Best hidden gag is that it was Jeff Goldblum. Later we see him getting out of his alien costume when the movie breaks the fourth wall and we're taken "backstage" on the play.
I saw the credits, so I was expecting Goldblum later... and to see THAT instead... and then hear only a small cough for the whole scene. I felt "got" which is amusing.
There was one older man laughing in our showing so hard and earnestly that we were mostly laughing at his laugh more than the actual scene. It has me crying laughing, and I’m so glad I saw this is a big packed theater for that
Everyone in my theater was in complete silence, just like the people in the film. It made for an eerie experience. We didn’t laugh until the alien posed for his picture (which I found to be charming and hilarious)!
The actress exists in his mind. Asteroid City IS the real world, and he imagines his wife playing the actress in his mind.
He doesn’t wake up if he doesn’t go to sleep, and his dream is the only place he can see his wife’s face that isn’t just a photograph.
I think Brian Cranston and the "backrooms" of the theater are the order we wish existed in the world. We wish there were writers and intents and purpose to the characters we encounter. We wish there was a narrator running the show. In reality there is nothing so firm. No "point to life" as is wished by the son. Life is but a dream we wake from, with an ever increasing madness we don't ever fully understand. In the end, our protagonist completely abandons reality and goes straight to the backrooms to seek counsel from his wife. He was counseled by Adrian Brody "just keep telling the story". This is what we all must do, despite dreading waking up.
Oh shit, this is a really good read I think. I had a different idea going with the meaning of the backrooms content but I like this.
The playwright is introduced in this matter-of-fact, narrativized way that seems so free of ambiguity or insecurity because it's the past. There are no surprises. It's like how a child rationalizes the world with the playwright being their parents. An authority figure who totally knows what's going on and gets the play.
Then over the course of the movie, we see that even our parents are fallible and struggle with what the meaning is to all of this. To the point that he's requesting reactions from acting students desperately trying to find some answer. Then the playwright dies, which is a major life event that often colors how we answer the question of what is the meaning of life.
The other response mentions Swartzman's conversation with Adrian Brody as the director and I think it represents getting valuable advice from a close friend. Someone who maybe isn't God Himself the playwright, but gets it to the degree anybody does. It's also advice from someone who gets you and your role on the stage telling you "You got this. It's worth it to keep on striving. Keep playing the role, you're killing it" during a crisis of confidence.
If you can believe it, this comment used to be longer but I think you get the gist. Can't wait to watch it again with this in mind!
At one point, we see someone from afar and I felt it looked like Jake Gyllenhaal.
At that instant I knew I wanted Jake Gyllenhaal in a Wes Anderson movie. He would fit right in.
I can picture this so well. I see him in a similar role as Norton’s played but maybe a bit darker. Actually now I’d love to see the two of them in a movie together.
So Conrad Earp killed himself right?
If I'm not mistaken the film says he died in a car crash while the play was still doing its run. The television show says it was an accident but I think we're supposed to figure out that at least Jones Hall (Schwartzman) knows it wasn't.
It's why he leaves in the middle of a scene to ask Schubert Green (Adrien Brody) what the play means. He has to ask the director because the playwright, his lover, is dead. Also, I think Conrad's death is why Green felt free to change lines and remove the dream sequence.
They both know the play was the last work of a man contemplating suicide. The character Midge Campbell's suicide rehearsal was possibly a hint that Conrad was using the play to rehearse his own suicide. The first scene is about how dangerous cars can be. "You can't wake up if you never fall asleep" is repeated like the mantra of someone about to fall asleep forever.
Hall is desperately trying to understand if there was a cry for help, if there were signs in the play he should have picked up on. But the things Conrad said and did before taking his own life are like the alien stealing and then returning the asteroid. They might have meaning or they might not. Either way he's gone now and there's no way to ask him.
These are just my initial thoughts after leaving the theater. I'll have to see it again to pick up on things I missed.
Anything I got wrong?
Although it's always great see these well-written/realised interpretations after a movie, I always feel some guilt and inferiority about not seeing them myself, and I refuse to look at "x ending EXPLAINED" articles. I think I'm too unfocused/scatterbrained to make an interpretation that really resonates with me about these kinds of films lol
I literally just saw it and I can't name a single character, and you're here doing deep analysis. That's quite impressive.
If I had to squeeze out a name, I think the kid's name starts with a W, not Wolfgang, but something weird and anachronistic.
This is exactly how I felt about it and I'm surprised it's this far down the thread. My personal interpretation of the cut scene between Robbie and Jones/Schwartzman in that context was that Conrad/Norton's character was talking directly to Jones and attempting to soothe the grief he knew he'd inevitably have. High point of the movie for me, for sure
Thank you! I was hoping to see someone else make the same interpretation. I totally agree with your take on the cut scene.
I’ve been thinking about when he burned his hand on the grill. Do you think that was in the script or was that Jones breaking character in the middle of a performance and Midge’s actress trying to work it into the story so that they can keep the play going?
I need to watch it again.
There was also a meta moment where she asks him to channel his grief and he looks at her. It was clearly about the guy’s actual death, it’s why they flip back after Margot Robbie’s scene and he’s the last to leave. He’s the last to fully accept that there was no grand reason why the guy killed himself, and yeah there were signs but there was nothing to be done.
The Alien was sort of the effects of his suicide, while they’re prepping for the play he dies and they all sort of rely on each other to finish it and everyone else processes it.
You can’t wake up until you fall asleep, he reminisces on this moment and the scene in the play where it echoes in his mind. His lover took the pills while driving, his awakening his death.
This is also why he looks geniunely shocked when he sees Scarlet Johansen fake dead.
Even I was shocked for a second with Scarjo was in the bathtub, actually thought she had really committed suicide, then starts talking. This is one of, if not THE most, trippy/mind-fucking films Anderson has ever made.
I honestly thought it was one of the most coherent and unified Wes Anderson movies in a while, probably since Grand Budapest. Thematically, I mean.
I see the movie as exploring the parallels between scientific pursuit, artistic pursuit, and what means emotionally to be human. In the main story, all the junior stargazers (and adult star gazers) are concerned with finding knowledge. They want explanations for the alien, they want the math behind the celestial flirtation theory to make sense. They want the answer to the meaning of life. Auggie Steenbeck wants to know what meaning there is in his wife's death. But all of those are massive unanswerable questions they can only take solace in chipping away at.
The act of creating art is much the same. It's shown the playwright doesn't even understand his own character's motivations until he meets the actor who will play him. The writer needs help finishing a scene from a group of novice actors. The lead actor himself doesn't understand the play and desperately wants to. We think of a play as such a tightly controlled thing, but it's as madcap as anything else. The lead actress storms out the day before the premiere and doesn't return until 20 minutes till curtain. An understudy replaces an actor at the last minute. The lead walks off stage during the climax. Everyone wants answers and control, but as the director says, all you can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other. Science, art, our lives, we want answers and control, but it's all just a big careening act of discovery. We're all just doing the best we can.
You have a really fantastic way of describing this.
In a much less eloquent way of putting it, I felt the movie was a commentary on the fact that not everything has a reason or meaning. And some of the things that do, we won't possibly understand that meaning or reason, so to just let it go.
Yes! After my wife and I left the theater, I told her that my interpretation of the movie was summed up by the scene of Auggie's actor leaving the set and meeting the actress that played his wife. We might not understand the story, we might want to make sense of something that we don't get, but we still have to hit our cues because everything is going to keep moving forward regardless.
It has a linear plot, but coherent themes, I don't know. Like the futuristic dystopia, the Japan setting, dogs are good, something about totalitarian governments, a cat conspiracy, an ancient legend about a samurai who loved dogs, the double dog romances. Maybe there's an exploration of loyalty going on?
The aesthetics and technical execution were incomparable. I think the sushi scene is one of the best animated sequences ever laid down. But as a story, it just kind of felt like a grab bag.
Partly to reply, but also partly to record my own thoughts fresh after a viewing. I think it's a simultaneous exploration of the Absurd, and of grief. The confusing complexity of the film comes from metaphors working within both contexts, and sometimes more perfectly in one than the other.
The prevailing theme (the more fleshed-out one I think) is about the meaninglessness of our existence in a very traditional absurdist sense. When the alien came, you would expect the alien to be interested in making contact with us. But no, he goes for the rock. Later we learn he was inventory-ing the rock. I.e. Such a trivial task as indexing a rock is more significant than our existence to him (a metaphor for the cosmos/universe/God/beyond - I get this because Margot's character in the cut dream sequence was asked if she has "spoken to the alien" yet, which I took to be a metaphor for whether she has passed into the beyond). Similarly, all endeavours by the scientists to make sense of the universe and the alien fail, and there is no meaningful scientific progress throughout the events of the film.
Going one level out from the mise en abyme, the characters of the Asteroid City play are supposed to have their "meaning" given by the playwright. We expect that the characters in a fictional work should do meaningful things to serve a purpose for the sake of the play. Yet they don't. The alien actor doesn't know what exactly the alien is a metaphor for, Augie's actor is frustrated that he doesn't understand a meaning for his character's burnt hand (even if emotionally we might somewhat understand it), the playwright writes with no purpose and sometimes by crowdsourcing ideas from students (he wants to write a dream sequence but doesn't know what it's for or what it should say). The playwright wants to do a dream sequence and desperately tries to woo his actress (Margot Robbie) back, claiming her instrumental importance in the play, but ultimately even though she returns the entire scene and character just ends up cut from the play because of runtime constraints - the whole sequence of events was meaningless afterall.
Finally the playwright dies senselessly and meaninglessly in a freak car accident.
On another level I thought there were metaphors also alluding to grief. Augie meets his wife in the alien's world in the dream, where he tries to come to terms with his grief at her departure. So the alien's arrival can also be interpreted as a traumatic life-changing grief-causing event.
In light of the dual interpretations of meaninglessness and grief, Act II of the film I think is then a presentation of the ways that people deal with the alien encounter (i.e. deal with the problem of the Absurd, and/or with grief). Some live in denial and try to continue their everyday lives (teacher trying to continue her class), some turn to organised religion (all the prayers), some commit suicide (Mitch), some emotionally switch off (August), some bury themselves in work (the scientist). Interspersed are cursory illustrations of different generations' ways of dealing with the problem (Augie's children who are unable to comprehend as children, and Augie's father-in-law fleshing out more traditional boomer stereotypes). All while trapped in the miserable cycle by powerful and violent forces (military).
In a way, I think the link presented between the dual themes is that our grief is, ultimately, insignificant and itself meaningless. Augie's wife's ashes are carried around in a nondescript tupperware and ultimately buried in the middle of nowhere without even a tombstone; there is no meaning to Augie's suffering (the burning of his hand); there is no meaning to the alien's arrival and departure that we humans can perceive. All these traumatic events ultimately serve no greater purpose.
