Asteroid City

Asteroid City (or Asteroid City) is a 2023 American comedy-drama film written, directed, and produced by Wes Anderson, from a story he wrote with Roman Coppola.

It features an ensemble cast, including 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. Its plot is mostly concerned with a play of the events of a Junior Stargazer convention in a retrofuturistic version of 1955, but it becomes metatextual because the making of the play is the subject of a television documentary. It is Anderson's homage to popular memory and mythology about extraterrestrials and UFOs witnessed in the American Southwestern desert in close proximity to atomic test sites during the postwar period of the 20th century.

Asteroid City
Asteroid City
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWes Anderson
Screenplay byWes Anderson
Story by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyRobert Yeoman
Edited byBarney Pilling
Music byAlexandre Desplat
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • May 23, 2023 (2023-05-23) (Cannes)
  • June 16, 2023 (2023-06-16) (United States)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25 million
Box office$54 million

The project was announced in September 2020 as an untitled romance film, with Anderson writing, producing and directing, alongside Jeremy Dawson of American Empirical Pictures and Steven Rales of Indian Paintbrush. In February 2021, it was described as being about a "group of brainy teenagers". Originally set for Rome, filming took place in Chinchón, Spain, between August and October, 2021, with cinematographer Robert D. Yeoman. Several sets resembling a desert landscape and a mock train station were used. Post-production included editor Barney Pilling and a musical score composed by frequent Anderson composer Alexandre Desplat, featuring country and western songs from many artists. The official title for Asteroid City was revealed in October 2021 at the BFI London Film Festival.

Asteroid City premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2023, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. It began a limited theatrical release through Focus Features in the United States on June 16, 2023, expanding to a wide release a week later. It grossed $54 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, and received generally positive reviews.

Plot

In a retro-futuristic version of the 1950s, a television host introduces a documentary about the creation and production of Asteroid City, a play by the famed playwright Conrad Earp. 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, a youth astronomy convention is held in the fictional desert town of Asteroid City. War photojournalist Augie Steenbeck arrives early to the Junior Stargazer convention with Woodrow, his intellectual teenage son, and his three younger daughters. When their car breaks down, Augie phones his father-in-law, Stanley, asking for his help. Stanley, who dislikes his son-in-law, persuades him to tell the children about their mother's recent death, which Augie had 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 additional teenaged honorees (Clifford, Shelly, and Ricky) and their parents (J.J., Sandy, and Roger), 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 the remnant of the meteorite that created the crater. Augie photographs the alien. Gibson, with instructions from the president, places the town 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. The Stargazer honorees use Dr. Hickenlooper's equipment to attempt to contact the alien. Tricking the guard watching the 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 Gibson is about to end the quarantine when the UFO reappears, dropping the meteorite back into its former position; the General sees new markings on it and deduces that it has been "inventoried." Gibson then reinstates the quarantine; the children, scientists, and parents revolt, using the honorees' inventions to overpower the military. In the play's epilogue, Augie and his family are the last to leave Asteroid City after Gibson officially lifts the quarantine. Woodrow reveals he has won the fellowship funding, and Midge leaves Augie her mailing address. Augie and his family quietly drive away.

Throughout the film, the play's creation is interspersed with the play itself in the television documentary. Some time after Conrad Earp started writing, he meets with actor Jones Hall, who performs an audition in Earp's home and is immediately cast. During the same interaction, Earp and Hall kiss, establishing their relationship as lovers. 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.

During the recorded performance of the play, Hall, who plays Augie, confronts the play's director Schubert Green, saying he "still doesn't understand the play", and asks Green if he is "doing him right". Green tells Hall to keep playing Augie the same way despite being uncertain, and that he is doing him right. After that interaction, while taking a smoke break on a balcony, Hall runs into the actress who was cast to play Augie's wife before her only scene was cut. She recites the deleted scene's text to him, and he appears to gain new insight from it.

Six months into the play's run, Conrad Earp dies in an automobile accident.

