Why Asteroid City is Actually Terrifying...
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- In this video essay, I attempt to give my perspective on Wes Anderson's "Asteroid City". The film is quite loaded with many themes, some of which I won't cover in this video, so feel free to contribute your perspective in the comments. : )
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:05 Thesis
1:58 Structure
2:47 Continuity
3:46 Chaos
6:30 Uncertainty
8:32 Art's Purpose
10:34 Why it works
#wesanderson #asteroidcity #videoessay 
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Thanks for watching. This film has got a lot going on so I didn't end up covering everything, as I didn't want to be too tangential.
I love how you slowly and methodically delivered your analysis of the movie as if you were an actor in a Wes Anderson movie.
Why did Augie burnt his hand? Idk, but the fact that the actor in the play actually did it (as for Scarlett’s character shocked saying “you actually did it”) could be because of his lover’s death, trying to find meaning of his death in his last written play
For the same reason that the actor playing Augie smashed the stuck window pane in his first meeting with the playwright!
It is Pain that lets us know we are still alive.
Pain is a kind of reality test. When we’re lost in thought it tends to bring us smack dab into the present. Painfully.
"Art is the expression of the illogical, and an algorithm is the antithesis of that" Loved that bit, stopped me right in my tracks.
insidious and unaccountable.
the future is here - be very careful
This Wes Anderson is the worst. We want to be entertained not held hostage with his blathering. This movie angered me. I turned it off and cured this guy. Just sooo annoying.
@@user-cu7uz5le3hWes Anderson really isn't for everyone. Even some Wes Anderson fans. :)
@@3MolesInATrenchCoat he somehow gets a pass. Maybe because the films look cool. Any person who wants to help him should tell him to shut up. Let the pictures do the heavy work. It’s so bad the way he blathers and what is he thinking we want to spoon it all up like soup.
@@user-cu7uz5le3h absolutely nutty, dude. Lmao
Asteroid City is my favorite Wes Anderson film to date, and I am so happy to have you put words to why I love it so much.
it is terrible
Well, Im sure that persuaded her.@@SC0UNDRE1
I think it very telling that some poster can't stand you expressing appreciation and kind words. They can't just state their opinion; that they just don't like it. They have to condemn it as "terrible".
The three Shakespearian witches (NOT in training) being little girls, just makes them so much more terrifying, powerful and funny, to me. Everytime they came on I had to giggle and say awww at the same time. That was such an awesome nod to theatre.
Oh, wow, I never considered that the continuity errors might be part of it! The thing I always noticed that bothered me was in the big crowd shots from the award ceremony. The front on shots show everyone sitting in a few unbroken rows of seats, but in the shots from behind it's clearly two separate sections with an empty row down the middle. Not to mention that quite a lot of people are missing or sitting in different places between the shots! Thanks for giving me a new perspective on that, and great video!
This was an interesting perspective that really made me reconsider this movie entirely
There's this play by the Bulgarian author Stanislav Stratiev "Balkan Syndrom" and Asteroid City terribly reminds me of it. It's a satiric comedy about all of the social problems in Bulgaria in the late 80s. It is as well a play inside of a play and in the second half an alien randomly appears. There's a few other little similarities that make me believe that two things can be created simultaneously but with no relation and still be similar or Wes has somehow read this play, wich I highly doubt, but it is something interesting to think about.
this channel has such high production! i was fooled to think that you had at least a million subscribers. you definitely deserve it!
Thank you. Comments like these are really encouraging.
Dude same! I was like woa got in on the ground floor here.
Amazing video! Currently I’m taking a class on existentialism where we covered Soren Kierkegaard’s Either/Or, similarly a scatterbrained book that doesn’t give you answers but instead questions everything. It makes sense that Wes studied philosophy in college.
I love Either/Or! I hope you got some enjoyment out of it too.
Your last line: “and that kinda terrifying” can also be changed to “and that’s very freeing” and I think the change of perspective on the same idea is something Anderson is also going for. He’s not necessarily saying it’s terrifying, like you said, he’s really just posing the question.
I haven't clicked with a bunch of movies I sort of expected to really enjoy lately. I'm starting to think maybe all the emotional baggage of the last few years has begun to catch up with me. Seeing Asteroid City in the theater, I mostly enjoyed it, but didn't love it. A feeling that has become super familiar as the year has progressed (Infinity Pool, Cocaine Bear, Barbie, Joy Ride, etc., etc., etc.).
