Wes Anderson's Asteroid City (2023)

While I do like the majority of WA films, Bottle Rocket and Rushmore have always seemed in a class by themselves to me bc unlike the films that came after, they still appear to take place on a planet that is recognizably similar to our human homeworld of Earth, which counts for a lot in my book re: “emotional maturity"

I agree completely; Rushmore (my favorite film when I was in high school) has what I love about Anderson but it’s still at the level of whimsy rather than full-on. I still enjoy his later work but do wish he’d do his equivalent of an Ed Wood—i.e., a return to a more subdued film.

I think I've seen Bottle Rocket significantly more than any of his other films.

Never really understood the appeal of Bottle Rocket tbh.

I don't either.

It's a funny, low-stakes heist movie. Very quotable and more charming than most '90s indie films of that ilk.

Yeah, Rushmore is the first Wes Anderson™️ movie for me, tho I like Bottle Rocket just fine

The chase scene at the end where Owen Wilson's is haplessly fleeing the cops while "2000 Man" plays on the soundtrack is the most Wes Anderson™️ scene in it — and I love it. But definitely true that Rushmore is where his style/shtick really comes together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcx0slK4FfE

It's a funny, low-stakes heist movie. Very quotable and more charming than most '90s indie films of that ilk.

Rushmore his peak purely because of

"These are OR scrubs"
"O r they?"

I was surprised that Steve Carell was in this movie when Jason Schwartmann seems to be doing a Steve Carell impression throughout - so it made a lot of sense when I read that the Steve Carell role was supposed to be Bill Murray before he caught Covid / "caught" "Covid"

Rushmore his peak purely because of

Schwartzman: "What's that supposed to mean?"
Cox: (mockingly) "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Were you in the shit?"
"I was in the shit."

My fave bit in Bottle Rocket is when Owen decides they should all wear band-aids across their noses, just to throw off witnesses.

"Why are you all wearing Band-Aids?"

"Exactly."

Also, " they'll never catch me, because I'm fucking innocent" pops into my head a lot.

Tbf, I saw Bottle Rocket first, when it came out, so there may be some sentimental attachment. I also don't really think of his output as something I could honestly rank; for better or for worse, they are all very much of a piece. But I do like the first two movies a lot because they are kinda about odd people trying to find their place in the (more or less real) world, rather than affected weirdos living in their own stylized worlds. I suppose Moonrise Kingdom fits this mold as well.

Almost goes without saying, but the poignancy of Rushmore was all about the overwhelming desire to live in an aesthetically perfect snowglobe pocket universe, and the ties that bind to a sadder, more complicated world outside. Asteroid City seemed like his most determined attempt to disavow any outside - almost a Derridean dedication to Il n'y a pas de hors-texte. It's all theatre, all the way down. Particularly the scene where Augie says "I need some air" and is told "you won't find it", and ends up escaping the theatre to the balcony where he meets the Margot Robbie wife character who was written out, on her break from another play. There's a vertiginous thrill from the infinite meringue nest of fictional frames - reminded me of At Swim-Two-Birds! - but I found it suffocating.

The haunting (at least to me) conclusion of Grand Budapest Hotel stems from the conflict between the insular movie world and the "outside" real world as well. A lot of his movies seem to be about creating carefully orchestrated fictions within the movie, with various motives and varying recognitions of the real world.

"These are OR scrubs"
"O r they?"

"we went to harvard together" "that's great. i wrote a hit play and directed it, so i'm not sweating it either"

god that whole scene....

other weird stuff that made me laugh - the kids turning the AC up all the way when they get in the car

Part of GBH's poignancy is that no outside Real World exists: it's frame over frame over frame.

I like and appreciate most WA films. Aesthetically I appreciated a lot of this. But most of the story ultimately seemed to go almost nowhere. Even the alien visit did almost nothing and withdrew its own intervention. The film was oddly less satisfying than I had thought it would be.

I love WA's pastiche of 1950s TV (?) mode in the b/w framing level, but this level also came to confuse me. I couldn't well understand what the Brody, Norton, Dafoe characters were doing by the ehd. The balcony scene with Robbie was certainly striking and possibly poignant.

But my single greatest problem with this film came with the final credits, seeing that Cocker had been in a band in the film and then hearing his much too familiar, still much too current English voice singing over the soundtrack of this retro Americana work. Cocker's voice does not belong on this film. It killed the effect. It also suggests worryingly bad and slack judgment from WA - 'hey, it'll be cool to get my new celebrity friend to sing on the credits', rather than what works artistically.

Aesthetically I appreciated a lot of this. But most of the story ultimately seemed to go almost nowhere.

I reviewed the film for a magazine and described it as like a Chuck Jones Roadrunner cartoon, full of spectacular scenery, cute sight gags and an awesome catalogue of ACME gizmos, but without a Wile E Coyote.

I loved this meticulous exercise in Wes Anderson-ness. Half expected him to appear on screen after the credits, Lars Von Trier in Riget/The Kingdom style, to impart some mysterious info that would require a rewatch/rethink.

