Review | Cannes 2023: Asteroid City movie review – Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson and more star in Wes Anderson’s colourful homage to 1950s alien encounters
- Anderson’s gentle drama about a small town interrupted by extraterrestrial events features stars from Steve Carell and Bryan Cranston to Jason Schwartzman
- A vivid colour scheme of oranges and blues makes the film a delight to watch and adds to the tone of this lighthearted look at humans’ fear of the ‘other’
4/5 stars
Wes Anderson’s 11th film is a gentle homage to both 1950s alien encounters and, curiously, the theatre. It’s another concertina tale, meticulously scripted by Anderson and his regular co-writer Roman Coppola.
Premiering in main competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, it recalls Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, which opened the festival in 2012.
In Asteroid City, instead of boy scouts, we have a Junior Stargazing Contest, being held in the titular city, a barely-yet-established locale in the desert on the border of California and Nevada.
“Asteroid City” is also a play within the movie, and occasional black-and-white segments reveal some behind-the-scenes goings-on, all narrated by Bryan Cranston’s announcer and featuring Edward Norton as the playwright and Adrien Brody as a Brando-like player.
At the centre of the film, which is divided into three acts, is a family headed by Augie (Jason Schwartzman), a father of four and war photographer mourning the loss of his wife. Her father (Tom Hanks) arrives to be with the children, just as a very strange extraterrestrial occurrence takes place.
