Wes Anderson's Asteroid City (2023)

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1. Wes Anderson pic.twitter.com/sxGSaVi63I

— Mason London (@masonlondon) March 27, 2023

lol at the Michael Bay one

Wes always seems to be finding the new Michael Cera

think my problem now is that UK adverts have adopted his aesthetic so heavily that I'm unable to enjoy his work for what it is

I liked (Charged)GBH the best out of the current era. French Dispatch was dogshit.

UK adverts have adopted his aesthetic

Boots ads are pastel now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iHT_pxHtHY

no need for AI to see Wes Anderson fitba coverage

I like his trailers better than his movies, honestly 3 minutes of this guy is really all I need

I liked (Charged)GBH the best out of the current era. French Dispatch was dogshit.

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, March 29, 2023 12:25 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

french dispatch would be a good name for a street punk band

I like his trailers better than his movies, honestly 3 minutes of this guy is really all I need

Btw this is not a unique observation, but watching the recent Fire of Love documentary (about two quirky French volcanologists, narrated by Miranda July) was extremely Anderson-esque. Down to the red hats. He had to have seen some of that footage, right?

yeah the red hats got me thinking the same thing

the hats are a Jacques Cousteau thing, as in TLAWSZ

Hope Davis is everywhere nowadays

I have a friend who leads a marine biology group on St. Martin and they very consciously copy the whole Life Aquatic look and vibe (obviously originally from Cousteau, but I'm positive they were inspired by the Anderson film)

This looks good and might even be great but posting just to say that it is really amazing how he moves steadily deeper and deeper into his thing with each movie. Don't think he's ever even attempted to pivot from the stereotype of a Wes Anderson movie, just embraces it progressively more wholeheartedly. you go, auteur

I generally agree with this but I can think of one big exception: at one point a stereotypical Wes Anderson movie would have had wall-to-wall needle drops of 60s/70s pop songs. He really tapered that off starting with Darjeeling. (Could be related to the fact that that was his last human-populated movie ostensibly set in the present day?) I'm sure a lot of people think of this as a positive step in his progression, but man, I'd like to see him go back to that well at least a little more often. He's never topped the "A Quick One" sequence in Rushmore as far as I'm concerned.

first impression from Belgian newspaper's reviewer at Cannes: "a collection of great looking tableaux, but doesn't grab you"

Who'da thunk?

Reviews of this one seem to be mostly vv positive

Think I might try to see, since I’ve been sitting him out for so long.

yeah I'm still watching it, I don't always agree with movie reviewers :-)

"a collection of great looking tableaux, but doesn't grab you" is EXACTLY what The French Dispatch was.

Richard Lawson said it was his favorite since Moonrise Kingdom, which made me perk up bc that was the last one I liked, too. (Actually, I haven't seen Isle of Dogs, but Grand Budapest and French Dispatch both left me cold.)

"a collection of great looking tableaux, but doesn't grab you" is EXACTLY what The French Dispatch was.

The thing I liked about the trailer was Last Train To San Fernando

Yeah, Moonrise Kingdom, as with Fantastic Mr. Fox before it, re-ignited my waning interest in Wes Anderson

this one looks the closest in style and tone to moonrise kingdom, at least from the trailer. that's the foundation of my excitement

Saw this yesterday. Definitely the weirdest Anderson film I’ve seen, but in a good way. Seems like he’s having fun and making movies exactly how he wants to.

I’ll take that as a recommendation.

making movies exactly how he wants to.

when hasn't he?

Saw it earlier. Seems to attempt the same meta layering as The French Dispatch but not as sprawling so it felt somewhere between that and Moonrise Kingdom. Great spectacle and kid actors as ever but the story's another hot mess and it could be funnier.

Pleasant. Also the first film of his I've seen in twenty years and honestly I'll be fine with another twenty, but it looked nice.

Yeah I guess he’s always followed his own muse. Maybe it’s just more obvious now that he’s following it to an extreme which is more obviously uncommercial though to be fair I haven’t seen his prior two films so this may be old news. There is a fairly large if casual potential fan base that knows him mainly as the inspiration for a popular instagram hashtag which he could have pandered to. This is the first of his films that I’ve seen in the theater since Darjeeling. I guess I always like them better on the big screen.

Kind of bummed Ned hasn't seen Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, or Grand Budapest Hotel.

Isle of Dogs my favorite of his late career tbh

xpost Those are my three faves, probably. Though I dunno, I rewatched Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and Tenenbaums recently, and they were all great, too, but those aforementioned three feel like, I dunno, his mature renewal after a brief fallow period. But didn't particularly like Isle of Dogs, for whatever reason never got around to seeing French Dispatch. I'd love to see him make something other than another human diorama exhibit, kind of like when the Coen Brothers gave being the Coen Brothers a brief break and made "No Country for Old Men," which kind of refreshed them after making a couple of misfires.

Isle of Dogs could be a sub-board of Isle of Everything.

Our 13 year old has become a fan so we’re rewatching these. So far I like the Life Aquatic more than I remember and the Tenenbaums a little less. But i’m a big fan, I like ‘em all a lot. I don’t remember Darjeeling very well though.

Moonrise Kingdom may be my current fave. He has a great touch with kids.