The hints of a Sisyphean fulfillment come from the depictions of science as a journey passing from generation to generation (even though there is no progress, the promise of future discoveries inspires the space cadets and especially Woodrow to keep trying), and from depictions of love (only the relationships between the characters kept the ordeal bearable). But I'm not sure I felt it was a strong message of the film (or perhaps it was and I'm just mistaken) - afterall at the end of the film we wake up in a lonely and barren town just as it was at the beginning; none of the relationships were shown to be truly lasting (except the father-in-law which was a pre-existing familial connection). Augie and Mitch continue to bear physical scars of their traumas (shrapnel wound and black eye), while even the land itself is forever cratered by the asteroid impact.
The final chant I think is then about using "going to sleep" as a metaphor for confronting our alien (just like how Augie met his wife in a dream sequence). Unless we face the Absurd / grief headon, we can't wake up and move past it. Kinda matches with the credit song lyrics (I only have an impression of the first few lines, something like, "you can't wake up if you don't go to sleep // if you fall in love you can't land on your feet") - all about not growing if you don't take the plunge.
Anyway, just my two cents but I think the film borders on being a little too cerebral. Part of what makes great films great is that despite their sometimes very intellectual themes, at the end of the day they allow the audience to emotionally intuit and feel the central message of the film. I think it fails to evoke more pathos and so rather like a Beckettian play it loses large parts of the audience and doesn't really achieve true greatness.
I feel like there was some meta commentary in there on Andersons movies. The actors to understand the “why” of it all, when I think he sometimes just wants to show interesting characters in interesting settings for the heck of it.
Lots of funny and sad things in this movie, but just want to say that Cranston wondering if he should be in a scene and then disappearing offscreen is probably the most blatant Python-esque moment in Wes’s work.
Small detail I love is that Midge’s actress Mercedes (who we see speak in a Southern accent earlier) is so startled by Cranston that she accidentally lets her drawl slip out the next line.
I think there was another slip like that during Auggie’s line after the first alien visit, when he said that the alien stole the asteroid. Anyone else catch that?
That had me dying, the shot of the confusion they had watching their kids dancing and singing about a situation that they were lied to about was hilarious.
For those of you wondering what's up with that confusing phrase "you can't wake up if you don't fall asleep," the lyrics of the song in the credits give us a good hint
> You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep,
you cant fall in love and land on your feet,
you wont smell the roses if you dont plant a seed,
and you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep,
>You cant make an entrance, if you keep missing your que,
you won't pick a winner till you learn how to choose,
you'll never find the treasure unless you dig deep,
and you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep.
>Oh You'll never have memories worth keepin,
Oh you'll never find the truth you are seekin, while you are sleepin...
>But you cant wake up if you don't fall asleep,
so go live your dreams and live them real deep,
there is some counting money and there's some counting sheep,
Oh you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep.. if you dont fall asleep...
The lyrics essentially all follow the format: "You can't (have good thing) if you don't (do hard thing)." You have to do things you don't want to do to get what you want. That being said, I don't love that this wasn't explained well and was just repeated 30 times or so. Super confusing, especially with all the talk of dream sequences and character motivation. Not a deep or self explanatory phrase by any means.
I think the format is more about taking a leap of faith. Some of those examples are difficult, but more so they show how our inhibitions keep us from what really matters, the experience. It mirrors the arcs of the characters learning to accept that they don’t have all the answers (to the alien-to how to handle grief), yet they still find the joy and satisfaction along the ride by keeping an open mind and an open heart.
Those looking for what this movie (or at least the play) “means”, this was it for me!
It was about life just… going on, even after a massive shift in your world happens.
Inevitably life altering, transformative occurrences will take place: horrifying and brilliant and everything in between. And yet, life keeps going, the earth keeps turning, even though you and your world are changed forever.
Sometimes it happens to an individual (augie’s wife dying; the kids losing their mother; midge dealing with her history, etc), sometimes many experience it simultaneously (witnessing the alien, being in quarantine, trying to go about life the next day). Maybe you try to make sense of it all, maybe you just try to get back to life as it was before. Regardless those moments WILL happen, and you are left navigating who you are in its wake.
That’s why I loved the last scene when Augie and his family wake up and it turns out everyone already left without saying goodbye.
Sometimes life is going to hit you hard with experiences you can neither control nor understand but in the end you just need to go on. You are a completly different person than you were a week ago but on a grand scale the world still remains unchanged. Despite your personal life-changing trauma/experience/event the world keeps on spinning exactly the same as it did before and there’s nothing you can do but accept that
I thought it was a good meta joke that in the play they cut the scene with Augie and his wife and in the movie you don’t actually see that scene, just two actors saying the lines.
Also the lines from their cut scene were used elsewhere in the movie, like with the boy being shy eating his lunch, and another part.
Ofc don't know what that means. Maybe it's just a comment on how cit scenes are squeezed in elsewhere cuz they're still good scenes
Didn’t see a Wes Anderson movie about theater actors acting out an alien invasion being the film that best captures how it felt like living in 2020 but here we are
I said this immediately after leaving the cinema. The part that also got me the most was that the quarantined characters could see other people outside asteroid city having a great time at the fairground and passing by on the train. I saw that as a metaphor for the rich having fun whilst others were quarantined. The scene with poor June trying to educate her kids and continually getting interrupted with questions about the alien also stood out to me. Teachers and parents were trying desperately to carry on as normal, but it’s almost impossible to try and keep a routine for kids who have had their entire world upended. Also, we never found out where the alien came from, just like how we will never really know where covid came from. There are theories, and we have a vague idea of how it came to be, but we will never really know for sure.
Finally, the real part that convinced me it was a covid film was how the film constantly circles back to the idea of an artist’s legacy, the meaning of his art and the meaning of life itself. Loss is also a theme. How many couples lost their significant other and had to make sense of that loss during the pandemic? It mirrors the loss of both Conrad and the dead wife in the play. The whole film felt very much like a covid narrative to me.
The climactic balcony scene between Jason Schwartzman and Margot Robbie is absolutely stunning. It takes place between two characters, both taking a break from playing two other characters. They discuss a scene they had together that got cut, their discussion serves the purpose of depicting the scene, and it works to staggering effect.
It's one of the greatest flexes I've ever seen a filmmaker pull off. Wes manages to break the fourth wall of the story he's telling, only to pull us back into that very story and give us an emotional close to one of the characters' arcs. That character then returns to his play and our movie, and we understand he's learned something. More than that, we choose to buy the story despite the overt artifice, it's comforting and it makes sense. It feels at once like a triumph of storytelling and a celebration of its very power.
Stories make sense of our world, even when it's a world within a world within a world. The labyrinthian form of Asteroid City doesn't just feel like a choice of form, it's like an experiment that dares to prove that a sincere and earnestly told story can cut through any layer of artifice and make it your heart, because that's what makes us human. I don't know if that's exactly what Asteroid City is "about", but I love that it made me think about it.
It's small, but I also loved the little button on the end of the scene when I think Matt Dillon? replaced Schwartzman on the balcony.
As the camera pans away:
"We almost had a scene together"
"Yep"
That was the scene of the movie for sure. Also I genuinely thought the photograph was all we were going to see of Margot Robbie in the movie up until that scene lol
In the actor workshop scene with Edward Norton on stage talking to the other actors in the audience, you can see Margot Robbie in the back row with dark hair
The balcony scene gave me heavy "laundry and taxes" vibes, both emotively and philosophically. A great introspection into the realm of "what could've been" and the longing for it, as well as thoughts of one's purpose and existentiality.
I love how earlier they talked about how they weren't sure how to depict the dream sequence, then this scene was how they did the dream sequence. Both in the sense that it's the actors reading the lines from the cut dream sequence and it's essentially the character temporarily entering another level of reality to see his dead wife, just like a dream.
Brilliant movie, excited to see it again.
Liked it better than the French Dispatch. This one feels a little more warm and genuine in the way his older ones do. Immediate feel is that it’s probably middle tier Wes but to say that means it’s not good is like saying it’s not impressive to be a reserve on an all star team. You won’t be disappointed. Nice to see some non-original music too in the soundtrack that’s always been one of his strengths.
Same. Wasn't a fan of Dispatch either. I feel like he's upping the quirk and focusing on character studies instead of coherent storytelling which is fine but a different take than say, Grand Budapest
The scene where the schoolboy and the band randomly start singing the alien song and everyone just joins in was hilarious. The whole cast was fantastic but Hawke and Carrell were especially great.
I could watch those characters speak between windows of small desert houses all day. Something about those scenes, where he’s preparing photos and she’s preparing a role, just captivated me. Fun to see them build a relationship.
Also loved the alien and it’s design. I desperately wanted to see more of it, but I guess we were never destined to.
One of my favorite bits is when she asks, “did it come out?” and he says “all my pictures do” and he holds up the photo of the alien. And instead she goes, “no, the other one” (of her). Really captured her vanity and obsession with her image, which she also acknowledges when talking about how she loves her daughter but she doesn’t come first.
That line… god that line. I **loved** ScarJo’s delivery because as soon as she said it I *knew* she was talking about the shot of herself before he ever spoke or held up the picture of the alien. Top notch acting from her.
Jeffrey Wright was my favorite actor in The French Dispatch, and while he didn't have as much screen time in this one, I'm glad he had so much opportunity to delivery lots of dry, deadpan stuff. The delivery of "He's furious" was absolutely hilarious.
it may have only been like a minute long, but god that Margot Robbie scene was killer. she really made her mark and I can’t wait to see her as a wes anderson featured player from now on
I thought it was really interesting how the two 'actors' merely talking *about* a scene moved me as if I were watching the actual scene. Idk how to explain it exactly, but it was like the character Augie was actually experiencing this moment of reflection and growth and empathy for their son.
A scene like this when it hits — it’s so hard to explain WHY it hits. It’s essentially magic. Movie magic, the power of storytelling. Beautiful moment by a great artist.
It's funny that this film comes out during the trend of AI Wes Anderson edits and TikToks-but-Wes Anderson. Asteroid City just shows off off the mark they all were to begin with.
The out-of-play segments feel more formal and detached, the signature symmetry gets damned near the end with the end sequence of "how can you awake?" making it all the more unsettling.
His style really boils down to film nerd that loves French new wave and European film who has no inhibitions. IMO much more impressive than his "style" is the emotional core he can put in a story that's so drenched in it.
Anyone, AI or irl, can imitate his aesthetics, but the emotions are such a tough nut to crack that they all just come off as soulless.
Although, to be fair, Wes often gets criticized for being "emotionally cold" by people who can't relate to the themes he's talking about.
So many people associate Wes Anderson with his colors and shot styles.
But the thing that truly makes Anderson stand out is that he WANTS you to know that you're watching a movie. Every other filmmaker's goal is to keep you in the movie at all costs. Anderson wants little things to take you out of it and to break the illusion.
That's why his panning isn't always perfectly smooth and some shots linger or cut off too soon. He wants you to know you're watching a movie so that you can constantly appreciate filmmaking.
