If you like Wes Anderson, this movie is peak Wes Anderson. It is visually stunning and specific, the tone is quirky and ironic, and the actors speak bluntly and with a flat affect. He may be the director with the most distinct and well known style. If you have seen any Wes Anderson movie before, you pretty much know what you’re signing up for. And if you haven’t seen any of his movies but have spent any time on the internet, you probably still understand the aesthetic.

The conceit of this movie is that it is a television special about the making of a stage play in New York City called “Asteroid City”. The play takes place in a 1950s desert town where a group of people come together for a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention. This is not a spoiler because it isn’t some big reveal in the end that it was a special about a play all along. The movie actually starts this way with the introduction of the special. It is not like a typical dual timeline story where it tells the same story from two perspectives or moments in time. It’s actually telling two different stories at the same time: the making of the play and the story of the play itself. The making of the play is in black and white while the story of “Asteroid City” is in bright, Wes Anderson color. The concept is theoretically interesting but, in practice, is actually fairly confusing. The stories are completely different and the same actors have different character names and storylines in each universe and it becomes hard to keep track of who is who and what their motivations are. The cutting back and forth also takes you out of some of the more emotional or dramatic beats and doesn’t let you sit with them for long enough for them to resonate. Both stories could have been interesting on their own had the plot and character arcs been able to fully develop. 

That being said, your enjoyment of the movie really comes from what you want out of it. Most Wes Anderson, this film in particular, is as deep as you want it to be. You could take it at face value as a fun, quirky, cute movie that’s really incredible to look at (it could be worth watching for just the visuals alone) and has a few laughs. Or, you could try find meaning in the structure or the odder moments or more poignant lines of dialogue. For me, I liked this movie as a surface level film. The deeper I tried to dig, the more it started to fall apart. Other of Wes’s movies also have a more complicated structure and lean into deeper themes but seem to do it in a more successful way than Asteroid City. But as a lighter, cute movie that is overflowing with star-power and talent, it was definitely not a bad way to spend a summer evening. 

P.S. My favorite part might have been the real life triplets playing triplets in the movie. They were adorable and funny and I had to shout them out.

2023 Count: 12 seasons, 31 movies, 1 special