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