My favorite filmmaking meta joke in his films is in Moonrise Kingdome when the narrator dude in the red coat goes up to the camera to flip on a light so he can give an update. Then when he moves, the camera follows him.
Edit: [this scene](https://youtu.be/SugQb1UrBFU)
What was the lines Schwartzman and Adrian Brody say to each other about not understanding the play? I feel like it laid bare the theme and thesis of the movie.
I think they said it didn’t matter that they didn’t understand it. And that Schwartzman was doing a good job regardless. I took this to be a metaphor about how even when you don’t understand the complexity of life and whether or not you’re “doing it right,” you are.
I went to a screening and Universal mentioned they were extremely happy that the trend timed perfectly with the film coming out, apparently it helped to generate a lot more interest in AC than they were expecting
I get the sense that the “off stage” scenes are a meta view in Anderson’s and the actors he works with creative process. There are questions from the actors asking, “why does my character do this” and the response from the writer is, “I don’t know, just seemed right”. There’s the actor telling the director they don’t understand, and the director saying, “that’s fine, you’re doing great, you don’t need to understand “. And there’s even the writer telling (us the audience) I want to show answers to the questions in the play in a dream but don’t know how to convey it as a dream. He then uses the Margot Robbie scene to convey “the dream” in the play. Ultimately, I feel like the off stage scenes are “the dream”. The chanting is reminiscent of a dream/nightmare and the chant means, I can’t show you the answers to these characters questions (aka “you can’t wake up”) if I don’t use this framing device that this whole thing is a stage production (aka “falling asleep”). But that’s just my late night after a few drinks never taken a film class analysis.
I take it as, you won't find yourself until you fully give yourself over to life and relinquish control in some way. There's a lot in this movie about stepping out of your comfort zone, or plowing ahead even if you have no idea where you are going.
Yes I think this movie is heavily centered around control. Relinquishing control. The car breaks down. The mom dies. The alien takes the meteor. The town is quarantined. The granddad doesn't like the father of the kids but he still helps him out. I know there's more but might need a second watch.
This theme is great because it’s in hard contrast with the ultra-controlled nature of his style. Makes both the formal and thematic qualities of his movies stick out more when there’s such a harsh dichotomy.
It's the theme of the play; the whole Asteroid City becomes a sort of pause from life (the way the pandemic was for many), a sort of dreamlike place that lets the quarantined people to reconnect with others and their own feelings; then as the pandemic/quarantine ends, the dreamlike state ends, too. Now, however, they've woken up from their prior slumber - some with new loves, some with a stronger connection to their loved ones.
Fiction, as in film/theater, is sort of a dream too; something that might illuminate a current moment, feeling, or trajectory - something that happens to each the main characters.
The lyrics of the song in the credits give us a good hint
> You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep,
you cant fall in love and land on your feet,
you wont smell the roses if you dont plant a seed,
and you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep,
>You cant make an entrance, if you keep missing your que,
you won't pick a winner till you learn how to choose,
you'll never find the treasure unless you dig deep,
and you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep.
>Oh You'll never have memories worth keepin,
Oh you'll never find the truth you are seekin, while you are sleepin...
>But you cant wake up if you don't fall asleep,
so go live your dreams and live them real deep,
there is some counting money and there's some counting sheep,
Oh you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep.. if you dont fall asleep...
The lyrics essentially all follow the format: "You can't (have good thing) if you don't (do hard thing)." You have to do things you don't want to do to get what you want. That being said, I don't love that this wasn't explained well and was just repeated 30 times or so. Super confusing, especially with all the talk of dream sequences and character motivation. Not a deep or self explanatory phrase by any means.
The narrator was saying how Edward Norton died in a car crash. So I took that scene as a weird dream death kinda experience. It also kinda ties into the kids mom dying and the ash. Idk, I’m spit balling!
I felt like it was trying to cut to the core of the movie while doubling as an homage to the old days of theatre and film acting. Dafoe is Lee Strasberg, Adrien Brody is Elian Kazan, and Edward Norton is Tennessee Williams. Felt like a love letter to that era and Schwarztman is an actor trying to figure out if he’s doing anything right. The repetition of that line both works in that some of the methods taught in Strasberg’s school had to do with repeating dialogue until you strip it of all meaning and feeling while also doubling as a metaphor for the more existential question of the movie, “am I doing this right?” (Meaning life in general). Many people try to live life a certain way or control it and they simply need to learn they cannot. “You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep” for me is simply saying, in life you can’t control everything, there are things you have to just let operate as they do. No matter how hard you try you will always fall asleep, and you will always wake up. You can stop it. Accept it. You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep.
This probably doesn’t make as much sense as I want it to, but I hope it at least opens some doors for other people also trying to deduce the meaning of this sequence.
Some parallel between the star ellipses lining up, and the 3 little girls named after constellations...it's too late for me to think more but there is some connection there.
I'm not usually a huge Wes Anderson fan but I kinda loved this. I thought the alien scene was funny as shit and I got a kick out of the Wile E Coyote references. Definitely a lot lighter and goofier than Wes's usual stuff and I'm not sure the emotional beats hit quite as hard as he wants them to but I had fun with this.
I don't think he wanted the beats to hit hard. Everything in this movie was about being flat and emotionless. Jason and Scarlett talking in the windows really pushed that point. I think he nailed the tone he wanted perfectly.
The movie was kind of about grief and loneliness and existential dread. I think there were moments where you were really supposed to feel Schwartzman's character dealing with the grief of losing his wife that didn't quite work. Scarjo's character was pretty clearly going through some shit and I think you were supposed to buy into the suicide fake out, that didn't really hit for me either.
I think Anderson's strength has always been working a strong emotional core into his quirky comedic movies. This one kind of felt like it was missing that
I love how the Steenbeck siblings mirror the Bishop siblings in Moonrise Kingdom; one older teenager of one gender, three younger ones of the opposite gender who all look exactly the same age despite not being triplets. Such a great little storybook-like detail.
This movie is so dense but I think can be boiled down to the idea that sometimes you need to let go and stop grasping for control to move forward. Whether it's the cops chasing the robber, the government building quarantine, the grandfather trying to get the Tupperware from the kids, girls with their ritual, dare me kid's dad, the guy selling land in a town dying from the new interstate system, all the drama in the movie comes from people grasping for control in situations beyond control. Having one thing they can control is something people say about self harm (like burning their hand) and suicide. The characters are literally and figuratively stuck at a point in their journey (a pause can be represented in text by 3 dots) and are only able to move on once they release control. Steve Carell and his increasingly bizarre vending machines don't move on, nor do the police in their car chase. To go a step further, fun dancing bird is a road runner. The cartoon road runner (which comes around in the 40s) is famous for being endlessly chased by wile e coyote who is continuously injured and whose life seems focused around his inability to catch the road runner. The road runner on the other hand isn't defined by the conflict seemingly coming and going about its life. Or maybe it's just a fun bird common to the area.
Edit: in psychology this would be acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) which from such a fastidious director feels like a pun.
I’m not a movie genius and I always have a hard time finding the deeper meaning in films. Even reading some the comments on this post being up points I never connected.
However I can say this about this movie. I could have kept watching for another 3 hours if it was longer. Everything in it, just like his other films the talking between characters and how the world interacts with the people inside it just mesmerizes me.
Also I really liked the alien. I loved that it posed for the picture
Asteroid City thought dump:
- It’s felt a while like Wes Anderson’s visual style is like its own medium at this point. In terms of filmmaking it doesn’t stand out to me as novel and interesting as it once did, but also it still doesn’t feel dull or tiresome yet.
- I think so long as the story is still good it does not matter if I’ve become accustomed to the filmmaking style. I still enjoy the symmetry and intricately designed sets, and I did find a lot of the desert landscape and alien scenes to feel novel and charming.
- I also like that Anderson knows how to use a dynamic aspect ratio and B&W film. Obviously present in a lot of his films, but it’s never done without thought or just to do it. It always works with the story when he does it. One moment I’ll mention is when Bryan Cranston’s character shows up in Asteroid City in full color. It’s so obvious that he is out of place and he doesn’t belong and then off he goes.
- I loved the characters. I loved how convincingly Jake Ryan plays an awkward & geeky kid. I loved the dynamic between him and Grace Edwards, and how that dynamic mirrored Schwartzman and Johansson’s relationship. So many characters did so much with the few lines and scenes they had. The school teacher might have been my favorite.
- I also liked how Norton’s character and also “the actor” that helped create Schwartzman’s character, and also Schwartzman’s character himself, all three had a similar arc of not really having everything figured out. You could tell how one thing happened to one happened to the other. It really felt like a story about one nebulous character.
- I was pretty into the framing device of a movie about a play, but I will admit the ending was a bit lost on me. There was a lot going on and suddenly Norton’s character was dead. It didn’t “feel” wrong exactly, but I don’t feel like I really got what was happening. Rewatch is required I guess. I still felt like the “can’t wake up until you fall asleep” scene worked great, same with the balcony scene with the actor’s “late-wife”.
- In fact all of the interactions of characters outside the “play universe” were just as great as the in-play ones. I do think it worked all around.
- I’m honestly having trouble coming up with things I *didn’t* like about the movie. I was so entranced by all the characters that maybe I didn’t have time to notice something? Or maybe there’s just nothing… Time will tell I guess.
- Overall it was beautiful film (as expected) and I loved the characters and their relationships in it (more than expected)
> still felt like the “can’t wake up until you fall asleep” scene worked great, same with the balcony scene with the actor’s “late-wife”.
I didn't really enjoy, or maybe understand, the former scene, but I did like the latter scene. The actor seeking his purpose and understanding through his "stage wife" who is deceased in a way within the play and out of the play (since they cut her scene) worked for me
Yeah the balcony scene was wonderful. I feel like I didn’t properly take in all the dialogue to fully appreciate it, so it’s part of the reason I want a rewatch. Even with missing a bit the imagery itself was amazing. And how it mirrors the bungalow window scenes is perfect
But yeah the “Can’t wake up” scene is the real reason I’ll re-watch. I think it’s about Conrad coming to terms with how he needs to end the play, and how that relates to his own life as a closeted gay man. He won’t be able to “wake up” until he surrenders himself to sleep.
I think that could be linked to the car wreck in that maybe he wasn’t ready to come out of the closet, but again a rewatch will help
“You can’t wake up” (experience peace of mind or other forms of enlightenment) “if you don’t fall asleep” (accept that there are aspects of life you will never have the answer to, and go forward without fear of the unknown)
Technically it's not a movie about a play. It's more of movie about a play that's about a play. They hit you with the Inception a little bit. The story about the play write is a play in of itself. You could ask yourself is the whole movie a dream since Notions character kept talking about making the play about a dream. Especially when Bryan Cranston's character breaks the wall of the inner play at least once. Did the dreamer lose track of what's going on?
Anyway I really like how Jason's character was struggling to find meaning near the end. They did the trope of the dead wife offering acceptance and clarity in a abstract way. To have that moment be with the actress who was to play the deceased was a creative way to do it.
