Asteroid City [Blu-ray] [2023] [Region Free]

I'll use a Wes Anderson quote from July of 2023 to describe his love of another director's work..."The artist has such a strong hand, he can take us anywhere he wants" - Wes Anderson.Since Amazon.com is a shopping website, I will rate my shopping experience: Satisfied. I purchased the digital HOME PREMIERE copy of Asteroid City, and the transaction was acceptable.Spoilers below...*****************Summary: Movie about a writer, and his play. The play has characters that develop on-the-fly with the writers imagination (Conrad Earp). Clues are left throughout the movie to help you understand the development of each character. Wes Anderson smacks you in the face over and over by letting you know nothing you're seeing is real (or finished), but you still get attached. For instance, when you see an awkward Woodrow explain what his mother "was like" (to fellow stargazers) by making a 5-move-combo (instantly), unzipping a pristine photo of his (now dead) mother, your heart drops. Then, the next line which is Wes, "When did you lose her? Officially this morning". A summary can't unpack this movie. It's just great art from a Master.Quote: "Are you married? Of course." (During Mexican Standoff)Scene: The scene where we learn how Augie's character was casted by Conrad. The playwright and the player.Gem: When Clifford (Aristou Meehan) learns in real time about his character needing to be dared to exist, (waiting to be dared to climb a cactus). Conrad is developing Clifford and the audience is in on it. (These gems are all throughout the movie)Other: Jeff Goldblum will win a Oscar for this. Period.I love Wes Anderson. I watch his movies every week for inspiration. I have no doubt I've logged over 1,000 hours of his work (humble brag). Asteroid City will allow me the great fortune of countless hours, to play in a very abstract time-and-space, adoring the creation of storytelling and the characters that occupy that space.

This is a movie about a television documentary on the making of a play. There are three levels: (1) the television narrator, (2) the writer, director, actors, and (3) the play. The movie is about the interaction of the levels. Yes, it's confusing. Sometimes it is hard to know which level we are in, though Scarlett Johansson is helpfully a blond as an actress and a brunette in the play. The lives of the actors seem to have no connection to the characters they play. The actors question the motivations for the events in the play: Jason Schwartzman complains to the "director" that he does not understand his character--and he is told that that is how he should play the character. The viewer cannot help sympathizing with Schwartzman because nothing really makes much sense here. Schwartzman is travelling with his four children who have not discovered that their mother has died. Her ashes are in one of their tuperware containers. At first it seems that they have arrived in Asteroid City accidentally when their car breaks down, but then it seems to have been their destination. There is an awards ceremony for talented, accomplished kids. It is interrupted by an alien who snatches the town's asteroid--only to return it later are "inventoried it"--whatever that means. So, the film seems to be about various forms of loss. That's the way I understand its various disparate scenes to come together. Thus, Johansson as an actress runs away from the play, while her character in the play, a famous actress, contemplates suicide, in despair, it seems over lost lovers. Meanwhile, she carries on a relationship with Schwartzman (his character in the play is "Augie Steen", though he seems to have no connection with St. Augustine.) by looking through the windows of adjacent motel cabins. A teacher leading class tour of Asteroid City is constantly counting her students, afraid she might lose one. All the visitors are quarantined so that word will not get out about the alien--and they seem to experience loss of their individual identities. The actors do not know who they are because they always take on other people's roles, the characters in the play are stuck in roles that they are assigned even if they cannot understand them, and the audience looks to the theater and the actors to reveal truths that neither has. Children lose their identity when they lose their parents, adults when they lose their lovers. Finally, the playwright dies six months into the play's run. There are probably more kinds of loss that I am missing. If all this sounds good, don't get your hopes up. The film is fine to think about, just tortuous to watch. Anderson's brand of stylized acting worked well in The Grand Budapest Hotel because the Stefan Zweig story on which it is based is so emotional. But this kind of acting is really out of place in Asteroid City because none of the characters has any real emotions. It is impossible to connect with them or to care. The movie isn't a story so much as disconnected events--somehow intent on showing that it itself has also lost its identity. You can reflect on that if you want. It's just not a good premise for a film.