Jaden Molter-Castiglioni

I went to go see Asteroid City today, and I will say, while it's flawed in the overall story structure, I enjoyed the film for the most part and I would recommend it. My main critique with the movie is the overall story, as I mentioned. The movie's complete story is moderately jumbled. The movie itself is about a TV show that's about the development of an acclaimed stage production titled "Asteroid City", which flips back and forth between a cinematic re-enactment of said play (What is most frequently shown in the trailers/commercials) and the TV show. Both stories work relatively well on their own, with the re-enactment of the play being the stronger of the two. However, it gets dampened by a relatively weak series of straight cuts to the TV show that explains the initial development of the play. The actual story that combines the two styles together works well enough, but there was a lot to be desired in that department. I also wasn't a big fan of a few select acting performances, and some of the comedy wasn't that strong, but I could look past that. If you can ignore the jumbled story and a handful of good-not-great performances, there is a lot to enjoy about the film. For one, there are a LOT of characters in the film, hence the massive ensemble cast. I find it to be very impressive how they not only got to string all of these characters together, but also, they did it very well. Each of the characters have a distinct personality that the movie gives just enough time to showcase enough, but not too much, as well as some very good dynamics for each of the characters in the stage re-enactment that is displayed throughout most of the film. The aesthetic of the re-enactment being pastel-colored is pretty neat too, and I think it works even better going against the black and white color of the TV show. It can be relatively funny at times as well, which absolutely drives it up in my opinion. Overall, Asteroid City isn't Wes Anderson's crown jewel. It feels very odd with the overall borderline anthology-type feel to it, but a vast array of great characters and a very strong story demonstrated in the play make it a solid watch.