By this point, either Wes Anderson’s twee little dioramas work for you, or they don’t. They almost always work for me, I like the dark streak at the heart of all his stories, the human messiness juxtaposed with his strict papercraft sensibility. I also don’t mind his penchant for deadpan performances, though I know it drives some people up the wall.
Anderson’s latest exquisite cinematic rendering isAsteroid City, about a group of people who end up stuck together in a remote desert locale. It has a midcentury setting, Jason Schwartzman playing a widower, and aliens. It does not, however, have Bill Murray, who was unable to film his scenes due to contracting COVID. It seems like Tom Hanks stepped in and played the role Murray would have.
The film features Wes Anderson’s usual suspects, including Schwartzman, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, Edward Norton, Tony Revolori, and Scarlett Johansson, but also a troupe of newcomers like Hanks, Maya Hawke, Hong Chau, Margot Robbie, Sophia Lillis, and Jeff Goldblum. This cast is STACKED, and the film is premiering at Cannes, so that will be a BONKERS red carpet.
But I’m most interested in the aliens, because the spaceship is givingMars Attacks!vibes. That movie is DEEPLY underappreciated, and if Wes Anderson turns out to be a fan, I’m in.
I doubt Anderson’s movie will have a scene of aliens gleefully murdering a horde of bystanders while shouting “We come in peace!”, but I am SO curious to see how Wes Anderson imagines aliens. I’m picturing something like a LEGO minifig but even twee-er. Whatever they end up looking like, if he even shows them on camera, you can bet they will be center-frame, probably near a vertical line, and there will definitely, FOR SURE, be zooms. So. Many. Zooms.
