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Steve Carell in a still from “Asteroid City”, directed by Wes Anderson and starring Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Hanks. Photo: Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features
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Review | Cannes 2023: Asteroid City movie review – Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson and more star in Wes Anderson’s colourful homage to 1950s alien encounters

  • Anderson’s gentle drama about a small town interrupted by extraterrestrial events features stars from Steve Carell and Bryan Cranston to Jason Schwartzman
  • A vivid colour scheme of oranges and blues makes the film a delight to watch and adds to the tone of this lighthearted look at humans’ fear of the ‘other’
American cinema
James Mottram
James Mottram
Why you can trust SCMP

4/5 stars

Wes Anderson’s 11th film is a gentle homage to both 1950s alien encounters and, curiously, the theatre. It’s another concertina tale, meticulously scripted by Anderson and his regular co-writer Roman Coppola.

Premiering in main competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, it recalls Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, which opened the festival in 2012.

In Asteroid City, instead of boy scouts, we have a Junior Stargazing Contest, being held in the titular city, a barely-yet-established locale in the desert on the border of California and Nevada.

“Asteroid City” is also a play within the movie, and occasional black-and-white segments reveal some behind-the-scenes goings-on, all narrated by Bryan Cranston’s announcer and featuring Edward Norton as the playwright and Adrien Brody as a Brando-like player.

At the centre of the film, which is divided into three acts, is a family headed by Augie (Jason Schwartzman), a father of four and war photographer mourning the loss of his wife. Her father (Tom Hanks) arrives to be with the children, just as a very strange extraterrestrial occurrence takes place.

Scarlett Johansson in a still from “Asteroid City”. Photo: Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features
This being an Anderson movie, the cast is enormous. Scarlett Johansson is Midge Campbell, a Marilyn Monroe-like actress who strikes up a friendship (and more) with Augie. Steve Carell runs the motel. Liev Schreiber and Hope Davis are stuffy parents, Maya Hawke is a teacher and Rupert Friend a cowboy.
Jeffrey Wright, meanwhile, is the army general who must put this town in lockdown – you get the feeling Anderson and Coppola conceived of this during the pandemic – when all the visitors collectively witness something.

This is a film that deals with fear of the “other” in a very lighthearted way, and there’s even an atomic bomb test – Anderson getting in ahead of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming movie Oppenheimer.

Anderson’s movie, filmed with his typical precision and slide-rule camera moves, is less frenetic than his last, The French Dispatch – and is all the better for it. It is impeccably designed, with the added pleasure of seeing Anderson return to animation (as he did on Fantastic Mr Fox and Isle of Dogs) for a Close Encounters of the Third Kind-style moment.
(From left) Fisher Stevens, Jeffrey Wright, Tony Revolori, and Bob Balaban in a still from “Asteroid City”. Photo: Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features

Asteroid City sees Anderson in jovial mood. The wordplay and colourful visuals, rich with oranges, blues and yellows, make it a delight to soak up.

It’s also great to see Schwartzman take a major (and mature) role here, his character a conduit to explore themes of grief and loss.

Chiefly, though, this is Anderson at his most off-kilter. As Hanks’ character says, “What a strange experience this is.”

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