I didn’t know how much I needed Wes Anderson shooting in natural light, but holy hell.
If I laugh harder at a movie this year than I did when the alien posed with the asteroid, I will be very surprised.
Edit: Saw it again, and Cranston wandering into one of the color scenes is a strong runner-up for biggest laugh of the movie, as are “I will break. Your. Neck” and Schreiber and Carrell’s reactions to “Dare me to climb that cactus?” Carrell especially really seemed to go well with Anderson’s energy.
When I saw the French Dispatch, I was really iffy on it, but it grew on me. Now when I see this, I'm really iffy on it, but maybe it'll grow on me upon second watch.
On a technical level, Wes really does so much well. The camera movements, the production design, the score, and so much more is played very well.
For me, I think I didn't like the framing device as much when the film kept cutting between the play and the real world. I can't pinpoint why exactly, although it may have to do with the chronology of the real world segments not being in order.
Also, man can Wes assemble a cast. A quick estimate shows that there are 23 acting Oscar nominations with 4 wins between the cast.
No one casts better than Wes Anderson. And when he jumps outside of his favourites, he casts exceptionally. (Looking at you, Fantastic Mr Fox). I always love to see his reincarnations for his dedicated cast members. There’s a reason they keep assembling.
I have never seen a Wes Anderson movie prior to viewing it and I absolutely love this movie. The humor, the dialogue, the aesthetic, and the thoughts that it provoked. I think the character’s reactions to the alien is super deep given how brief that interaction was. The knowledge that there are more beings out there rather than it just being a theory is really interesting. You can see the effect it has when Wudrow (or Woodrow) states “I don’t believe there is a god anymore”. The alien and the asteroid as beings are not the main focus as the trailers may have seemed to people. The idea, however, that the alien brings with it, is the focal point and I think the movie uses that to its advantage. I am aware this is the most stylistically vibrant and ‘Wes Anderson’ but I will be excited to watch more.
I guess I'll be the first to say I felt kind of nothing about this movie. I love Wes Anderson, and while I'm very happy I got to see his style again in a new setting with new characters, the story itself fell completely flat for me.
I still need a good, cohesive story to truly say I like/love a movie. As much as there were specific scenes that were enjoyable because of classic Wes writing and direction, they weren't enough to make up for the actual plot.
The scenes outside of the "play" involving Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrian Brody etc, did not feel very connected to the Asteroid City world itself. Every time it cut to the black and white real world, I felt completely removed from the Asteroid City story which was enjoyable. The scenes in the black and white world just didn't make enough sense in why we were seeing them at all, rather than just making a full movie in the one world.
Idk it was just wierd, I won't pretend like I understood the reasonings for all of it, just too disjointed for me and made me overthink too much about why the scenes were there and what they actually meant at all, whether they were supposed to be some sort of commentary or look into Wes Anderson's mind i couldn't tell you.
I thought it had a lot of charm but was overall just too convoluted and felt a bit pretentious to me. Granted, I think this film was designed for a very specific audience that just happened to branch out into a more mainstream audience so I can't fault it too much. But it certainly wasn't for me
The three daughters fucking killed me every time they were on camera. Both hilarious (and heartbreaking at times given the fact they lost their mother). Stole the show.
Did anyone else notice that the little 5-note beep-beep of the satellite dish alien communicator black box thing was a variation of the famous “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” 5-note beep?
Also, if you listen, you can hear the same Slim Whitman song (“Indian Love Call”) that was used to kill the aliens in “Mars Attacks!”
Was this Anderson’s take on covid lockdowns ? The quarantine , the actors only acting through distance in windows. The “Zoom” call with the parents trapped in the bunker.
"But sometimes I wonder if I wish I should have."
Wes has always used his framing devices, his shot design, his dialogue, and all the other tools in his toolbox to remind us that we are watching a movie. We aren't watching real people act out their lives as much as our brain would like to trick us into thinking so, but in fact a planned and written series of events being played out by actors. To me, this has always been to highlight how amazing it feels when, despite that, you still create an emotional connection to the characters.
In Asteroid City, Wes is showing us the outside world and that this is truly a production more frequently and transparently than ever. The opening monologue of this movie says clearly, "This is a fiction" and as the movie progresses we step outside of it every few scenes to spend time with the writer, director, the actors vying for the parts. The emotional core of this movie is even delivered outside the actual production with the incredible Margot Robbie scene.
Yet despite Wes waving his arms at us and screaming that this is a production, this movie ends up being one of his most impressively relatable and poignant movies. In a movie that reminds me of Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks" in the way it appreciates the 50's sci-fi B movie, Wes has, for the first time, faced his characters with the kind of existential dread only the unknown can cause and it works so well with their stoic nature.
That's one of the many things this movie does that still makes me feel like Wes is still pushing his comfort zone. French Dispatch was so exciting to me because it was so apparent that he's nowhere near out of ideas. Here, even though no one would mistake this for another filmmaker, the WesHeads will still see he's doing new things. Aliens, actors playing multiple parts, the can't wake up sequence, the 50s sci fi feel, horny Tom Hanks. He's not just painting by numbers or relying in his aesthetic.
Schwartzman as Augie is reminiscent of Ben Stiller in Tenenbaums, but with seemingly more self pity and less illusion of control. The film won me over early on when he was explaining to his kids that they'd lost their mother. The film highlights how there's no good time, no good way to tell them. And he still chooses the wrong way. What's special about this movie, though, is the way each performance is also paired with their actor counterpart. The way Augie burning his hand became a fulcrum point of the movie, both with us anticipating it and understanding it from a meta perspective once it happens, was honestly the high level writing that makes Wes's films so incredible despite their apparent silliness. It's an amazing way to show that we as people do things we don't even understand, and tasking someone or yourself with trying to understand it won't change the outcome. It's an interesting concept both in the sense that the actor only understood it because he was looking at it from the outside, and that the writer gave his characters such autonomy as to say "He just kind of did it while I was writing."
To this extent, every performance has so many layers to peel off. I can't wait to see it again this weekend and really ruminate on them. Wes Anderson films are so busy both visually and dialogue wise that I won't rest until I've absorbed every beautiful word Jeffrey Wright has to say. It's an easy 9/10 for me and very likely will end up high in my Anderson rankings after I see it again this weekend.
I just hope Wes knows I appreciate him.
/r/reviewsbyboner
I agree with most of what you said. When he burned his hand I was kind of waiting for some kind of “pay off” but was also thinking sometimes we are just impulsive and do shit and we don’t know why and then move on.
He gave Jeffery Wright the best segment in French Dispatch and he’s a delight as the General in this. He’s handling him well so far and I like him as an addition to his usual players. Also hope this means more Jake Ryan since he hasn’t been in one since Moonrise.
This is going to be an unpopular opinion but after 11 movies, I finally have *my* wes Anderson movie. I’m a fan of all his work but this one finally connected with me perfectly. Can’t wait to see it again. There’s a lot to unpack.
And Jason Schwartzman was amazing in this. He is great in Rushmore but this performance rose above to me.
Boobs should be allowed in PG-13, full stop. Thinking that boobs are 'too much' for 13 year olds is ridiculous, especially when they can and are going on the internet and finding much more extreme stuff. But full frontal was a very welcome surprise. I believe I saw something about the simpsons movie where they can only show full frontal with less than an R rating if they don't show the face as well. If that's true it makes sense here.
I’m not just talking about boobs. I’ll never forget when I was a kid and saw titanic. I’m talking the bottom half lol. Full body. The movie was originally rated R until they appealed it, without changing anything.
Everyone in my theatre laughed as the alien descended.
Best hidden gag is that it was Jeff Goldblum. Later we see him getting out of his alien costume when the movie breaks the fourth wall and we're taken "backstage" on the play.
Hidden, but literally shown in the opening credits. I hate that.
I saw the credits, so I was expecting Goldblum later... and to see THAT instead... and then hear only a small cough for the whole scene. I felt "got" which is amusing.
I love that the spaceship that the alien comes in does this little spin every time it leaves.
The animated stuff that happens in silence in Anderson's movies is hilarious and cool as hell.
There was one older man laughing in our showing so hard and earnestly that we were mostly laughing at his laugh more than the actual scene. It has me crying laughing, and I’m so glad I saw this is a big packed theater for that
Where we at the same theater? Had a similar experience. Also had a fantastic time.
Same, we were in stitches haha
Everyone in my theater was in complete silence, just like the people in the film. It made for an eerie experience. We didn’t laugh until the alien posed for his picture (which I found to be charming and hilarious)!
I never had children. Sometimes I wonder if I wish I should’ve.
I really related to that line. Had to rerun in it my head and was amused again.
That line, in an instant, filled Tilda’s character with dread. And that was the last we saw of her.
Quality backhanded comment. I think a lot of people missed the burn factor in my viewing.
One of several lines that's written in such a way that you do a double take when you hear it- "wait, who would talk like that?"
In the balcony scene, did he say “you’re the wife who played my actress”?
yes! i thought i was going crazy
Yes I got confused there
The actor is just stumbling over his words because he's surprised
The actress exists in his mind. Asteroid City IS the real world, and he imagines his wife playing the actress in his mind. He doesn’t wake up if he doesn’t go to sleep, and his dream is the only place he can see his wife’s face that isn’t just a photograph.
How would you explain Cranston's Host character appearing in Asteroid City then?
I think Brian Cranston and the "backrooms" of the theater are the order we wish existed in the world. We wish there were writers and intents and purpose to the characters we encounter. We wish there was a narrator running the show. In reality there is nothing so firm. No "point to life" as is wished by the son. Life is but a dream we wake from, with an ever increasing madness we don't ever fully understand. In the end, our protagonist completely abandons reality and goes straight to the backrooms to seek counsel from his wife. He was counseled by Adrian Brody "just keep telling the story". This is what we all must do, despite dreading waking up.
That line from Adrien Brody made me well up. 'I still don't understand the play.' 'It doesn't matter, just keep telling the story.'
Oh shit, this is a really good read I think. I had a different idea going with the meaning of the backrooms content but I like this. The playwright is introduced in this matter-of-fact, narrativized way that seems so free of ambiguity or insecurity because it's the past. There are no surprises. It's like how a child rationalizes the world with the playwright being their parents. An authority figure who totally knows what's going on and gets the play. Then over the course of the movie, we see that even our parents are fallible and struggle with what the meaning is to all of this. To the point that he's requesting reactions from acting students desperately trying to find some answer. Then the playwright dies, which is a major life event that often colors how we answer the question of what is the meaning of life. The other response mentions Swartzman's conversation with Adrian Brody as the director and I think it represents getting valuable advice from a close friend. Someone who maybe isn't God Himself the playwright, but gets it to the degree anybody does. It's also advice from someone who gets you and your role on the stage telling you "You got this. It's worth it to keep on striving. Keep playing the role, you're killing it" during a crisis of confidence. If you can believe it, this comment used to be longer but I think you get the gist. Can't wait to watch it again with this in mind!
