The itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention (organized to bring together students and parents from across the country for fellowship and scholarly competition) is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.
With Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks,Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan and Jeff Goldblum.
“The audacity and beauty of ASTEROID CITY lie in the way it connects the mysteries of the human heart to the secrets of science and the universe…. There has always been a method to Wes Anderson’s madness, but ASTEROID CITY reminds you that there is also a madness to his method. And that, ultimately, is what makes him a great artist.” —Bilge Ebiri, Vulture “It’s enjoyable on the surface level, but it’s also a layered existential poem. It’s Wes Anderson at his most mature and magical — and at his most singular, in a way no one else can capture — especially not AI.” —Isaac Feldburg, Polygon “This is a film that sneaks up on you — that fools you into thinking it’s just a scattershot collection of discrete little details and gags…. Everything returns to the indivisibly Anderson-ian notion that whatever peace we can find in this world is dependent upon harnessing the various things we can never understand about it.” —David Ehrlich, IndieWire “Though the ensemble is vast, somehow Anderson gives each performer their due. In aggregate, the small stories that make up the film—both in Asteroid City and in the stage production that’s housing it—present a mural of everyday humanity, all its quiet passion and accidental humor…. At its best, ASTEROID CITY evokes the memory of what it was to first see a Wes Anderson film, surprised and delighted by its singular vision of life on Earth.” —Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair "ASTEROID CITY...pairs his inimitable visual elegance with an impassioned argument about the power of storytelling. And it’s a reminder that Anderson remains one of cinema’s best.” —David Sims, The Atlantic "The notion of a perfect movie is absurd, but some movies attain an ideal synthesis of the director’s body of work. Wes Anderson’s latest, ASTEROID CITY, is one such film…. Although it reflects the same impulsive outpouring of creative energy as his other great movies, this one involves a singular balance of his prime themes, styles, ideas, and obsessions—a sense that he’s taking a few steps back from his cinematic canvas and recalibrating the relationship of his art, and of himself, to the world at large.” —Richard Brody, The New Yorker "Written by Anderson, the film is about desire and death, small mysteries and cosmic unknowns and the stories that we make of all the stuff called life…. The interplay between the familiar and the strange, like that between the theatrical and the cinematic, is a foundational theme in Anderson’s films, which, like most movies, look a lot like life yet are always different. What makes that difference is art….” —Manhola Dargis, NYT Critic’s Pick, New York Times
