Asteroid City

We start with a black and white, squared-framed introduction by Narrator (Bryan Cranston) who introduces the troubled Conrad Earp (Edward Norton) as the playwright for Asteroid City—a play about a youth astronomy convention, a.k.a Junior Stargazers, in a fictional town known for it’s asteroid crater and A-bomb testing. Oh yes, Asteroid City isn’t so much a real place as it’s a real stage production, and the movie switches from the “real world’ play creation (shown in black and white) to the stage play execution that is actually being acted out in “real time’ (shown in brilliant color). The movie dips back and forth from “real world’ and “real time’ in a very meta way of telling the main story which basically consists of several very smart students (plus their creative inventions) and their troubled, intellectually average parental figures.

The main characters are Augie Steenbeck (Jason Swartzman) and his brilliant son Woodrow (Jake Ryan), along with his three scary little daughters, as they break down in Asteroid City where the convention is being held. Augie is emotionally lost since the death of his wife three weeks ago and hasn’t found the opportune time to tell his kids yet (but has brought her ashes in a Tupperware just in case). Tom Hanks is Augie’s extremely disapproving father-in-law who makes it even harder for the widower. Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansen) is the terse actor parent of Dinah (Grace Edwards) who is refreshingly normal amidst dozens of quirky characters in the film. Midge and Dinah both grow carefully closer to Augie and Woodrow as they all navigate alien landings, government quarantines, moral lessons from musical cowboys, and trying to figure out the meaning of life.

In typical Wes Anderson fashion, each of the three acts are shown on old-timey placards and show the struggle of unexpected events usurping “progress and discovery’ and looking at what is truly important in our lives as we create and cope in life’s crazy situations. At one point the two “worlds’ of colorful stage play and monotone real world collapse on each other causing one of the characters to go from one world to the other and confront the director of the play (Adrien Brody) by stating, “I don’t know what the play is about and I don’t even know if I am playing my character correctly.’ to which the director says to the actor “Just Keep Acting’ because even the director doesn’t know what the play means either.

The characters run the gamut of being outright atheists (Augie) to having strong spiritual/moral convictions (the singing cowboys). Yet we see that everyone is on a stage and playing their part while still not knowing what the purpose is. Life is seen as lively, colorful, and charming while the play is being acted out but behind the scenes in the black and white “real world’ there is aggravation, toil, apathy, and even death. I feel Anderson is asking some big questions amidst the pretty postcards but ultimately there aren’t any answers to be had. There is a ribbon of dark nihilism woven in the radiant scenes of Asteroid City which are punctuated by the occasional atomic mushrooms seen in the distance.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.” —Ecclesiastes 3:11-12

We can be secure in the fact that God has given each human a sense of eternity. Despite our wrestling with the meaning of life or the emptiness of life we know that God is the supreme author of life and only He can give true happiness and purpose. We ourselves my ask God “What is it all about?.’ I am encouraged that God does know the big picture and it is all about Him trying to redeem mankind from the effects of sin through His Son’s sacrifice on the cross and His Son’s conquering of death by His resurrection. God invites every person into a right relationship with Him through His free gift of eternal life by His Son’s Jesus’ sacrifice. Where God is, there is always purpose.

Overall, if you are a Wes Anderson fan or a fan of amazing visuals, you will probably appreciate “Asteroid City.” It is PG-13 mostly for a 2 second full frontal nude shot of a female and one b***h but other than that it’s free of swearing or violence. I enjoyed it mostly for the visuals, and once I got onboard with the meta-style storytelling I enjoyed it a lot more. So if you go to Asteroid City this summer hang on tight and enjoy the ride… and maybe you can send me a postcard.