Cast

  • Jason Schwartzman as
    • Augie Steenbeck, a war photojournalist and Woodrow's father
    • Jones Hall, the actor playing Steenbeck
  • Scarlett Johansson as
    • Midge Campbell, a famous but disillusioned actress and Dinah's mother
    • Mercedes Ford, the actress playing Campbell
  • Tom Hanks as Stanley Zak, Augie's father-in-law who dislikes him
  • Jeffrey Wright as General Grif Gibson, a Five-star general who serves as the host of the Junior Stargazer convention
  • Tilda Swinton as Dr. Hickenlooper, a scientist at a local observatory
  • Bryan Cranston as the unnamed host of an anthology television series that the production is being broadcast on
  • Edward Norton as Conrad Earp, a legendary playwright
  • Adrien Brody as Schubert Green, a director who's in charge of the televised production
  • Liev Schreiber as J.J. Kellogg, Clifford's father
  • Hope Davis as Sandy Borden, Shelly's mother
  • Stephen Park as
    • Roger Cho, Ricky's father
    • Linus Mao, the actor playing Cho
  • Rupert Friend as
    • Montana, a singing cowboy interested in June
    • Asquith Eden, the actor playing Montana
  • Maya Hawke as
    • June Douglas, a young schoolteacher who is interested in Montana
    • Lucretia Shaver, the actress playing Douglas
  • Steve Carell as a motel manager
  • Matt Dillon as
    • A mechanic
    • Walter Geronimo, the actor playing the mechanic
  • Hong Chau as Polly, Schubert's wife
  • Willem Dafoe as Saltzburg Keitel, a revered and extremely dedicated acting teacher
  • Margot Robbie as
    • Steenbeck's deceased wife and Zak's daughter
    • the actress playing the wife
  • Tony Revolori as Gen. Gibson's aide-de-camp
  • Jake Ryan as Woodrow, Augie's son and Stanley's grandson, and a Junior Stargazer winner
  • Grace Edwards as Dinah, Midge's daughter, and a Junior Stargazer awardee who develops a relationship with Woodrow
  • Aristou Meehan as Clifford, J.J.'s son, and a Junior Stargazer awardee
  • Sophia Lillis as Shelly, Sandy's daughter, and a Junior Stargazer awardee
  • Ethan Josh Lee as Ricky, Roger's son, and a Junior Stargazer awardee who reports on the Alien
  • Jeff Goldblum as the alien
  • Kim Keukeleire as the puppeteer for the alien
  • Fisher Stevens as Detective 1
  • Rita Wilson as Mrs. Weatherford
  • Jarvis Cocker as a cowboy
  • Bob Balaban as Larkings Executive
  • Seu Jorge as a cowboy
  • Deanna Dunagan as a waitress

Bill Murray was originally as the motel manager, but had to drop out of the role due to being infected with COVID-19, leading to Carrell playing the part instead. However, after his recovery, he arrived at the film set in Spain, and while Anderson could not add another role to the film, he gave Murray the role of Tab Whitney, the actor playing Jock Larkings, business titan of the company bearing his name, which was an additional character created for a short promotional film trailer.

Production

Development and casting

In September 2020, it was reported Wes Anderson would write and direct a romance film, which he would produce with Jeremy Dawson of American Empirical Pictures and Steven Rales of Indian Paintbrush. By February 2021, Michael Cera and Jeff Goldblum entered negotiations to star; the film was then described as being about a "group of brainy teenagers". Tilda Swinton was the first person to officially join the cast, in June 2021. In May 2023, Anderson talked about how the COVID-19 pandemic inspired the film and its story, saying: "I don't think there would be a quarantine in the story if we weren't experiencing it. It wasn't deliberate...Writing is the most improvisational part of the whole process. It relies on having nothing."

Filming

Principal photography, originally planned for Rome, took place in Spain between August and October 2021, with COVID-19 safety precautions in place. Several sets were built in Chinchón, including a vast diorama resembling a desert landscape with the eponymous town of Asteroid City, including its train station, a diner, a garage and an observatory. Cast member Fisher Stevens said the film would include "the wildest cast since The Bridge on the River Kwai" and that the cast and crew "were all bubbled together in a hotel, which was an old monastery".

Scarlett Johansson was paid $4,131 a week for her two months of work.

Post-production

The film's title was revealed by Bill Murray to be Asteroid City at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2021. Alexandre Desplat composed the score, his sixth collaboration with Anderson. Costume design was by multiple Academy Award winner Milena Canonero. In July 2022, it was announced that Focus Features would distribute the film, reuniting them with Anderson after Moonrise Kingdom (2012). It was also revealed that Murray would not be in the film as initially reported, as a result of contracting COVID-19 before he could shoot his scenes, leading to him being replaced by Steve Carell for the role of the motel manager.

