From ’30s Europe to ’60s France and near-future Japan, Wes Anderson has travelled wide and well in the last decade. So it proves again with his 11th feature, a playfully searching delight. A sky-watching romp that contemplates infinity, Asteroid City offers a wry exploration of life’s mysteries and proves that the Anderson touch can hold firm in the face of the great beyond.
That arch imprint is clear from the monochrome prologue, an east coast-set theatrical framing device Anderson later revisits to counterpoint the film’s main action. A burst into colour then whisks us to a sun-kissed town in the US southwest, new turf for Anderson. Even so, the spectacle of a colour-coordinated train bisecting the landscape plays like a nifty pun on his flair for symmetries. Westworld, meet Wes world.