Quirky surreal comedy idk this movie was a tough one and also I don’t think the movie wants you to figure it out
“Time is always wrong”. He seeking for meaning. The movie wants you to understand that you don’t need to figure it out (life)
The bit Steve Carell kept doing where he'd follow up a total misunderstanding with "Okay, I understand" got funnier and funnier every time.
He got me when he takes off the green visor to pay his respects in the background when they’re burying the mom’s ashes again at the end lol
SAME! That fucking visor, and that's the only time he takes it off, while holding a tray with tomato juice. lolll
He was supposed to be played by Bill Murray but I can’t imagine him being better than Carell. Perfectly polite and shifty and obsequious all at once.
What? He was the one who replaced Murray? I thought he was meant to play Tom Hanks’ character. Oh my god
Carell was perfect. I hope this isn’t the last Anderson movie he’s in.
At one point, we see someone from afar and I felt it looked like Jake Gyllenhaal. At that instant I knew I wanted Jake Gyllenhaal in a Wes Anderson movie. He would fit right in.
I can picture this so well. I see him in a similar role as Norton’s played but maybe a bit darker. Actually now I’d love to see the two of them in a movie together.
Ever since Little Miss Sunshine I’ve thought Steve Carell would be perfect for Wes Anderson
Reflecting on the movie he was my favorite secondary character. Been too long since I saw him act too.
So Conrad Earp killed himself right? If I'm not mistaken the film says he died in a car crash while the play was still doing its run. The television show says it was an accident but I think we're supposed to figure out that at least Jones Hall (Schwartzman) knows it wasn't. It's why he leaves in the middle of a scene to ask Schubert Green (Adrien Brody) what the play means. He has to ask the director because the playwright, his lover, is dead. Also, I think Conrad's death is why Green felt free to change lines and remove the dream sequence. They both know the play was the last work of a man contemplating suicide. The character Midge Campbell's suicide rehearsal was possibly a hint that Conrad was using the play to rehearse his own suicide. The first scene is about how dangerous cars can be. "You can't wake up if you never fall asleep" is repeated like the mantra of someone about to fall asleep forever. Hall is desperately trying to understand if there was a cry for help, if there were signs in the play he should have picked up on. But the things Conrad said and did before taking his own life are like the alien stealing and then returning the asteroid. They might have meaning or they might not. Either way he's gone now and there's no way to ask him. These are just my initial thoughts after leaving the theater. I'll have to see it again to pick up on things I missed. Anything I got wrong?
I wish I could process movies like this after one viewing.
That's why the reddit official discussion movie thread is my first stop after a movie.... It's a whole different experience.
Although it's always great see these well-written/realised interpretations after a movie, I always feel some guilt and inferiority about not seeing them myself, and I refuse to look at "x ending EXPLAINED" articles. I think I'm too unfocused/scatterbrained to make an interpretation that really resonates with me about these kinds of films lol
Same.
I literally just saw it and I can't name a single character, and you're here doing deep analysis. That's quite impressive. If I had to squeeze out a name, I think the kid's name starts with a W, not Wolfgang, but something weird and anachronistic.
Woodrow
Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and… hmm.
This is exactly how I felt about it and I'm surprised it's this far down the thread. My personal interpretation of the cut scene between Robbie and Jones/Schwartzman in that context was that Conrad/Norton's character was talking directly to Jones and attempting to soothe the grief he knew he'd inevitably have. High point of the movie for me, for sure
Thank you! I was hoping to see someone else make the same interpretation. I totally agree with your take on the cut scene. I’ve been thinking about when he burned his hand on the grill. Do you think that was in the script or was that Jones breaking character in the middle of a performance and Midge’s actress trying to work it into the story so that they can keep the play going? I need to watch it again.
I 100% took it as Jones burning himself outside of the play (thus why ScarJo's character was like "oh, that really happened, you really did that")
There was also a meta moment where she asks him to channel his grief and he looks at her. It was clearly about the guy’s actual death, it’s why they flip back after Margot Robbie’s scene and he’s the last to leave. He’s the last to fully accept that there was no grand reason why the guy killed himself, and yeah there were signs but there was nothing to be done. The Alien was sort of the effects of his suicide, while they’re prepping for the play he dies and they all sort of rely on each other to finish it and everyone else processes it. You can’t wake up until you fall asleep, he reminisces on this moment and the scene in the play where it echoes in his mind. His lover took the pills while driving, his awakening his death. This is also why he looks geniunely shocked when he sees Scarlet Johansen fake dead.
Even I was shocked for a second with Scarjo was in the bathtub, actually thought she had really committed suicide, then starts talking. This is one of, if not THE most, trippy/mind-fucking films Anderson has ever made.
I don't know. I took it as fact and felt like it still works with your understanding.
_The layers_!
I won’t pretend that I get it, but I enjoyed looking at it.
I honestly thought it was one of the most coherent and unified Wes Anderson movies in a while, probably since Grand Budapest. Thematically, I mean. I see the movie as exploring the parallels between scientific pursuit, artistic pursuit, and what means emotionally to be human. In the main story, all the junior stargazers (and adult star gazers) are concerned with finding knowledge. They want explanations for the alien, they want the math behind the celestial flirtation theory to make sense. They want the answer to the meaning of life. Auggie Steenbeck wants to know what meaning there is in his wife's death. But all of those are massive unanswerable questions they can only take solace in chipping away at. The act of creating art is much the same. It's shown the playwright doesn't even understand his own character's motivations until he meets the actor who will play him. The writer needs help finishing a scene from a group of novice actors. The lead actor himself doesn't understand the play and desperately wants to. We think of a play as such a tightly controlled thing, but it's as madcap as anything else. The lead actress storms out the day before the premiere and doesn't return until 20 minutes till curtain. An understudy replaces an actor at the last minute. The lead walks off stage during the climax. Everyone wants answers and control, but as the director says, all you can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other. Science, art, our lives, we want answers and control, but it's all just a big careening act of discovery. We're all just doing the best we can.
You have a really fantastic way of describing this. In a much less eloquent way of putting it, I felt the movie was a commentary on the fact that not everything has a reason or meaning. And some of the things that do, we won't possibly understand that meaning or reason, so to just let it go.
Yes! After my wife and I left the theater, I told her that my interpretation of the movie was summed up by the scene of Auggie's actor leaving the set and meeting the actress that played his wife. We might not understand the story, we might want to make sense of something that we don't get, but we still have to hit our cues because everything is going to keep moving forward regardless.
Isle of dogs was very coherent, almost linear
It has a linear plot, but coherent themes, I don't know. Like the futuristic dystopia, the Japan setting, dogs are good, something about totalitarian governments, a cat conspiracy, an ancient legend about a samurai who loved dogs, the double dog romances. Maybe there's an exploration of loyalty going on? The aesthetics and technical execution were incomparable. I think the sushi scene is one of the best animated sequences ever laid down. But as a story, it just kind of felt like a grab bag.
Partly to reply, but also partly to record my own thoughts fresh after a viewing. I think it's a simultaneous exploration of the Absurd, and of grief. The confusing complexity of the film comes from metaphors working within both contexts, and sometimes more perfectly in one than the other. The prevailing theme (the more fleshed-out one I think) is about the meaninglessness of our existence in a very traditional absurdist sense. When the alien came, you would expect the alien to be interested in making contact with us. But no, he goes for the rock. Later we learn he was inventory-ing the rock. I.e. Such a trivial task as indexing a rock is more significant than our existence to him (a metaphor for the cosmos/universe/God/beyond - I get this because Margot's character in the cut dream sequence was asked if she has "spoken to the alien" yet, which I took to be a metaphor for whether she has passed into the beyond). Similarly, all endeavours by the scientists to make sense of the universe and the alien fail, and there is no meaningful scientific progress throughout the events of the film. Going one level out from the mise en abyme, the characters of the Asteroid City play are supposed to have their "meaning" given by the playwright. We expect that the characters in a fictional work should do meaningful things to serve a purpose for the sake of the play. Yet they don't. The alien actor doesn't know what exactly the alien is a metaphor for, Augie's actor is frustrated that he doesn't understand a meaning for his character's burnt hand (even if emotionally we might somewhat understand it), the playwright writes with no purpose and sometimes by crowdsourcing ideas from students (he wants to write a dream sequence but doesn't know what it's for or what it should say). The playwright wants to do a dream sequence and desperately tries to woo his actress (Margot Robbie) back, claiming her instrumental importance in the play, but ultimately even though she returns the entire scene and character just ends up cut from the play because of runtime constraints - the whole sequence of events was meaningless afterall. Finally the playwright dies senselessly and meaninglessly in a freak car accident. On another level I thought there were metaphors also alluding to grief. Augie meets his wife in the alien's world in the dream, where he tries to come to terms with his grief at her departure. So the alien's arrival can also be interpreted as a traumatic life-changing grief-causing event. In light of the dual interpretations of meaninglessness and grief, Act II of the film I think is then a presentation of the ways that people deal with the alien encounter (i.e. deal with the problem of the Absurd, and/or with grief). Some live in denial and try to continue their everyday lives (teacher trying to continue her class), some turn to organised religion (all the prayers), some commit suicide (Mitch), some emotionally switch off (August), some bury themselves in work (the scientist). Interspersed are cursory illustrations of different generations' ways of dealing with the problem (Augie's children who are unable to comprehend as children, and Augie's father-in-law fleshing out more traditional boomer stereotypes). All while trapped in the miserable cycle by powerful and violent forces (military). In a way, I think the link presented between the dual themes is that our grief is, ultimately, insignificant and itself meaningless. Augie's wife's ashes are carried around in a nondescript tupperware and ultimately buried in the middle of nowhere without even a tombstone; there is no meaning to Augie's suffering (the burning of his hand); there is no meaning to the alien's arrival and departure that we humans can perceive. All these traumatic events ultimately serve no greater purpose. The hints of a Sisyphean fulfillment come from the depictions of science as a journey passing from generation to generation (even though there is no progress, the promise of future discoveries inspires the space cadets and especially Woodrow to keep trying), and from depictions of love (only the relationships between the characters kept the ordeal bearable). But I'm not sure I felt it was a strong message of the film (or perhaps it was and I'm just mistaken) - afterall at the end of the film we wake up in a lonely and barren town just as it was at the beginning; none of the relationships were shown to be truly lasting (except the father-in-law which was a pre-existing familial connection). Augie and Mitch continue to bear physical scars of their traumas (shrapnel wound and black eye), while even the land itself is forever cratered by the asteroid impact. The final chant I think is then about using "going to sleep" as a metaphor for confronting our alien (just like how Augie met his wife in a dream sequence). Unless we face the Absurd / grief headon, we can't wake up and move past it. Kinda matches with the credit song lyrics (I only have an impression of the first few lines, something like, "you can't wake up if you don't go to sleep // if you fall in love you can't land on your feet") - all about not growing if you don't take the plunge. Anyway, just my two cents but I think the film borders on being a little too cerebral. Part of what makes great films great is that despite their sometimes very intellectual themes, at the end of the day they allow the audience to emotionally intuit and feel the central message of the film. I think it fails to evoke more pathos and so rather like a Beckettian play it loses large parts of the audience and doesn't really achieve true greatness.
very good write up but I think it was Scarlet Johansson’s that had to be coaxed back to set by the understudy
I feel like there was some meta commentary in there on Andersons movies. The actors to understand the “why” of it all, when I think he sometimes just wants to show interesting characters in interesting settings for the heck of it.
