Wes Anderson returns to form with his latest feature, Asteroid City. As the actor Fisher Stevens recently said, Anderson has assembled the biggest ensemble cast since Bridge on the River Kwai. The film is a roll call of Hollywood A-listers including Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie and Jeff Goldblum. 

The film’s metatextual plot focuses initially on a group of kids and their parents at a Junior Stargazers convention in a retro futuristic version of 1955 set in the desert. The film deals with the writing of a play and the subsequent staging of that play. There’s an alien visitation and government paranoia; all while Anderson’s characters are externalising their internal struggles. 

Without giving too much away, Asteroid City – written for the screen by Anderson from a story co-written with Roman Coppola – is a huge improvement on Anderson’s last effort, The French Dispatch, but it falls short of his best work. 

Still, it’s well worth a trip to the cinema to bathe in Anderson’s cinematic vision as the sets, built like picture perfect dioramas, are brought to life. As for the actors, there’s terrific turns from Hanks, Johansson, Hawke, Brody and Schwartzman: while Margo Robbie’s cameo darn near steals the entire picture. 

Time Off (3/5).