You've given me some food for thought, and unlike some other movies that have disappointed me this year (Quasi, Renfield, No One Will Save You...), I very much want to revisit Asteroid City.
Definitely worth a rewatch. Although I get why some people don't fully resonate with the topics that he's covering in this one.
'Asteroid City' is my favourite film of Wes Anderson's and I feel his most human, authentic take on the human condition. It is a beautiful film and reminds me of Camus' Myth of Sisyphus.
There is deep existential and even absurdist concepts within this film. As always, Wes' fantastic type of humour just works on top of these darker aspects.
'Freight Train' is my ringtone and I feel that song in closing credits sums up this film & Life itself. 'Freight train, freight train, travelling so fast...' *Whistling along *
i saw this in theaters with my ex over the summer. we were so confused to the point where we just couldn't stop laughing. i've been waiting for someone to really go in depth with the meaning and this video is the first one of seen that actually gives an explanation that makes sense
You laugh when you are confused?
@@johnhopkins6731 If its something unexpected that causes the confusion and its a comedy film, then I think many people would.
@@johnhopkins6731it's not boring
@@johnhopkins6731 Yes??
I enjoy Anderson's films greatly. I also didn't know how to interpret this one. Yes your video does a fantastic job for me as well. Your thoughtful approach to film is so appreciated! Keep up the good work.
for me asteroide city wasn't a huge ground breaking experience idea because i already watch every life action movie with that intend in mind, that there are actors behind each character that are communicating to you the viewer not only the plot but the significance of what's being portrayed, but the nice part of this film presenting this ideas is that creates a focus point to this conversation that establishes a base point for the idea to branch out of
and thats very valuable to have with such an abstract idea such was "nothing you see in a movie is real, it's the substance of the imagination that's portraying a narrative"
so it's nice to have a film like this to ankle us here talking about this thing we do that we wouldn't normally have the chance to address before
Wes Anderson being meta is so much more pleasant than when other people do it
This is one of the best analysis that I have seen of this movie! I was also surprised to see your subscriber count you deserve so much more!
Oh, the classic, reviewing a Wes Anderson movie after watching it only one time 🙂 I am happy you gave it another shot or two.
Absolutely love your take on it!
Wonderful video, even better perspective. Probably the best explanation thus far! More of this. Cheers!
I really enjoyed this video, it explains how I felt about Asteroid City almost to a tee. Although I think Grand Budapest Hotel is Anderson's finest work, this is definitely in his top tier. Keep up the good work!
Anderson's best work is still The Grand Budapest Hotel. I know that this one was intended to be a play but I loved the worldbuilding and "being alive" of GBH. Man, when I watched that, I wanted to be a hotel owner/manager lol
Grand Budapest is so valid
Towards the end of this video it finally hit me, what the true meaning of the film was about. The art form, for the sake of art. And then I just wept. I just started crying. That movie was an absolute masterpiece and I didn't even realize it until just now.
Shit fucked you up lmao
the movie literally has no point. wtf you crying at?
I am no big film buff but Wes Anderson is one of my favorite directors of all time. His style truly captures the soul of his families and characters in general. I don't know how but his style gives life to his films. It's hard to put to words but this aspect of Wes Anderson never failed to amuse me and draw me to his movies. Also good video mate keep up with the good work.
3:15 One I noticed was during the casting call scene there were many shots in between the people making seem that there is a passage between two rows of seats but then when we face them it is one big stand
There are much more obvious inconsistencies in the movie too like how her black eye makeup keeps changing eyes. Also I believe a possible explanation for some of the awkward cuts are that Asteroid City is a play being performed time after time so from scene to scene and cut to cut we could be seeing different performances of the play.
Man I thought the movie was a comedy but this makes the movie seem more mysterious
I wouldn't say that stage plays have become obsolete at all. In the past, they were the only way to see an actor tell a story, and now it's much easier to just screen movies, so plays were 100% of all shows and obviously aren't now. Now cinema is the prominent medium, but that doesn't mean the number of plays shown has reduced. Access to theatres has improved compared to 100 years ago, so have the number of them, there are shows every night, podcasts, books, blogs. Just because it's now the minor medium, doesn't mean it's lesser than it was.
i think his point is that it doesnt have as much cultural reach as it once had. he also mentions that because of its lack of influence, it doesn't get to progress as much as the forms that the masses use now.
i was born in 95 and have been to dozens of plays of different production levels thanks to my family. I hardly meet people my age who have gone to a live play, much less care to.