Music

Marketing

Asteroid City 
The Asteroid City immersive exhibition in London

A teaser poster for Asteroid City was released on March 28, 2023. The first trailer was released the following day, which featured a rendition of Johnny Duncan's 1957 song "Last Train to San Fernando". Jazz Monroe of Pitchfork called the trailer "extremely Andersonian", while Charles Pulliam-Moore of The Verge wrote that the film "looks and feels exactly how you'd think a Wes Anderson coming-of-age movie about stargazing in the desert would".

Release

Asteroid City 
The cast of Asteroid City at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival

Asteroid City premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2023. It was given a limited theatrical release in New York City and Los Angeles in the United States on June 16, 2023, expanding to a wide release on June 23, 2023. It had an earlier premiere in Sweden and a limited number of other countries on June 9, 2023.

Home media

Asteroid City was released digitally on July 11, 2023, two and a half weeks after its theatrical premiere. A DVD and Blu-ray were released on August 15, 2023. It began streaming on Peacock on August 11, 2023. It is available on Prime Video with the default subscription.

MPA rating

In the United States, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) initially gave the film an R-rating "for brief graphic nudity". Focus Features successfully appealed the decision, and the film was re-rated PG-13 "for brief graphic nudity, smoking, and some suggestive material".

Reception

Box office

Asteroid City grossed $28.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $25.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $54 million.

In its limited opening weekend, it made $853,382 from six theaters, finishing in tenth. Its per-venue average of $142,230 was the best total since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the largest since La La Land in 2016. Expanding to 1,675 theaters in its second weekend, it was projected to gross $7–8 million. It made $3.8 million on its first day of wide release, including $1.1 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to make $9 million, finishing sixth. It also had the highest opening for a Wes Anderson film in wide release. Asteroid City completed its theatrical run in the United States and Canada on September 7, 2023.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 75% of 345 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Asteroid City is unlikely to win Wes Anderson many new converts, but those who respond to his signature style will find this a return to immaculately arranged form." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 60 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 78% of filmgoers gave it a positive score, with 51% saying they would definitely recommend it.

In The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw called Asteroid City "terrifically entertaining and lightly sophisticated". and wrote: "The movie rattles cleverly and exhilaratingly along, adroitly absorbing the implications of pathos and loneliness without allowing itself to slow down. It is tempting to consider this savant blankness as some kind of symptom, but I really don't think so: it is the expression of style. And what style it is". John Nugent of Empire commended the film's unique visual and narrative style, writing: "[Anderson] remains cinema's most astonishing stylist, the rigour and detail in every frame never better", but warned: "It is occasionally a bit unfocused, and always a bit indulgent. If you don't like The Wes Anderson Film, you won't like this. But we others must hope he keeps making it."

In his review for Vulture, Bilge Ebiri wrote: "To the casual observer, Wes Anderson might seem like someone who either refuses to read his own press or has bought into his press to an absurd degree", alluding to criticism of Anderson's filmmaking style, but later argued: "There's a point to all this indulgence. Anderson's obsessively constructed dioramas explore the very human need to organize, quantify, and control our lives in the face of the unexpected and the uncertain [...] Asteroid City might be the purest expression of this dynamic because it's about the unknown in all its forms." Owen Gleiberman of Variety found the film similar to the "fussy, top-heavy, narratively batty yet stretched-thin concoctions" he saw in The Darjeeling Limited and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and concluded: "Asteroid City looks smashing, but as a movie it's for Anderson die-hards only, and maybe not even too many of them."

In his review for The New Yorker, Anthony Lane highlighted Johansson's performance as what "cracks the movie's ordered surface", and wrote: "Even if you regard the latest movie as a box of tricks, you have to admire the nerve with which Johansson, as Midge, delves into that box and plucks out scraps of coolly agonized wit. More deftly than anyone else, she traffics in the to-and-fro between the real and the imagined". Adam Mullins-Khatib of the Chicago Reader hailed the film as "a true achievement from one of America's most unique cinematic voices", complimenting Anderson's direction and screenplay, as well as the cast's performances.

Asteroid City received a wide variety of negative reviews, including one article on Screen Rant which collated negative sentiments from a variety of sources. A BBC review was entitled "Even Wes Anderson fans may be irritated by this 'empty' and 'cartoonish' film," stating, "...at no point does [Anderson] allow us to settle into any narrative in particular." Variety Magazine labeled Asteroid City as one of the worst movies of 2023, saying " ...[in this] claustrophobic dud of a movie, Anderson triples down on his fetishistic yet oppressive way of engineering a story, even as his most ardent fans triple down on their devotion to the idea that he’s somehow expressing an arch humanity. This one, we kept hearing, is actually an aria of 'grief,' though the only grief I felt was that of being trapped in a stylized panorama so insistent it’s become a form of OCD."

