Asteroid City ★★★★

Wes Anderson‘s Asteroid City asks, “What is the meaning of life?” As it shows, maybe there is an answer, or maybe there is not. Either way, life continues along and humanity must find a way to cope with that inescapable reality. Asteroid City portrays the realization of a play set within the world of the film where the characters work their way through the play and, in black-and-white, show details of themselves on and off set. The play itself is an attempt by playwright Conrad Earp (Edward Norton) to try to understand life and its meanings. The actors, especially Jones Hall (Jason Schwartzman) who portrays Augie Steenbeck in “Asteroid City” are trying to do the same, though within the context of the play. On this smaller scale and in the larger sense, Asteroid City is an exploration of this unknown and never-ending struggle to compartmentalize that which cannot be attained: the ‘why’ of existence.

“Asteroid City” is appropriately set on the precipice of oblivion. Atomic tests occasionally cause tremors in this mid-1950s California-Nevada-Arizona border town. The town itself is named after an asteroid that struck 5,000 years ago and left a crater, one where aliens will soon arrive and leave the visitors awe-struck and the government scrambling for ways to contain the story. The town has a ramp for a highway that goes nowhere and ran out of funding after being built. It is both literally and metaphorically at the edge of the universe, whether harboring death around the corner, containing a portal to extraterrestrial life, or representing the near-constant unknowability of what the future holds while forever existing under the reality that death could strike at any moment. “Clear vision ahead with rear vision mirror,” reads a sign at the one-bay car garage in town, an apt complement of many of the film’s themes and situations in which Augie reckons with the death of his wife, the town struggles to cope with surreal events and their various issues: play producer Schubert Green (Adrien Brody) with his divorce, and actress Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson) with her traumatic past (with clear parallels to Marilyn Monroe). For all of them, their past is clear. The events are known. It is the present and future that are unpredictable.

This grief and the haunting nature of the past or present trauma one experiences lurks in every corner of Asteroid City, all while the characters stare at the stars or dream of the future as a form of escapism, finding that the only way to cope or understand the why. Asteroid City is partially Anderson’s own attempt to understand the why, but also stands as an attempt to find answers for tomorrow in yesterday. Life and its purposes are shown to elude all of the characters in Asteroid City. A scene with Jones Hall and the actress who was due to play his deceased wife in “Asteroid City” (Margot Robbie) before her role was cut from the play shines in this regard, finding the beauty of a dreamy moment shared between two actors in between their cues of separate plays, thrust together through happenstance. They recount the scene they would have played in terrific detail with Schwartzman and Robbie’s performances in this scene standing amongst their best work. Robbie’s crucial scene serves as a vessel for emphasizing the film’s themes about life’s meaning and understanding the why of what happens to us. Whether it is intense feelings such as grief or random daily occurrences, she and the film demonstrate that there are no simple answers to the why. Life just is and one can either accept it or be crushed by that weight. The setting and situations, thus, exemplifies this nature with the constant threat of the bomb, of what alien life could mean to humans, or of how to confront the numerous difficult feelings one faces daily, all representing things one cannot control but must, instead, find a way to cope. The how of life is the far more pressing concern with togetherness at the forefront, showcased throughout Asteroid City, particularly in the comfort Augie and Midge find in one another, the bonds forged in Asteroid City as the characters’ stay is prolonged, and in the moment shared between Jones and Robbie’s actress. In a world of uncertainty and endless possibility, the film cherishes the simple pleasure of simply making memories or sharing Earthly space with another equally lost and confused person.

As with any Anderson film, Asteroid City is filled with ideas with themes about human existence, the creative process, and various American political and social ideals, either spoken, expressed, or hidden in the background as part of the elaborate set design. The words of Stanley Zak (Tom Hanks), however, feel the most powerful of the film’s thematic thrust, “In my loneliness, or perhaps because of it, I learned not to judge people. To take people as I find them, not as others find them. And most of all, to give complete and unquestioning faith to the people I love.” Anderson’s film is one that displays the crushing weight of life and humanity’s futile attempt to understand it all. The artistic process is one often pursued to gain that understanding, while the government’s aim is to control understanding, as demonstrated throughout the film. Yet, the best scenes of Asteroid City are ones where characters just sit and bond. Midge and Augie, Dinah (Grace Edwards) and Woodrow (Jake Ryan), all of the junior stargazers, Jones and Conrad, Jones and Robbie’s actress, or Schubert and his soon-to-be ex-wife Polly (Hong Chau). “You can’t wake up if you don’t go to sleep,” chant the characters at the end, a perplexing and hypnotic sequence that could be urging the audience to stop thinking, judging, and trying to understand. Just sit back and let the wild ride go on. Or, it could mean any number of things. The film and its message are like life: it will mean different things to everyone.

Simply watching the surreal occur is enough to make one laugh in Asteroid City, while seeing these characters pour over the awkward and unspeakable moments of existence elicits consistently effective deadpan humor. A teacher (Maya Hawke) trying to keep her excited class contained only for cowboy Montana (Rupert Friend) to drop by for an outlandish scene or a group of young scientists piecing together impossible contraptions provided both laughs and furtherance of the film’s hyperbolic portrayal of the absurd randomness of life. The entire cast is terrific with each capturing the right tone for their various roles and capturing the considerable feeling underlying every line. Schwartzman has a disaffectedness that lets one see how much Augie cares and struggles, but lacks the words or understanding to express. Johansson has a cool and collected delivery contrasting the violence in her words, dry comedic appeal, and contained sorrow. Each cast member gets a moment or moments to shine, displaying their considerable skill and understanding of their unique character’s station in life. The film is an incredibly well-rounded and full-bodied experience, grabbing the audience from the very first frame and introduction by a TV show host (Bryan Cranston) and never letting up, even as the credits roll with a roadrunner jumping across a remote road.

On the brink of oblivion and staring into an uncertain future with innumerable scars of yesterday, the characters of Asteroid City are at a familiar yet impossible point of existence. Perhaps there is meaning or purpose to it all, or maybe there is not. The unknowable and the impossible live beyond our understanding, all while we try to process near-impossible emotions and occurrences that leave our mind spinning, desperate to understand and to cope. No matter how we approach it, the next step of our existence is coming, in whatever shape or form that takes. How one chooses to live is far more important than the why of existence with each character struggling to come to grips with that in ways that are incredibly relatable and deftly handled. Smart, incisive, and wickedly funny, Asteroid City is yet another terrific film from Wes Anderson.