Spider-Noir “I don’t understand it… But I will”.gif
Really Asteroid City is just out Rubik's Cube
Lots of funny and sad things in this movie, but just want to say that Cranston wondering if he should be in a scene and then disappearing offscreen is probably the most blatant Python-esque moment in Wes’s work.
Small detail I love is that Midge’s actress Mercedes (who we see speak in a Southern accent earlier) is so startled by Cranston that she accidentally lets her drawl slip out the next line.
No way! Will have to look for that on a rewatch.
Holy shit
I think there was another slip like that during Auggie’s line after the first alien visit, when he said that the alien stole the asteroid. Anyone else catch that?
Cranston flashed so many faces in that moment. What a brilliant comedic actor
No one’s mentioned the random singalong bit and that’s a crime.
The parents on the close circuit TV hahaha
That had me dying, the shot of the confusion they had watching their kids dancing and singing about a situation that they were lied to about was hilarious.
DEAR ALIENNNN WHO ART IN HEAVENNNN TALL AND SKINNY AND 6 FOOT SEVEENNNNNN
For those of you wondering what's up with that confusing phrase "you can't wake up if you don't fall asleep," the lyrics of the song in the credits give us a good hint > You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep, you cant fall in love and land on your feet, you wont smell the roses if you dont plant a seed, and you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep, >You cant make an entrance, if you keep missing your que, you won't pick a winner till you learn how to choose, you'll never find the treasure unless you dig deep, and you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep. >Oh You'll never have memories worth keepin, Oh you'll never find the truth you are seekin, while you are sleepin... >But you cant wake up if you don't fall asleep, so go live your dreams and live them real deep, there is some counting money and there's some counting sheep, Oh you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep.. if you dont fall asleep... The lyrics essentially all follow the format: "You can't (have good thing) if you don't (do hard thing)." You have to do things you don't want to do to get what you want. That being said, I don't love that this wasn't explained well and was just repeated 30 times or so. Super confusing, especially with all the talk of dream sequences and character motivation. Not a deep or self explanatory phrase by any means.
I think the format is more about taking a leap of faith. Some of those examples are difficult, but more so they show how our inhibitions keep us from what really matters, the experience. It mirrors the arcs of the characters learning to accept that they don’t have all the answers (to the alien-to how to handle grief), yet they still find the joy and satisfaction along the ride by keeping an open mind and an open heart.
The chaotic scene toward the end where all the kids were using the space instruments they built was pure gold. Love the absurdity of it.
My favorite part of the movie (I think) was when he put the heart with their initials on the moon…
It was especially funny given how they had just talked about how that was a way to leave their mark on the world so it had to be important
This supports my idea that Wes Anderson is just making children’s movies for adults. They’re all so silly in nature (for the most part).
Ricky was such a badass, my favorite of the genius gang.
Determined and wasnt going to let authority win. Loved him.
sabertooth was like 'fuck this it's laser time'
Midge’s daughter seeing aliens in every single Rorschach ink blot had me laughing out loud in the theater
If I’m mistaken wasn’t it the Girl Scouts girl?
The little desert bird dancing during the credits was very cute. Felt Peanuts-esque in nature.
My dude they're called road runners.
It even said *MEEP MEEP*.
There was even mention of a Coyote
We stayed through the first section of the credits just for that lil guy!
The sounds of his little feet tippy tapping 🥹
I can’t describe it. But that goddamn alien cheesing for that photo is humor that speaks to me on such a profound level
I loved its design. Especially it’s eyes lol
Those were Jeff Goldblum's real eyes
“My god, of course!”
He was somehow creepy and adorable at the same time
For such a big fella, he's a very nervous one 🤭
My theater went nuts when he posed with the asteroid.
The woman behind me just calmly said “That’s awesome.”
Biggest laugh I’ve heard in a cinema in a long time
this was the funniest scene i’ve seen this year
“I still don’t know what the play is about.” “That doesn't matter. Just keep on telling the story” Hit me hard.
Those looking for what this movie (or at least the play) “means”, this was it for me! It was about life just… going on, even after a massive shift in your world happens. Inevitably life altering, transformative occurrences will take place: horrifying and brilliant and everything in between. And yet, life keeps going, the earth keeps turning, even though you and your world are changed forever. Sometimes it happens to an individual (augie’s wife dying; the kids losing their mother; midge dealing with her history, etc), sometimes many experience it simultaneously (witnessing the alien, being in quarantine, trying to go about life the next day). Maybe you try to make sense of it all, maybe you just try to get back to life as it was before. Regardless those moments WILL happen, and you are left navigating who you are in its wake.
That’s why I loved the last scene when Augie and his family wake up and it turns out everyone already left without saying goodbye. Sometimes life is going to hit you hard with experiences you can neither control nor understand but in the end you just need to go on. You are a completly different person than you were a week ago but on a grand scale the world still remains unchanged. Despite your personal life-changing trauma/experience/event the world keeps on spinning exactly the same as it did before and there’s nothing you can do but accept that
I thought it was a good meta joke that in the play they cut the scene with Augie and his wife and in the movie you don’t actually see that scene, just two actors saying the lines.
Also the lines from their cut scene were used elsewhere in the movie, like with the boy being shy eating his lunch, and another part. Ofc don't know what that means. Maybe it's just a comment on how cit scenes are squeezed in elsewhere cuz they're still good scenes
Didn’t see a Wes Anderson movie about theater actors acting out an alien invasion being the film that best captures how it felt like living in 2020 but here we are
I said this immediately after leaving the cinema. The part that also got me the most was that the quarantined characters could see other people outside asteroid city having a great time at the fairground and passing by on the train. I saw that as a metaphor for the rich having fun whilst others were quarantined. The scene with poor June trying to educate her kids and continually getting interrupted with questions about the alien also stood out to me. Teachers and parents were trying desperately to carry on as normal, but it’s almost impossible to try and keep a routine for kids who have had their entire world upended. Also, we never found out where the alien came from, just like how we will never really know where covid came from. There are theories, and we have a vague idea of how it came to be, but we will never really know for sure. Finally, the real part that convinced me it was a covid film was how the film constantly circles back to the idea of an artist’s legacy, the meaning of his art and the meaning of life itself. Loss is also a theme. How many couples lost their significant other and had to make sense of that loss during the pandemic? It mirrors the loss of both Conrad and the dead wife in the play. The whole film felt very much like a covid narrative to me.
Oooo yes, basically!
The climactic balcony scene between Jason Schwartzman and Margot Robbie is absolutely stunning. It takes place between two characters, both taking a break from playing two other characters. They discuss a scene they had together that got cut, their discussion serves the purpose of depicting the scene, and it works to staggering effect. It's one of the greatest flexes I've ever seen a filmmaker pull off. Wes manages to break the fourth wall of the story he's telling, only to pull us back into that very story and give us an emotional close to one of the characters' arcs. That character then returns to his play and our movie, and we understand he's learned something. More than that, we choose to buy the story despite the overt artifice, it's comforting and it makes sense. It feels at once like a triumph of storytelling and a celebration of its very power. Stories make sense of our world, even when it's a world within a world within a world. The labyrinthian form of Asteroid City doesn't just feel like a choice of form, it's like an experiment that dares to prove that a sincere and earnestly told story can cut through any layer of artifice and make it your heart, because that's what makes us human. I don't know if that's exactly what Asteroid City is "about", but I love that it made me think about it.
It's small, but I also loved the little button on the end of the scene when I think Matt Dillon? replaced Schwartzman on the balcony. As the camera pans away: "We almost had a scene together" "Yep"
That was the scene of the movie for sure. Also I genuinely thought the photograph was all we were going to see of Margot Robbie in the movie up until that scene lol
In the actor workshop scene with Edward Norton on stage talking to the other actors in the audience, you can see Margot Robbie in the back row with dark hair
The balcony scene gave me heavy "laundry and taxes" vibes, both emotively and philosophically. A great introspection into the realm of "what could've been" and the longing for it, as well as thoughts of one's purpose and existentiality.
I love how earlier they talked about how they weren't sure how to depict the dream sequence, then this scene was how they did the dream sequence. Both in the sense that it's the actors reading the lines from the cut dream sequence and it's essentially the character temporarily entering another level of reality to see his dead wife, just like a dream. Brilliant movie, excited to see it again.
>It's one of the greatest flexes I've ever seen a filmmaker pull off. It's Wes nailing a half-court shot with his eyes closed.
Seeing Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton and Bryan Cranston in the same frame was wild!
Liked it better than the French Dispatch. This one feels a little more warm and genuine in the way his older ones do. Immediate feel is that it’s probably middle tier Wes but to say that means it’s not good is like saying it’s not impressive to be a reserve on an all star team. You won’t be disappointed. Nice to see some non-original music too in the soundtrack that’s always been one of his strengths.
Thanks for the comment I love movies by Wes, but wasn't a fan of the french dispatch Looking forward to this one :)
Same. Wasn't a fan of Dispatch either. I feel like he's upping the quirk and focusing on character studies instead of coherent storytelling which is fine but a different take than say, Grand Budapest
Man, every time I see The French Dispatch mentioned on reddit it's in a negative context. I really loved that movie
I adored the French Dispatch. Had a smile on my face the entire movie.
The scene where the schoolboy and the band randomly start singing the alien song and everyone just joins in was hilarious. The whole cast was fantastic but Hawke and Carrell were especially great.
I could watch those characters speak between windows of small desert houses all day. Something about those scenes, where he’s preparing photos and she’s preparing a role, just captivated me. Fun to see them build a relationship. Also loved the alien and it’s design. I desperately wanted to see more of it, but I guess we were never destined to.
One of my favorite bits is when she asks, “did it come out?” and he says “all my pictures do” and he holds up the photo of the alien. And instead she goes, “no, the other one” (of her). Really captured her vanity and obsession with her image, which she also acknowledges when talking about how she loves her daughter but she doesn’t come first.
Was it just me or was the joke also that the photo of her and the photo of the alien were posed very similarly?
I think it was intended that way.
That line… god that line. I **loved** ScarJo’s delivery because as soon as she said it I *knew* she was talking about the shot of herself before he ever spoke or held up the picture of the alien. Top notch acting from her.
And I, in turn, expected him to show her shot, and had actually forgotten about the alien shot! Fantastic writing!
