Easily his most surreal film, Asteroid City takes The French Dispatch’s English translation of a French theatrical play of a story of a boy that inspired a riot from within a magazine article within the story of said article being written [breathes] and runs with that level of self-compartmentalization. This is a dramatization of a play within a made-up story about a playwright within a local television station’s evening programming. Still, it’s so easy to forget that, as the actors (or the actors of the actors of the actors) play their parts so well, I found myself getting emotionally invested in the fate of an urn that was simply a Tupperware prop of a prop of a prop.
If none of this makes sense to you, don’t worry. It doesn’t make much sense to me either - or even to some of the characters of the film. This is a movie about accepting that strange things happen. That events and occurrences in our life often cause us to wake up to a different reality, or realize that perhaps we had been sleeping without knowing it. It’s about getting outside of your head. Which is a remarkable theme for a director who - I’m convinced - has a cross-sectioned diorama for a brain.
Remarkably funny throughout with some very magical and chilling moments that took my breath away. Despite that, the gestalt of it still falls somewhere below his masterpieces (which are, in my opinion, and in some sort of rough order, Grand Budapest, Mr Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, Tenenbaums).
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As a side note, the theater I saw this in (Scotts Valley CineLux) didn’t have its surround system working properly. So unless this movie was mixed in mono (wouldn’t put it past Wes) there’s a good chance I missed some important audio cues. 😒 Indy earlier today (same theater) had rough sound too.
