We’re back for another installment in the Margot Robbie filmography watch through! This time around we get to wander into the world of Wes Anderson as we head West to…Asteroid City (2023).
Title: Asteroid City
Director: Wes Anderson
Released: May 23, 2023 (Premiere at Cannes Film Festival – France), Limited theatrical release on June 16th, 2023 (United States)
Runtime: 1 hour 45 minutes
Watched via: VOD rental
In Asteroid City (2023), Wes Anderson gives us a documentary about a play. That’s right, Asteroid City isn’t a real town. It is the setting for a futuristic play that we get to witness being both rehearsed and performed.
So why Asteroid City? What is so special about this imaginary town?
Well, the city’s claim to fame is the giant meteor crater and the state-of-the-art observatory that is next to it.
Augie (Jason Schwartzman) comes to Asteroid City with his children so that his brainiac son, Woodrow (Jake Ryan), can collect an award for his latest invention. It isn’t just Woodrow though, there are five kids in total who are coming into town for the Junior Stargazer convention to collect their awards.
But what happens if aliens appeared and the entire town was placed under a quarantine?
Well, as far as Margot Robbie films go, this isn’t exactly a starring role for her. We see her briefly as an actress running lines with Augie but other than that she isn’t really on-screen that much.
Though, this is Wes Anderson, so having a huge all-star cast isn’t anything that’s wildly unheard of. And boy does he deliver on the cast. We’ve got Scarlett Johansson, Willem Dafoe, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Maya Hawke, Adrien Brody, just to name a few.
In addition to his impressive casts, Wes Anderson is known for the look of his films. Again, Asteroid City (2023) delivers on that front as well. Whether it is the black-and-white footage during the documentary portions or the bright pastels of the desert town, there is no mistake that this is a Wes Anderson film.
Also, the production design from Adam Stockhausen deserves equal praise as well. He was able to provide a desert town that both looks functional and whimsical/dreamlike.
Despite all of this, Asteroid City (2023) feels like an example of a director getting high off his own supply.
While we have characters, such as Augie and Midge, with stories that touch on themes that audiences can connect to, those stories aren’t ever given time to breathe. Instead, what we wind up with is a constant attempt to try and one-up the cleverness of the previous joke/gag. As a result, we are robbed of any resemblance of a cohesive story.
While I do genuinely enjoy most of Wes Anderson’s work, Asteroid City (2023) is a rare miss for me.
If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d wait for it to pop up on a streaming service that you already subscribe to.
So, if you have seen Asteroid City (2023), what did you think of it? How does it compare to Anderson’s others films for you?
Tell me all about it in the comments below or by reaching out to me on Bluesky!
As always, you can follow me over on Letterboxd to see what else I’ve been watching lately.