work with Anderson again and again — they're clearly having the time of their lives. But with the huge ensemble cast of A-listers who are willing to pop in for five minutes of screen time comes another problem: "Asteroid City" is too crowded. 

Few of the characters are delved into beyond the surface, and their actors struggle to make their mark on the film, wringing every ounce of quirky pathos from Anderson's trademark stilted, presentational dialogue. Some, like Jason Schwartzman, were seemingly born for this style of line delivery, and it comes as second nature to them. But others feel as though they're merely mimicking what they've seen in other Wes Anderson films.

Despite feeling overstuffed, there are a few standouts in the cast. Jake Ryan brings something interesting to the role of Woodrow, almost reminiscent of a young Jason Schwartzman in "Rushmore," and Jeffrey Wright as the general responsible for enforcing the town-wide quarantine seems to intuitively grasp how to milk a few moments on screen for all they're worth. Ethan Josh Lee is a delight as Ricky, a rebellious member of the Junior Stargazers who pushes back against the lockdown, insisting that the world needs to know what's going on in Asteroid City. Jason Schwartzman and Scarlett Johansson (playing a Hollywood star preparing for her next big role) have the closest thing to a genuine interpersonal connection in the entire film. But aside from these brief sparks, the sprawling cast of the film works against it, making "Asteroid City" feel unfocused, even directionless.

Wes Anderson's films are always enjoyable to watch: If nothing else, they offer a visual experience unlike what any other director in Hollywood is making. "Asteroid City" has a lot going for it, in terms of sheer star quality, if nothing else. But while many of Anderson's films succeed because their presentational style masks deeper emotional levels, there's not much going on beneath the surface of "Asteroid City."

"Asteroid City" premieres in theaters on June 16.