Asteroid City movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Asteroid City

This subtle and whimsical comedy is now playing in theaters.

RATING: PG-13 (Why is this movie only PG-13 when it shows full front nudity????)

LENGTH: 1 hour 44 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: A

IN A NUTSHELL:

If you’re a Wes Anderson fan, you’ll get a kick out of his newest addition. He has such a unique, quirky style that entire YouTube channels have been devoted to him by visual artists who create movie trailers in his style. You have to see them! They’re hilarious and awesome!

This movie was directed and written by Wes Anderson, with additional writing help from Roman Coppola.

The story is about a father who takes his tech-obsessed children to Asteroid City, a small, rural town to compete in a junior stargazing event. His wife, their mother, recently died which changes his world view forever. The story is presented as a play written by a famous writer.

THINGS I LIKED:

The cast is absolutely fantastic and knocks it out of the park. It includes quite a few Academy Award winners and nominees: Ed Norton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Bryan Cranston, Tilda Swinton, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman, Live Schreiber, Matt Dillon, Jeffrey Wright, and so many more!
I loved Ed Norton’s fun accent.
There’s even an awesome Jeff Goldblum cameo, but don’t blink or you’ll miss it.
I love how the camera frames things. Each frame could be a piece of art. Just soak everything in. It’s all so clever and intentional. This is NOT one of those movies that you can have playing in the background while you do something else in the room; you HAVE to watch the screen.
The introduction to the characters at the beginning was amusing. Pay attention to their descriptions.
The director wanted to film out in the middle of nowhere that was flat. He looked everywhere and finally found a spot in southern Spain. I lived in Spain for 2 years and loved it!
Bryan Cranston compared making this movie to an actor’s dream camp. He loved having nightly banquets with all of the other actors.
Bill Murray was going to be in the movie but he got Covid-19 right before filming, so Steve Carell stepped in to fill his role. Other than West Anderson’s first movie, Bottle Rocket in 1996, this is the first movie not to feature Bill Murray.
The color palette changes from black and white to fully saturated color with a retro look.
The dialogue, like all Wes Anderson is witty and delivered dry.
I actually like it when actors break the fourth wall. In this movie, they tell the audience, “You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep.”
While extremely humorous, the movie is also heartbreaking.
The music and sound effects are absolutely perfect.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The plot is thin, as if Wes Anderson were more interested in design and creating visually stunning scenes, but they’re not really strung together in a story that the audience can sink their teeth into.
There are so many characters without a clear protagonist.
There’s no villain or challenge that needs to be overcome.
Shifting from color to black and white is an interesting director choice, but it felt more like a distraction than was necessary.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Full frontal, female nudity (Scarlett Johansson was perfectly fine doing it but she also had to direct it because Wes Anderson was too embarrassed to do it himself. Then why did he even put that in his movie? Unnecessary. )