Film Journal 2023: Asteroid City

Film Journal 2023: Asteroid City
Directed by Wes Anderson

Reminiscent of Anderson’s earlier work, Asteroid City plays with his familiar style of humor and eclectic framing while sticking to embedded themes rather than reaching for anything overly subversive. What makes his latest effort that much more intriguing however is that, on paper at least, it feels very much like a spiritual sequel to French Dispatch. If French Dispatch reflected on the nature and importance of art and the ensuing relationship between art and artist as a shared relationship, Asteroid City pushes that question further by wondering how it is that the world that produces such art holds meaning, if it does at all.

Two deeply existential stories, one calling back to the earlier days of Anderson’s career, the other the culmination of his present evolution. Taken together it forms an exciting endeavor from one of the world’s most visionary Directors.

The film takes an inventive approach to the structure of its story, cutting between a documentary about a Director making a play and the play itself. One is in black and white, the other is in color, providing a striking contrast between the two perspectives on the story. On a purely story driven level the “play” portion of the film follows a group of young students competing in a science program in a place out in the desert called Asteroid City. An event dirven by the promise of inventions that can help us know more about the world is upended by an unexpected event, throwing everything that they once thought they knew about themsleves and the world into question.

At one point, one of the central characters in the remarks, “I still don’t know what the play is about.” Its a fascinating line that, in the context of the film, bridges the artistic process with larger questions about life itself. The answer to the question comes in the midst of a great deal of uncertainty, suggesting “That doesn’t matter. Just keep on telling the story.” If this is how a Director creates a meaningful work, what lingers in the air of the sentiment is the question of a lived life. Can we live in the face of such unknowables, or are we driven to live based on what we know. It’s a powerful point of exploration that then works its way through the different points of the human experience represented in the film, such as grief, belonging, aloneness, uncertainty, being misunderstood and not fitting in, of being remembered and seen and feeling like we have a place in this world beyond just taking up space.

The backdrop of the 50’s echoing the looming fears of nuclear war and communism is a setting that allows Anderson to play with different cinematic influences from that era, something he details in a book written to compliment the story of the film. Munroe plays a prominent role in that inspiration, which fits the film’s interest in the intersection of art and life. This is set alongside the promise of progress, and part of what Was teases out, which becomes especially clear in his nod to the recent Covid crisis, is the limitations of progress when it comes to meaning. This becomes a big part of the films overall concern. In fact, the film revels in the idea that all of its questions can’t ultimately be answered, intersecting with appeals to religion. Can we know that God exists? Can we know that our lives have meaning? Can we know that what we do will have significance? Can we know how the stuff we invest in will bear out reward? Can we know how this world works? How we function in it?

Can we know the story?

Or are we left to simply tell it? To live it?

If Anderson has anything to say, the answer is we can’t, at least not truly. How we respond to this is left to those questions that then define our lives against thay uncertainty, at best hoping to point to something that is true and meaningful outside of oursleves. Or at least trusting that such meaning exists at all.