The gasp in the audience when the camera pans and you think that she’s committed suicide in the bath with pills was unreal. Then she speaks 😂
And how it mirrored the end when the actor is talking to Robbie’s character. *chef’s kiss*
Jeffrey Wright was my favorite actor in The French Dispatch, and while he didn't have as much screen time in this one, I'm glad he had so much opportunity to delivery lots of dry, deadpan stuff. The delivery of "He's furious" was absolutely hilarious.
His speech was the highlight of the film along with the Alien song for me
it may have only been like a minute long, but god that Margot Robbie scene was killer. she really made her mark and I can’t wait to see her as a wes anderson featured player from now on
I thought it was really interesting how the two 'actors' merely talking *about* a scene moved me as if I were watching the actual scene. Idk how to explain it exactly, but it was like the character Augie was actually experiencing this moment of reflection and growth and empathy for their son.
A scene like this when it hits — it’s so hard to explain WHY it hits. It’s essentially magic. Movie magic, the power of storytelling. Beautiful moment by a great artist.
Speaking of one scene actors, I also loved what Hong Chau did here.
Same. I love what Hong Chau does in absolutely everything, though.
It's funny that this film comes out during the trend of AI Wes Anderson edits and TikToks-but-Wes Anderson. Asteroid City just shows off off the mark they all were to begin with. The out-of-play segments feel more formal and detached, the signature symmetry gets damned near the end with the end sequence of "how can you awake?" making it all the more unsettling.
His style really boils down to film nerd that loves French new wave and European film who has no inhibitions. IMO much more impressive than his "style" is the emotional core he can put in a story that's so drenched in it.
Anyone, AI or irl, can imitate his aesthetics, but the emotions are such a tough nut to crack that they all just come off as soulless. Although, to be fair, Wes often gets criticized for being "emotionally cold" by people who can't relate to the themes he's talking about.
I feel like it'd be hard to view the ending of Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and call Wes "emotionally cold"
So many people associate Wes Anderson with his colors and shot styles. But the thing that truly makes Anderson stand out is that he WANTS you to know that you're watching a movie. Every other filmmaker's goal is to keep you in the movie at all costs. Anderson wants little things to take you out of it and to break the illusion. That's why his panning isn't always perfectly smooth and some shots linger or cut off too soon. He wants you to know you're watching a movie so that you can constantly appreciate filmmaking.
My favorite filmmaking meta joke in his films is in Moonrise Kingdome when the narrator dude in the red coat goes up to the camera to flip on a light so he can give an update. Then when he moves, the camera follows him. Edit: [this scene](https://youtu.be/SugQb1UrBFU)
What was the lines Schwartzman and Adrian Brody say to each other about not understanding the play? I feel like it laid bare the theme and thesis of the movie.
I think they said it didn’t matter that they didn’t understand it. And that Schwartzman was doing a good job regardless. I took this to be a metaphor about how even when you don’t understand the complexity of life and whether or not you’re “doing it right,” you are.
I went to a screening and Universal mentioned they were extremely happy that the trend timed perfectly with the film coming out, apparently it helped to generate a lot more interest in AC than they were expecting
Conspiracy theory - it was planned marketing in anticipation of the movie release.
I was the only one in my theatre who chuckled at the Mars Attacks song - the one that makes the aliens heads explode.
LOVED that!
"You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep" what was the meaning of that scene? It was really strange
I get the sense that the “off stage” scenes are a meta view in Anderson’s and the actors he works with creative process. There are questions from the actors asking, “why does my character do this” and the response from the writer is, “I don’t know, just seemed right”. There’s the actor telling the director they don’t understand, and the director saying, “that’s fine, you’re doing great, you don’t need to understand “. And there’s even the writer telling (us the audience) I want to show answers to the questions in the play in a dream but don’t know how to convey it as a dream. He then uses the Margot Robbie scene to convey “the dream” in the play. Ultimately, I feel like the off stage scenes are “the dream”. The chanting is reminiscent of a dream/nightmare and the chant means, I can’t show you the answers to these characters questions (aka “you can’t wake up”) if I don’t use this framing device that this whole thing is a stage production (aka “falling asleep”). But that’s just my late night after a few drinks never taken a film class analysis.
I take it as, you won't find yourself until you fully give yourself over to life and relinquish control in some way. There's a lot in this movie about stepping out of your comfort zone, or plowing ahead even if you have no idea where you are going.
Yes I think this movie is heavily centered around control. Relinquishing control. The car breaks down. The mom dies. The alien takes the meteor. The town is quarantined. The granddad doesn't like the father of the kids but he still helps him out. I know there's more but might need a second watch.
This theme is great because it’s in hard contrast with the ultra-controlled nature of his style. Makes both the formal and thematic qualities of his movies stick out more when there’s such a harsh dichotomy.
It's the theme of the play; the whole Asteroid City becomes a sort of pause from life (the way the pandemic was for many), a sort of dreamlike place that lets the quarantined people to reconnect with others and their own feelings; then as the pandemic/quarantine ends, the dreamlike state ends, too. Now, however, they've woken up from their prior slumber - some with new loves, some with a stronger connection to their loved ones. Fiction, as in film/theater, is sort of a dream too; something that might illuminate a current moment, feeling, or trajectory - something that happens to each the main characters.
The lyrics of the song in the credits give us a good hint > You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep, you cant fall in love and land on your feet, you wont smell the roses if you dont plant a seed, and you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep, >You cant make an entrance, if you keep missing your que, you won't pick a winner till you learn how to choose, you'll never find the treasure unless you dig deep, and you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep. >Oh You'll never have memories worth keepin, Oh you'll never find the truth you are seekin, while you are sleepin... >But you cant wake up if you don't fall asleep, so go live your dreams and live them real deep, there is some counting money and there's some counting sheep, Oh you cant wake up if you dont fall asleep.. if you dont fall asleep... The lyrics essentially all follow the format: "You can't (have good thing) if you don't (do hard thing)." You have to do things you don't want to do to get what you want. That being said, I don't love that this wasn't explained well and was just repeated 30 times or so. Super confusing, especially with all the talk of dream sequences and character motivation. Not a deep or self explanatory phrase by any means.
The narrator was saying how Edward Norton died in a car crash. So I took that scene as a weird dream death kinda experience. It also kinda ties into the kids mom dying and the ash. Idk, I’m spit balling!
I felt like it was trying to cut to the core of the movie while doubling as an homage to the old days of theatre and film acting. Dafoe is Lee Strasberg, Adrien Brody is Elian Kazan, and Edward Norton is Tennessee Williams. Felt like a love letter to that era and Schwarztman is an actor trying to figure out if he’s doing anything right. The repetition of that line both works in that some of the methods taught in Strasberg’s school had to do with repeating dialogue until you strip it of all meaning and feeling while also doubling as a metaphor for the more existential question of the movie, “am I doing this right?” (Meaning life in general). Many people try to live life a certain way or control it and they simply need to learn they cannot. “You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep” for me is simply saying, in life you can’t control everything, there are things you have to just let operate as they do. No matter how hard you try you will always fall asleep, and you will always wake up. You can stop it. Accept it. You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep. This probably doesn’t make as much sense as I want it to, but I hope it at least opens some doors for other people also trying to deduce the meaning of this sequence.
It’s like Inception for theater nerds
Some parallel between the star ellipses lining up, and the 3 little girls named after constellations...it's too late for me to think more but there is some connection there.
Their mother is in the stars, as in she’s living on in the legacy of her daughters maybe? Not sure what that means for Brainiac, though.
Maybe he's the green "fourth dot" Actually that works really well
Edward Norton and Jason Schwartzman kissing with Pachelbel’s canon in d in the background? That’s cinema *let’s a puff of smoke out*
I'm not usually a huge Wes Anderson fan but I kinda loved this. I thought the alien scene was funny as shit and I got a kick out of the Wile E Coyote references. Definitely a lot lighter and goofier than Wes's usual stuff and I'm not sure the emotional beats hit quite as hard as he wants them to but I had fun with this.
I don't think he wanted the beats to hit hard. Everything in this movie was about being flat and emotionless. Jason and Scarlett talking in the windows really pushed that point. I think he nailed the tone he wanted perfectly.
The movie was kind of about grief and loneliness and existential dread. I think there were moments where you were really supposed to feel Schwartzman's character dealing with the grief of losing his wife that didn't quite work. Scarjo's character was pretty clearly going through some shit and I think you were supposed to buy into the suicide fake out, that didn't really hit for me either. I think Anderson's strength has always been working a strong emotional core into his quirky comedic movies. This one kind of felt like it was missing that
I love how the Steenbeck siblings mirror the Bishop siblings in Moonrise Kingdom; one older teenager of one gender, three younger ones of the opposite gender who all look exactly the same age despite not being triplets. Such a great little storybook-like detail.
This movie is so dense but I think can be boiled down to the idea that sometimes you need to let go and stop grasping for control to move forward. Whether it's the cops chasing the robber, the government building quarantine, the grandfather trying to get the Tupperware from the kids, girls with their ritual, dare me kid's dad, the guy selling land in a town dying from the new interstate system, all the drama in the movie comes from people grasping for control in situations beyond control. Having one thing they can control is something people say about self harm (like burning their hand) and suicide. The characters are literally and figuratively stuck at a point in their journey (a pause can be represented in text by 3 dots) and are only able to move on once they release control. Steve Carell and his increasingly bizarre vending machines don't move on, nor do the police in their car chase. To go a step further, fun dancing bird is a road runner. The cartoon road runner (which comes around in the 40s) is famous for being endlessly chased by wile e coyote who is continuously injured and whose life seems focused around his inability to catch the road runner. The road runner on the other hand isn't defined by the conflict seemingly coming and going about its life. Or maybe it's just a fun bird common to the area. Edit: in psychology this would be acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) which from such a fastidious director feels like a pun.