A review in the Alton Telegraph entitled, "'Asteroid City' script lacks direction and plot," said, "'Asteroid City' made no sense. The script was mind-numbing. I saw several people nod off because they were bored." Time Magazine's review was titled "Asteroid City Is Too Stiff and Stylized—Even for a Wes Anderson Movie, " saying "Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City is what happens when a filmmaker’s world of wonder and whimsy becomes a prison."

Accolades

The film appeared on multiple critics' lists of the best films of 2023, including:

Awards and nominations

Awards and nominations for Showing Up
Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards February 10, 2024 Excellence in Production Design for a Period Film Adam Stockhausen Nominated
Artios Awards March 7, 2024 Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Big Budget Feature (Comedy) Douglas Aibel, Jina Jay, Matthew Glasner Nominated
Astra Film Awards February 26, 2023 Best Production Design Adam Stockhausen Nominated
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards December 10, 2023 Best Ensemble Cast Asteroid City Runner-up
Best Cinematography Robert D. Yeoman Runner-up
Cannes Film Festival May 27, 2023 Palme d'Or Wes Anderson Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards December 12, 2023 Best Art Direction/Production Design Adam Stockhausen Nominated
Best Cinematography Robert D. Yeoman Nominated
Best Costume Design Milena Canonero Nominated
Critics' Choice Awards January 14, 2024 Best Production Design Adam Stockhausen Nominated
Critics' Choice Super Awards April 4, 2024 Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie Asteroid City Pending
Columbus Film Critics Association January 4, 2023 Best Ensemble Asteroid City Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola Nominated
Frank Gabrenya Award for Best Comedy Asteroid City Nominated
Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work) Willem Dafoe, also for Poor Things, Inside and The Boy and the Heron Nominated
Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work) Jeffrey Wright, also for American Fiction and Rustin Runner-up
Florida Film Critics Circle December 21, 2023 Best Ensemble Asteroid City Runner-up
Best Director Wes Anderson Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Wes Anderson Runner-up
Best Art Direction/Production Design Adam Stockhausen Won
Greater Western New York Film Critics Association Awards January 6, 2024 Best Picture Asteroid City Nominated
Hollywood Critics Association Midseason Film Awards June 30, 2023 Best Picture Asteroid City Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Scarlett Johansson Nominated
Best Screenplay Wes Anderson Nominated
Hollywood Music in Media Awards November 15, 2023 Best Original Score – Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film Alexandre Desplat Nominated
Indiana Film Journalists Association December 18, 2023 Best Picture Asteroid City Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola Nominated
Best Ensemble Acting Asteroid City Nominated
Best Cinematography Robert D. Yeoman Nominated
Best Musical Score Alexandre Desplat Nominated
IndieWire Critics Poll December 11, 2023 Best Film Asteroid City 10th Place
Best Director Wes Anderson 8th Place
Best Screenplay Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola 10th Place
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards December 13, 2023 Best Art Direction Adam Stockhausen Nominated
Youth in Film - Male Jake Ryan Nominated
Manaki Brothers Film Festival September 29, 2023 Golden Camera 300 Robert D. Yeoman Nominated
London Critics Circle Film Awards February 24, 2023 Best British/Irish Performer of the Year Tilda Swinton Nominated
North Texas Film Critics Association December 18, 2023 Gary Murray Award for Best Ensemble Asteroid City Nominated
Best Cinematography Robert D. Yeoman Nominated
Online Association of Female Film Critics December 21, 2023 Best Costume Design Milena Canonero Nominated
People's Choice Awards February 18, 2024 The Comedy Movie of the Year Asteroid City Nominated
The Comedy Movie Star of the Year Scarlett Johansson Nominated
Phoenix Critics Circle December 15, 2023 Best Comedy Film Asteroid City Nominated
Best Science Fiction Film Asteroid City Nominated
San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Awards January 9, 2024 Best Production Design Adam Stockhausen Nominated
Seattle Film Critics Society January 8, 2024 Best Ensemble Cast Asteroid City Nominated
Best Cinematography Robert D. Yeoman Runner-up
Best Art Direction/Production Design Adam Stockhausen Nominated
Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards December 10, 2023 Best Production Design Adam Stockhausen & Kris Moran Nominated
Minnesota Film Critics Alliance February 4, Best Ensemble Asteroid City Nominated

Notes

References

This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article Asteroid City, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.

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