Wes Anderson gets back to the heart of things in B次元官网网址淎steroid City,B次元官网网址� a film about grief, performance, storytelling, the cosmos and, well, everything.
Or, as one character, a playwright played by Edward Norton, says when asked what his work is about: B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 about infinity and I donB次元官网网址檛 know what else.B次元官网网址�
Meticulously designed and choreographed, with a beautiful, starry cast reading his and Roman CoppolaB次元官网网址檚 droll words, B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址� is very, very Wes Anderson. ArenB次元官网网址檛 they all?
But B次元官网网址淎steroid CityB次元官网网址� also represents a return to form (or at least the form most people preferred) after his past two films, B次元官网网址淚sle of DogsB次元官网网址� and B次元官网网址� ,B次元官网网址� divided even his disciples. They worried, among other things, if style and form had finally usurped his storytelling. Regardless of whether you thought they were fun or painful or some dreadful in between, there was a palpable detachment to both films. Authentic emotion, when there at all, was strained.
In this way, B次元官网网址淎steroid CityB次元官网网址� seems like a response to all of that B次元官网网址� an earnest and self-conscious case for making art, putting on the play, telling the story, acting the part even if you (and your audience) arenB次元官网网址檛 entirely sure what youB次元官网网址檙e saying.
It is wrapped in a labored and stylized conceit B次元官网网址� a play within a play thatB次元官网网址檚 being broadcast on a television network (the 1950s show B次元官网网址淧layhouse 90,B次元官网网址� worldlier people have noted, is the reference). And because itB次元官网网址檚 a play, the American midcentury Desert West can look as set designed as Anderson wants. He didnB次元官网网址檛 need a justification.
Nonetheless, itB次元官网网址檚 a sly deflection B次元官网网址� as is the idea that no one is really sure what the point is, embodied by Jason Schwartzman playing an actor playing a recently widowed war photographer, Augie Steenbeck, who has traveled to the desert with his brainiac son, Woodrow (Jake Ryan) and 6-year-old triplets (truly standouts).
They come to Asteroid City, population 87, for the Junior Stargazer Convention, a government organized science competition in which genius kids show off inventions (jet packs, blasters, etc.) which the government then owns, as Jeffrey WrightB次元官网网址檚 Gen. Grif Gibson explains.
It is post-war in an anxious America where scientists are a key part of the nationB次元官网网址檚 defense strategy. In the distance, atomic bombs are being tested, too. Was something in the air while things like B次元官网网址淎steroid City,B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址淥ppenheimerB次元官网网址� and even the documentary B次元官网网址淎 Compassionate SpyB次元官网网址� were coming together?
Here, the mushroom clouds are not terribly threatening though. They are, for lack of a better word, adorable.
This Stargazer convention allows for an assemblage of a quirky ensemble with government types (Fisher Stevens), the brainiac kids (Grace Edwards, Sophia Lillis, Ethan Josh Lee, Aristou Meehan), their parents (Scarlett Johansson, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park), the head scientist (Tilda SwintonB次元官网网址檚 Dr. Hickenlooper) a school group led by Maya Hawke and some musically inclined cowboys (among them, Rupert Friend) who, I think, just missed their bus. Locals include Hank the mechanic (Matt Dillon) and the motel manager (Steve Carrell). Tom Hanks is Stanley Zak, AugieB次元官网网址檚 father-in-law and a wealthy Palm Springs retiree who wears a gun in his plaid pants
In the world of the play being put on, there is the director (Adrien Brody), his soon-to-be ex-wife (Hong Chau), the Lee Strasberg-y acting teacher Saltzburg Keitel (Willem Dafoe), the actress whose scene was cut (Margot Robbie), the host of the television program (Bryan Cranston) and Jeff Goldblum as, well, youB次元官网网址檒l see. As always, the names are a delightful treat. And all the actors make a meal out of their parts, no matter how small.
But if there are characters with something like an arc to spotlight, that would be Schwartzman and Johansson, whose understated 50s movie star Midge Campbell might be one of her very best performances. Augie and Midge have a brief romance, mostly emotional, in that very repressed Wes Anderson way.
Is this all a little confusing? DonB次元官网网址檛 dismay, I think that might be part of the point.
Maybe. Probably.
And, in any event, it works B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址淎steroid City,B次元官网网址� with its sprawling cast, beautiful hues, mumbled jokes, box-within-a-box setup, references that only the 80+ crowd may truly get and retro-cool soundtrack, actually makes you feel things even if it canB次元官网网址檛 quite make sense of itself.
B次元官网网址淛ust keep telling the story,B次元官网网址� as Brody Schubert Green says to his actor looking for answers and motivations, is advice that could be interpreted as a shrug. Or maybe itB次元官网网址檚 actually everything B次元官网网址� B次元官网网址淎steroid CityB次元官网网址� makes a pretty compelling case.
B次元官网网址淎steroid City,B次元官网网址� a Focus Features release in limited release Friday and nationwide June 23, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for, B次元官网网址渟ome suggestive material, smoking and brief graphic nudity.B次元官网网址� Running time: 104 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
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