Look up auteur in any dictionary and it should just show a photo of Wes Anderson. His approach to film is all-encompassing. Every element shows his stamp and the influence of those under his spell. With his latest achievement, he is unafraid to create a work that highlights how individual his world truly is.
That idiosyncratic nature plays out in the look of the sets and costumes, the colour palette and lighting, the dialogue and performance of the actors and the whimsical nature of the stories they tell. Seldom laugh-out-loud funny, the humour is too dexterous for that, this is the kind of mirth that builds most in remembrance.
Trying to reduce Asteroid City to a mere synopsis does it a disservice as it is a work filled with subtext, subversion and subliminal cues that emerge in retrospection. Anderson’s movies almost always grow in stature the more you think about them. They are uniquely memorable.
It’s those memories that power avid fan’s desire to have so many of his works on high rotation at home. Asteroid City will have the power to be either the most or least favourite of his films and that distinction will only come into focus after many visits to his deep well of weirdness.
Rob Hudson
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