Asteroid City
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Asteroid City (2023) is an American film directed by Wes Anderson from a story by Anderson and Roman Coppola.
Its metatextual plot simultaneously depicts the events of a Junior Stargazer convention in a retrofuturistic version of 1955, staged as a play, and the creation of the play.
The project was first announced as an untitled romance film, with Anderson writing and directing. Originally set for Rome, filming took place in Spain between August and October 2021, with cinematographer Robert Yeoman. Several sets in Chinchón, resembling a desert landscape and a mock train station, were used for the shoot. The post-production process included editor Barney Pilling and composer Alexandre Desplat in his sixth collaboration with Anderson.
The aesthetic is Route 66 set in a Monument Valley-type desert.
Plot
Set in a retro-futuristic version of the 1950s, a TV host introduces a televised production of (the in-universe fictional) Asteroid City, a play by famed playwright Conrad Earp. In it, a youth astronomy convention is held in a fictional desert town of the same name. The play's events are depicted in widescreen and stylized color, while the television special is seen in black-and-white Academy ratio.
In the play, war photojournalist Augie Steenbeck arrives early to the Junior Stargazer convention with Woodrow, his intellectual teenage son, and his three younger daughters. When Augie's car breaks down, he phones his father-in-law, Stanley, asking his help. Stanley, who dislikes his son-in-law, persuades him to tell the children about their mother's recent death, which Augie concealed. Augie and Woodrow meet Midge Campbell, a famous but world-weary actress, and her daughter Dinah, who, like Woodrow, will be honored at the convention. Augie and Midge, and Woodrow and Dinah, gradually fall in love throughout the play. The other convention participants arrive: five-star General Grif Gibson, astronomer Dr. Hickenlooper, three teenaged honorees (Ricky, Clifford, Shelly) and their parents (J.J., Roger, and Sandy), a busload of elementary-school children chaperoned by young teacher June Douglas, and a cowboy band led by singer, Montana. A local motel provides everyone's accommodations.
Gibson welcomes the attendees at the Asteroid City crater where the teenagers are to receive awards for various inventions. A UFO suddenly appears above the crater; an alien emerges and steals a fragment of the meteorite that created the crater. Augie photographs the alien. The President and General Gibson order the town placed under military quarantine, and everyone is subjected to medical and psychiatric examinations. Meanwhile, a romance blossoms between Montana and June, who assure the students that the alien is likely peaceful. Meanwhile, the Stargazer honorees use Dr. Hickenlooper's equipment to attempt to contact the alien. Using a reconnected pay phone, Ricky calls his school newspaper to relay the quarantine details and cover-up to the outside world.
The Asteroid City events become national news. A furious General Gibson is about to end the quarantine when the UFO reappears and the alien returns the meteorite fragment. When Gibson reinstates the quarantine, the children, scientists, and parents revolt, using the honorees' inventions to overpower the military.
The play's creation is interspersed between the play. It begins when actor Jones Hall meets playwright Conrad Earp and suggests the idea for Augie's character. Earp writes the play with help from a local acting school and recruits most cast members from it, including Mercedes Ford, a temperamental yet talented actress who plays Midge.
On the play's opening night, Jones, who plays Augie, confronts the play's director Schubert Green, saying he does not understand his character's motivation. Schubert tells Jones to just continue playing Augie the same way, leaving Jones aggravated. Jones encounters the actress who had been cast to play Augie's wife before her only scene was cut. She recites the deleted scene's text to him. Towards the end of the show's successful run, its cast is saddened by Conrad Earp's death in an auto accident.
In the play's epilogue, Augie and his family are the last to leave Asteroid City after General Gibson lifts the quarantine. Woodrow is awarded the fellowship funding, and Midge leaves Augie her mailing address. Augie and his family quietly drive away.
Cast
The film features an ensemble cast that includes Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Steve Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, and Jeff Goldblum.
See also
