Asteroid City (2023)

So fun, as expected, and so many layers. We have a TV special about a playwright and his trials and tribulations, and, mostly, the play about teenagers competing in a 1955 astronomy contest in a place called Asteroid City.

Over 150 actors are listed, including Bryan Cranston as the narrator, Edward Norton as the playwright, Adrien Brody as the director, and, in the play within the special within the movie, Jake Ryan as the main teenager, Jason Schwartzman as his dad, Tom Hanks as his grandfather, Scarlett Johansson as a movie star, in a role written for her. So many more, such as Hope Davis, Steve Carell, Tilda Swinton, and cameos by Rita Wilson and Margot Robbie. The six-year-old Faris triplets (no relation to Anna) are particularly adorable.

Auteur Wes Anderson directs from his own script with the story written by himself and Roman Coppola (Schwartzman's cousin). 

Six tracks by Alexandre Desplat are available as a soundtrack on Apple Music and are also part of this album of many songs on Apple Music,

Director of Photography Robert Yeoman, a regular Anderson collaborator, provides color-saturated earth tones from locations in Spain and Arizona. The distinct layers are shown in different aspect ratios, i.e.  some are letterboxed on the sides, some are letterboxed on the top and bottom.

Interesting trivia: Bill Murray was cast as the motel manager but tested positive for COVID-19 before shooting, so the role went to Carell. Murray did shoot some promotional videos later. Anderson's first feature was Bottle Rocket (1996), which is the only other Murray-less one he has made. This is Anderson's eleventh (I've seen every one). More trivia can be found here and, no doubt, elsewhere.

Cranston was last blogged for Jerry & Marge Go Large, Norton for Isle of Dogs, Brody for Blonde, Hanks for A Man Called Otto, Johansson for Marriage Story, Davis for Disconnect, Carell for Irresistible, Swinton for Three Thousand Years of Longing, Hanks' wife Wilson for Larry Crowne, Robbie for Babylon (skip it and see Amsterdam or something else), and Schwartzman, Anderson, Desplat, and Yoeman for The French Dispatch. Ryan, who is now 19 years old, has many credits, though I haven't written about him before, including Inside Llewyn Davis, Eighth Grade, Uncut Gems, and Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom and Isle of Dogs. Ella and Gracie Faris, who are identical, and Willan Faris, who is their triplet but looks a little different, have been working since they were babies (Ella and Grace have been in 29 episodes of Grey's Anatomy as Meredith's daughter Ellis) and are now six.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are less than starry-eyed, averaging 73 and 61%, respectively. Jack and I are big Anderson fans and loved it.

As those who read these posts know, we have turned entirely to streaming, so were thrilled that this one became available to rent so soon after its theatrical release. We saw it on Apple TV/iTunes on July 12. And we did not turn it off as the credits rolled, so were treated to a roadrunner dancing at the end.