Here is where I admit that when Bottle Rocket came out my friend told me I had to see it because the Owen Wilson character reminded him of me.

Went to see this today, generally enjoyed it but wasn't quite sure what to make of it. The distancing devices - I don't know, I generally feel like his diorama style serves as enough of a reminder of the artificiality of what he's doing, and here it kind of felt like "hey, just in case you were getting too invested in the emotional stakes..." I did really like the scene that was cut for time, which seemed to add to the movie, open more doors, in a way that set it apart from a lot of the rest of the framing. Completely missed Jarvis Cocker until the credits, kind of delighted by it just because I happen to have been listening to Pulp more in the last week than I have in years.

I wonder how a Wes Anderson movie with Nicolas Cage would be, not in a "lol so crazy" way, just to have an actor who might push against Anderson's style and find his own way of moving through the film.

Good question, since Cage typically operates in the manic extremes, either nuts or hangdog sedate, the latter of which would suit Wes.

i really loved this, framing device worked for me in all the ways the really similar one in french dispatch didn’t (i like theater made by and starring weirdo auteurs and hate the new yorker i guess)

I am not sure that I understood everything in the film. But I reflect now that the whole concept of "we missed a scene from the story because the actor had walked off the set and was on a balcony" is quite aesthetically daring. The fact that we miss this material may be one reason that the central story is unsatisfying.

It's slightly comparable to that rare category of songs that fade out while new lyrics are still going.

i really really loved this … but i think i need to see it at least two more times to explain why lol

I haven't seen this yet but want to and wonder if Anderson set this in the SW as opposed to CA to connect it to 4H and a broader American audience with science fairs that are reminiscent of county fairs with outrageous food and butter sculptures and games and prizes and haystacks. Why does Anderson want to be child like?

Among other visual qualities of the southwest it's the UFO lore.

Pretty much what I expected from the trailer, and as I posted above, I'm no longer objective. The thing I find most appalling is the way he takes a lot of people I generally find quite engaging--Schwartzman, Johansson, Norton, Hanks earlier in his career--and deadpans them into nullity. He's probably more disconnected from the world at this point than Kubrick or Lynch at their most hermetic.

Is this the play Max Fischer was destined to write or direct? No--Max was very, very much alive.

He doesn't actually work with early career Hanks in this if that's any consolation.

I wanted him to get Hanks to reach down deep inside and find the guy who made That Thing You Do!

Wes Anderson’s Bosom Buddies

Worth a read:

https://slate.com/culture/2023/06/asteroid-city-wes-andersons-new-movie-explains-wes-anderson.html

That article is quite good, intelligent, informed, well written. But it doesn't - as I may have briefly hoped - much clarify the film for me. Indeed it admits the unclarity (for instance re why the character deliberately burns his hand).

ppl sometimes self-mutilate in times of deep depression and grief, didn't go beyond that for me

U reached the same conclusion. It's not that big a deal, pinefox!

U=I

The movie is enjoyable, no need to hurt oneself trying to figure out what it all means. I would lokke to see it on streaming or Blu-ray, there's a lot of quick pans and thngs in the background that I missed whilst seeing in the theater.

I wanted him to get Hanks to reach down deep inside and find the guy who made That Thing You Do!

Just when I was about to finally say "I agree with clemenza" ...

I must be old, because I still think of 'Early Hanks' as Bachelor Party and The 'Burbs.

Asteroid City would have been much improved by Hanks tapping into the same energy that gave us his heartbreaking portrayal of alcoholism in that one episode of Family Ties.

Actually if I do have a theory of why the character burns his hand, albeit from one viewing perhaps not grasping everything, it's that the character or actor was looking for a way out of the fiction - the shock would burn him out of the drama, say, and into the real world or next level of fiction - where he also seeks to escape the theatre for a time.

hmmm I like that.

i do too! that's why the "you can't wake up if you don't go to sleep" scene makes the movie for me, it's like stepping out of the dream ("asteroid city"), into "reality" (the behind the scenes scenes, which are as constructed as the dream), which it turns out only yanks the movie further into the dream (the conversation between augie and the character deleted from the movie)

(That was a joke, Eric.)

Where's that "jokes vmic" thread?

I liked the theory I read that we're not just seeing the character Augie burn his hand in that scene - the actor Jones Hall is actually burning his hand too, out of some reaction of grief for the dead playwright. That's why Scarlett Johansson is so shocked - "that really happened!" she says - that's Mercedes breaking character that Jones really burned himself.

(That doesn't actually explain why Augie burns his hand, admittedly)

many xposts to pinefox: i like that theory! & it fits with the nested construction

i loved ScarJo’s Liz/Marilyn combo, so goddamn perfect & at times v moving

Also idk maybe everyone is onto this already but i read that Kubrick was an inspiration for Schwartzman’s character of Augie & thats why he’s a war photographer, wears a safari jacket, has a big beard, is completely impassive etc