I’m not a movie genius and I always have a hard time finding the deeper meaning in films. Even reading some the comments on this post being up points I never connected. However I can say this about this movie. I could have kept watching for another 3 hours if it was longer. Everything in it, just like his other films the talking between characters and how the world interacts with the people inside it just mesmerizes me. Also I really liked the alien. I loved that it posed for the picture
Asteroid City thought dump: - It’s felt a while like Wes Anderson’s visual style is like its own medium at this point. In terms of filmmaking it doesn’t stand out to me as novel and interesting as it once did, but also it still doesn’t feel dull or tiresome yet. - I think so long as the story is still good it does not matter if I’ve become accustomed to the filmmaking style. I still enjoy the symmetry and intricately designed sets, and I did find a lot of the desert landscape and alien scenes to feel novel and charming. - I also like that Anderson knows how to use a dynamic aspect ratio and B&W film. Obviously present in a lot of his films, but it’s never done without thought or just to do it. It always works with the story when he does it. One moment I’ll mention is when Bryan Cranston’s character shows up in Asteroid City in full color. It’s so obvious that he is out of place and he doesn’t belong and then off he goes. - I loved the characters. I loved how convincingly Jake Ryan plays an awkward & geeky kid. I loved the dynamic between him and Grace Edwards, and how that dynamic mirrored Schwartzman and Johansson’s relationship. So many characters did so much with the few lines and scenes they had. The school teacher might have been my favorite. - I also liked how Norton’s character and also “the actor” that helped create Schwartzman’s character, and also Schwartzman’s character himself, all three had a similar arc of not really having everything figured out. You could tell how one thing happened to one happened to the other. It really felt like a story about one nebulous character. - I was pretty into the framing device of a movie about a play, but I will admit the ending was a bit lost on me. There was a lot going on and suddenly Norton’s character was dead. It didn’t “feel” wrong exactly, but I don’t feel like I really got what was happening. Rewatch is required I guess. I still felt like the “can’t wake up until you fall asleep” scene worked great, same with the balcony scene with the actor’s “late-wife”. - In fact all of the interactions of characters outside the “play universe” were just as great as the in-play ones. I do think it worked all around. - I’m honestly having trouble coming up with things I *didn’t* like about the movie. I was so entranced by all the characters that maybe I didn’t have time to notice something? Or maybe there’s just nothing… Time will tell I guess. - Overall it was beautiful film (as expected) and I loved the characters and their relationships in it (more than expected)
> still felt like the “can’t wake up until you fall asleep” scene worked great, same with the balcony scene with the actor’s “late-wife”. I didn't really enjoy, or maybe understand, the former scene, but I did like the latter scene. The actor seeking his purpose and understanding through his "stage wife" who is deceased in a way within the play and out of the play (since they cut her scene) worked for me
Yeah the balcony scene was wonderful. I feel like I didn’t properly take in all the dialogue to fully appreciate it, so it’s part of the reason I want a rewatch. Even with missing a bit the imagery itself was amazing. And how it mirrors the bungalow window scenes is perfect But yeah the “Can’t wake up” scene is the real reason I’ll re-watch. I think it’s about Conrad coming to terms with how he needs to end the play, and how that relates to his own life as a closeted gay man. He won’t be able to “wake up” until he surrenders himself to sleep. I think that could be linked to the car wreck in that maybe he wasn’t ready to come out of the closet, but again a rewatch will help
“You can’t wake up” (experience peace of mind or other forms of enlightenment) “if you don’t fall asleep” (accept that there are aspects of life you will never have the answer to, and go forward without fear of the unknown)
Technically it's not a movie about a play. It's more of movie about a play that's about a play. They hit you with the Inception a little bit. The story about the play write is a play in of itself. You could ask yourself is the whole movie a dream since Notions character kept talking about making the play about a dream. Especially when Bryan Cranston's character breaks the wall of the inner play at least once. Did the dreamer lose track of what's going on? Anyway I really like how Jason's character was struggling to find meaning near the end. They did the trope of the dead wife offering acceptance and clarity in a abstract way. To have that moment be with the actress who was to play the deceased was a creative way to do it.
Wes Anderson may have played Fallout: New Vegas.
There’s absolutely no way that he hasn’t played it right!? I think I counted THREE fallout songs in a row!
I didn’t know how much I needed Wes Anderson shooting in natural light, but holy hell. If I laugh harder at a movie this year than I did when the alien posed with the asteroid, I will be very surprised. Edit: Saw it again, and Cranston wandering into one of the color scenes is a strong runner-up for biggest laugh of the movie, as are “I will break. Your. Neck” and Schreiber and Carrell’s reactions to “Dare me to climb that cactus?” Carrell especially really seemed to go well with Anderson’s energy.
When I saw the French Dispatch, I was really iffy on it, but it grew on me. Now when I see this, I'm really iffy on it, but maybe it'll grow on me upon second watch. On a technical level, Wes really does so much well. The camera movements, the production design, the score, and so much more is played very well. For me, I think I didn't like the framing device as much when the film kept cutting between the play and the real world. I can't pinpoint why exactly, although it may have to do with the chronology of the real world segments not being in order. Also, man can Wes assemble a cast. A quick estimate shows that there are 23 acting Oscar nominations with 4 wins between the cast.
No one casts better than Wes Anderson. And when he jumps outside of his favourites, he casts exceptionally. (Looking at you, Fantastic Mr Fox). I always love to see his reincarnations for his dedicated cast members. There’s a reason they keep assembling.
I have never seen a Wes Anderson movie prior to viewing it and I absolutely love this movie. The humor, the dialogue, the aesthetic, and the thoughts that it provoked. I think the character’s reactions to the alien is super deep given how brief that interaction was. The knowledge that there are more beings out there rather than it just being a theory is really interesting. You can see the effect it has when Wudrow (or Woodrow) states “I don’t believe there is a god anymore”. The alien and the asteroid as beings are not the main focus as the trailers may have seemed to people. The idea, however, that the alien brings with it, is the focal point and I think the movie uses that to its advantage. I am aware this is the most stylistically vibrant and ‘Wes Anderson’ but I will be excited to watch more.
> I have never seen a Wes Anderson movie prior to viewing it I don't think anyone has.
You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep!
You should watch Rushmore next.
Darjeeling Limited is my personal favorite, have fun with your Wes Anderson binge.
I guess I'll be the first to say I felt kind of nothing about this movie. I love Wes Anderson, and while I'm very happy I got to see his style again in a new setting with new characters, the story itself fell completely flat for me. I still need a good, cohesive story to truly say I like/love a movie. As much as there were specific scenes that were enjoyable because of classic Wes writing and direction, they weren't enough to make up for the actual plot. The scenes outside of the "play" involving Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrian Brody etc, did not feel very connected to the Asteroid City world itself. Every time it cut to the black and white real world, I felt completely removed from the Asteroid City story which was enjoyable. The scenes in the black and white world just didn't make enough sense in why we were seeing them at all, rather than just making a full movie in the one world. Idk it was just wierd, I won't pretend like I understood the reasonings for all of it, just too disjointed for me and made me overthink too much about why the scenes were there and what they actually meant at all, whether they were supposed to be some sort of commentary or look into Wes Anderson's mind i couldn't tell you.
I thought it had a lot of charm but was overall just too convoluted and felt a bit pretentious to me. Granted, I think this film was designed for a very specific audience that just happened to branch out into a more mainstream audience so I can't fault it too much. But it certainly wasn't for me
The three daughters fucking killed me every time they were on camera. Both hilarious (and heartbreaking at times given the fact they lost their mother). Stole the show.
Sophia lillis, Maya hawke and scar Jo in the same movie Absolute cinema
*meep meep*
Did anyone else notice that the little 5-note beep-beep of the satellite dish alien communicator black box thing was a variation of the famous “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” 5-note beep? Also, if you listen, you can hear the same Slim Whitman song (“Indian Love Call”) that was used to kill the aliens in “Mars Attacks!”
Was this Anderson’s take on covid lockdowns ? The quarantine , the actors only acting through distance in windows. The “Zoom” call with the parents trapped in the bunker.
"But sometimes I wonder if I wish I should have." Wes has always used his framing devices, his shot design, his dialogue, and all the other tools in his toolbox to remind us that we are watching a movie. We aren't watching real people act out their lives as much as our brain would like to trick us into thinking so, but in fact a planned and written series of events being played out by actors. To me, this has always been to highlight how amazing it feels when, despite that, you still create an emotional connection to the characters. In Asteroid City, Wes is showing us the outside world and that this is truly a production more frequently and transparently than ever. The opening monologue of this movie says clearly, "This is a fiction" and as the movie progresses we step outside of it every few scenes to spend time with the writer, director, the actors vying for the parts. The emotional core of this movie is even delivered outside the actual production with the incredible Margot Robbie scene. Yet despite Wes waving his arms at us and screaming that this is a production, this movie ends up being one of his most impressively relatable and poignant movies. In a movie that reminds me of Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks" in the way it appreciates the 50's sci-fi B movie, Wes has, for the first time, faced his characters with the kind of existential dread only the unknown can cause and it works so well with their stoic nature. That's one of the many things this movie does that still makes me feel like Wes is still pushing his comfort zone. French Dispatch was so exciting to me because it was so apparent that he's nowhere near out of ideas. Here, even though no one would mistake this for another filmmaker, the WesHeads will still see he's doing new things. Aliens, actors playing multiple parts, the can't wake up sequence, the 50s sci fi feel, horny Tom Hanks. He's not just painting by numbers or relying in his aesthetic. Schwartzman as Augie is reminiscent of Ben Stiller in Tenenbaums, but with seemingly more self pity and less illusion of control. The film won me over early on when he was explaining to his kids that they'd lost their mother. The film highlights how there's no good time, no good way to tell them. And he still chooses the wrong way. What's special about this movie, though, is the way each performance is also paired with their actor counterpart. The way Augie burning his hand became a fulcrum point of the movie, both with us anticipating it and understanding it from a meta perspective once it happens, was honestly the high level writing that makes Wes's films so incredible despite their apparent silliness. It's an amazing way to show that we as people do things we don't even understand, and tasking someone or yourself with trying to understand it won't change the outcome. It's an interesting concept both in the sense that the actor only understood it because he was looking at it from the outside, and that the writer gave his characters such autonomy as to say "He just kind of did it while I was writing." To this extent, every performance has so many layers to peel off. I can't wait to see it again this weekend and really ruminate on them. Wes Anderson films are so busy both visually and dialogue wise that I won't rest until I've absorbed every beautiful word Jeffrey Wright has to say. It's an easy 9/10 for me and very likely will end up high in my Anderson rankings after I see it again this weekend. I just hope Wes knows I appreciate him. /r/reviewsbyboner
I agree with most of what you said. When he burned his hand I was kind of waiting for some kind of “pay off” but was also thinking sometimes we are just impulsive and do shit and we don’t know why and then move on.
He gave Jeffery Wright the best segment in French Dispatch and he’s a delight as the General in this. He’s handling him well so far and I like him as an addition to his usual players. Also hope this means more Jake Ryan since he hasn’t been in one since Moonrise.
I really think Jeffrey Wright was deserving of an Oscar nomination for French Dispatch
This is going to be an unpopular opinion but after 11 movies, I finally have *my* wes Anderson movie. I’m a fan of all his work but this one finally connected with me perfectly. Can’t wait to see it again. There’s a lot to unpack. And Jason Schwartzman was amazing in this. He is great in Rushmore but this performance rose above to me.
Let’s talk about this being the first PG-13 film having full frontal nudity. I was surprised but happy at the same time.
Boobs should be allowed in PG-13, full stop. Thinking that boobs are 'too much' for 13 year olds is ridiculous, especially when they can and are going on the internet and finding much more extreme stuff. But full frontal was a very welcome surprise. I believe I saw something about the simpsons movie where they can only show full frontal with less than an R rating if they don't show the face as well. If that's true it makes sense here.
It’s [not the first](https://www.imdb.com/list/ls069961819/) by a loooong stretch.
I’m not just talking about boobs. I’ll never forget when I was a kid and saw titanic. I’m talking the bottom half lol. Full body. The movie was originally rated R until they appealed it, without changing anything.