Kind of bummed Ned hasn't seen Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, or Grand Budapest Hotel.

Level of interest: none. My folks like Moonrise Kingdom, and I'll probably get them this new one for Christmas, they'll appreciate the 50s setting as that's their youth.

I've never rewatched any Anderson films and don't plan to, so it's hard to compare with the early stuff, but to me Asteroid City is the best thing he's done since at least Tenenbaums. I thought Moonrise Kingdom was slightly disappointing, and Budapest was a slight return to form. This new one to me feels like a bigger break from his past work.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this especially since I hated The French Dispatch.

Was gonna say the box-office returns thus far are really encouraging ... until I reminded myself of what The Grand Budapest Hotel netted.

i've always liked his films, i have yet to see one i wasn't at least mostly onboard with. his aesthetic is so specific and easy to parody and clown on but it's also really refreshing to have a guy like him around.

and yet, he still couldn't resist having at least one asshole dad figure in this

I quite liked it, my favorite WA since 2014, but...I'm confused why critics I respect are rhapsodizing: an emotional breakthrough for him or something.

Also: you're making a mistake not watching Fantastic Mr. Fox, still his best.

Ned is, that is.

I wouldn’t call it an emotional breakthrough. More a matter of consolidating his strengths. Much like the freight rain celebrated in the song that plays over the titles, it is notable for its speed. The beats are perfectly spaced for a screwball comedy. He has also forgone trying to portray 3-dimensional characters, with the exception that proves the rule being the Schwartzman character, and even there the attempt at depth becomes part of the joke, with the director of the “play outside the play” critiquing his performance. Anderson films at their best are pure escapism. The only genuine emotion that should exist in the film is regret that the fun will have to end at some point, and the most effective emotional moments are allusions to that realization.

I think he did that in The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Yeah he started moving in that direction. Just feel like this one went a bit further.

this was great. very funny. best alien. it's about infinity. which includes entertainment, if you let it (although as people have said above, this is double-edged)

the seeming infinitude of the star cast adds to the effect ofc

this was great. reminded me of John Barth more than anything else.

I loved this. Love French dispatch too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RdncisZ_QA

All new on Netflix, based on Roald Dahl stories:

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (41 minutes)
The Rat Catcher (17 minutes)
The Swan (17 minutes)
Poison (17 minutes)

What a strange, fascinating movie this was

i loved it, think it's his best film. definitely the one I've thought about the most after watching, anyhow

I really liked this. Nobody does <ABSURD> like Anderson.

Also got a kick out of the actor Schwartzman character being named "Jones Hall" after the symphonic hall in downtown Houston

And they running gag of the hot rod car chase

AND THAT ROADRUNNER

yeah i really loved this

I had my doubts and admittedly didn't watch it all in one setting, but it does seem a rich well of ... whatever it is up to. And I'm equally unsure of exactly what it is up to as I am of whether I would ever watch it again, because I feel like I got it, I soaked in every scene and every line of flat dialogue and all of the little fleeting in-jokes and winks and subtle exchanges of glances and ... I'm still not sure I get it.

I never saw his last one, either, "French Dispatch." I guess I should. It's remarkable that Wes Anderson has gotten so much out of such a seemingly limited style/approach. I also like how his acting troupe of regulars just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I wonder what it's like to be directed by him?

I'll have to check this out. I loved The Grand Budapest Hotel, but had mixed feelings about Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch - some great set pieces, but it also felt like his limitations were becoming more apparent with little to say that made up for it. I skipped this one after hearing some very negative reactions from people who were otherwise Anderson fans, but I just caught up with The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and thought that was excellent.

From what little I know about Asteroid City, the most substantial characteristic it shares with The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (besides the usual elements you'd find in Anderson's work) is how they're set up with a matryoshka-like structure of a story within a story within a story, etc., calling attention not just to story creation but interpretation as well. It'll be interesting to see how that works with Asteroid City when it's an original work rather than an adaptation like The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar or, in the case of The Grand Budapest Hotel, a story that heavily draws from the work of Stefan Zweig.

I look forward to hearing what you think, because, yeah, it is like that - story within a story, kind of - but like I said, it's ... strange. It's hard for me to discern which story is the story within the story, and what that story is, exactly. Compared to "Grand Budapest," which does something different and maybe more ... safe (?) with the story within the story conceit?

I’m not sorry I saw this, but … am not in a rush to see it again? Like JiC noted above: I kinda got it, you know?

The French Dispatch I liked better.

(Haven’t seen any of his other movies but would like to get to The Royal Tenenbaums sooner or later though.)

It's good! They're all pretty good. In fact, the only ones my brain tells me were at all disappointing ("Life Aquatic" and "Darjeeling," and "Dogs" I thought was dull, too) I still see cited by some as favorites, so I feel like I have to see them again.

Schwartzman in the Criterion Closet, mentions the Clu Gulager influence on his performance in Asteroid City.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92yxBp7tce4

What sort of a name is Clu Gulager?

Clu Gulager was born William Martin Gulager in Holdenville, Hughes County, Oklahoma. His nickname was given to him by his father for the clu-clu birds (known in English as martins, like his middle name) that were nesting at the Gulager home at the time Clu was born.