I, along with a bunch of other reviewers, claimed that The French Dispatch was the most ‘Wes-Anderson-movie’ that we had ever seen.

Well, Asteroid City is that but on all kinds of steroids.

I am not sure that I have seen anything are weird and as wild as Wes Anderson’s latest movie, Asteroid City. My mouth was agape multiple times and I grasped my head with my hands over and over again.

And yet, I was weirdly entertained.

The narrative was bizarre. It was a play being hosted by Bryan Cranston, and directed by Conrad Earp (Edward Norton) starring an actor playing Augie Steenback (Jason Schwartzman) but was shown as if it were happening with Augie and a group of people attending a junior stargazing event in Asteroid City where an alien showed up and stole the meteorite that had landed in the town years before.

There were storyline everywhere with some of the most eccentric characters that I have seen on screen together in a long time. Anderson brought an A-list cast, full of many of his typical band of actors that appear regularly in his films. The cast, along with those already mentioned, included Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Jake Ryan, Maya Hawke, Liev Schreiber, Sophia Lillis, Grace Edwards, Hope Davis, Rupert Friend, Steve Park, Ethan Josh Lee, Aristou Meehan, Tilda Swinton, Matt Dillon, Steve Carell, Henry Rhoades, Tony Revolori, Bob Balaban, Fisher Stevens, Jeff Goldblum, Adrien Brody, Hong Chau, Rita Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, and Preston Mota.

This movie was extremely chaotic. Things were weird and did not always tie together in any sort of true narrative structure, but every strange thing that happened was funny or shocking or entertaining. There were scenes that were included that felt like its own little thing and I could not believe what I was watching.

I was shaking my head throughout the film. As I was watching the movie, there were times that I considered walking out for good and other times I considered giving it 5 stars. There were several people in my theater that did walk out during this movie and I couldn’t blame them for it. Still, I laughed. I was engaged. I was entertained. I had no idea what was coming next and isn’t that a great theater experience.

There is no doubt that Asteroid City is not a film for everyone. If you are a fan of Wes Anderson, you may like this movie (although it may go too far for those fans as well). There will be those who absolutely hate this movie. I understand that feeling. I might even agree with it. But I enjoyed myself. Just sayin’.

4 stars

(…but this could be anywhere from 2 stars to 4.5 stars too.)