Why all the pretty pastels in the world won’t save Wes Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City’ from bombing

Wes Anderson’s latest film Asteroid City is really one made for ardent Wes Anderson fans only. Anyone else may not forgive the director for going too far down his pastel-saturate rabbit hole. The plot, you see, is just silly.

Set in the nostalgic backdrop of a 1950s summer camp – perfect for Wes’ fetish for all things pastel – the film is dotted with the usual cast of quirky characters.

The strange and at times inexplicable events that take place in Asteroid City are all part of a teleplay created by an over-keen playwright (Edward Norton) and narrated by a Twilight Zone-type host (Bryan Cranston).

Wes veterans Scarlett Johansson, Jason Schwartzman, Jeff Goldblum, Tilda Swinton (not her most remarkable role), Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber and Willem Dafoe, along with relative ‘newbies’ Hope Davis, Matt Dillon and Hong Chau provide for a vibrant cast but the lack of real storyline makes you think they’re just propped up for the diverse aesthetics.

Fans of the Wes genre will be sore to notice Bill Murray is not featured – his role taken on by Steve Carrell, perhaps in a too try-hard whimsical moment.

The film confusingly hones in on a play that is being rehearsed and put on by a smalltown US community – a production that in true meta-style sees a group of star-gazing kids attending an astronomy convention in the fictional desert town of Asteroid City – a town aliens apparently have their sights set on. We’re not really sure why. Nor why Anderson didn’t just make a movie about alien and asteroid invasion rather than a movie about a play about alien and asteroid invasion is anyone’s guess.

Also anyone’s guess is what the heck Tom Hanks is doing in here. Hanks plays a grandpa part – Stanley Zak – and while it’s a sweet enough role, it kind of looks like something he had begged for so that his CV wasn’t ending with a slew of shitty parts including his annoying Colonel Tom Parker in ‘Elvis’ and soppy lead role in ‘A Man Called Otto’.

I can just imagine how the brainstorming session for this film went. Actually go back further, because I reckon Hanks would have begged Anderson at some party to feature in one of his films, and then Wes went and invented the grand-daddy character, penning in all the other characters around that one with no real rhyme or reason.

Ditto Margot Robbie. While she’s only in the movie for about a minute – and as an imagined characters who has long been dead – the camera focuses on her face as if to offer stark contrast to her pink-hued Barbie and only for the sake of saving her credibility. The director (and screenwriters) ought to realise that making movies isn’t about saving the CVs of certain actors; it’s about treating audiences to something great.

While the plot, subplots and general narrative of Asteroid City are a lot for novice Anderson viewers to wrap their heads around, diehard fans will appreciate his continued fixation on quirky characters and colorful backdrops.

But unlike other gems from this rather unique director – which I have enjoyed watching again and again on Blu-ray and stream-TV – I’m not rushed to revisit Asteroid City soon.

Still, it’s a very pretty film.

Antonino Tati

‘Asteroid City’ is in cinemas now.

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