I haven't watched or thought much about Astroid City since i last saw it when it came out - i was alone in a movie theatre after having some... upsetting news i guess.
Just going to see a movie, by myself, after the news I got, made me feel better. I knew it would - thats why i went - but i think thats the point of art for me. Escapism and its effect on the people who view it.
The movie was sort of a reflection of how i felt (and still feel) about life, its all over the place, you have no idea whats coming and you can't plan for it, but when you do, it all comes crashing down anyway so don't try to make sense of the things your experiencing. Just let them be in the moment.
I'm not a movie analyst, so i'm sorry if that made no sense to the plot of the movie. I just wanted to share my retrospective opinion on the time i saw Astroid City.
I think you’re pretty spot on with your interpretation. You don’t have to be an expert or analyst to appreciate it (I’m certainly not one myself), as long as it resonates with you, that’s the importance of film. thanks for sharing 😎
Excellent video and commentary. Keep up the good work!
The roadrunner was the narrative character for me. Bracketing the beginning and end of the film and marking reality, whatever that may be, with those bracketing appearances. Plus... he's adorable.
*EXCELLENT* analysis. Just came from seeing the film on Amazon Prime. What I love about this movie, is that it is surprisingly optimistic. The backdrop of a desert in the southwest was just brilliant. Amazingly, it is like the wacky zany comedy version of Oppenheimer.
This is a very insightful view, I will continue to enjoy it!
Fantastic commentary! Unfortunately for me I watched this film on a plane while I was deliriously sleep deprived 😅 I loved it anyway, but as you observe yourself I feel like it takes more than one viewing for anything by Wes Anderson to really sink in. Oddly enough my initial response to the film was to find a kind of comfort in the serendipitous nonsense of it all. It didn’t seem tragic, only touched by tragedy, and above that there was beauty in the arrhythmic continuation of life and living when it seemed to be on hold.
Great breakdown, thanks for your work!
I've found myself obsessed with the song freight train. Cheerful song about a man on the run "tell him he's gone to sleep"
Which reminds me of the hopeful side of the movie's message. The idea of dreaming as the precusor to artistic expression. The children expressing from their intuition (the little girls play witch with their mother's ashes, the children's reaction to the aliens was to make art in the face of their teacher's structured lesson) is a beautiful counter point to the adult's "I understand"
There's the thing with the car.
It breaks down and there's two possibilities, the mechanic says.
The fix is a 75ct spare part, or the whole car explodes.
That itself feels like screenwriting. You have a set up and a payoff.
The tension builds and as an audience we wait for either the relief of it going well, or the absolute catastrophe.
But instead what happens is a third possibility with neither.
There's a weird part that breaks and the mechanic doesn't even know what that is.
Throughout the movie, we are presented with set ups that have this kind of third option resolutions. It's like breaking out from the formulaic conflict resolutions we know from story telling.
Your analysis has enriched this film for me. Cheers.
brilliant video, my mate!!!!
Not terrifying - very, very funny - I saw it tonight and enjoyed it immensely! In a sea of knuckle-headed Hollywood dross, this is a true piece of film art.
I notice in the alien scene the top angle, the audience were so close to the stage and on other angles there's alot of space in between
Love the video.
Now you got me wanting a Wes Anderson AI voiced Christian Bale rant.
What I got was: we all live in many layers of falsehood but all have a true self under all our personas. whether with our government's laws, a family, a relationship, between friends we all mask who we are and how we feel to try our best to fit in and literally play a role (all the world is a stage). You can't wake up (be yourself) if you don't fall asleep (let go of the persona attached to any given role)
I really like the theme that the charters become part of the actors represented by the three dots in some of actors eyes in the B&W parts
Not so much a continuity thing, but I noticed from my first viewing that there was sometimes a dust spot from the camera lens/sensor showing in some scenes (I can't remember which scenes in particular). In thought it odd that it wasn't masked out.
I adore this film, I'v seen it so many times. Thanks for this amazing video. This is Wes' best film.
This movie gets better and better with every rewatch
Wes Anderson have come to enjoy his very straightforward films. Don't think they were ready for something so introspective and metaphorical
This video is so high quality????????????????? i thought this channel already had like 2m subs and a cult following or something! well done :) love from Indonesia
YESSS!!!!!!! Asteroid City always gave me a weird eerie feeling. This movie is genius!!!! Love the video
Everything has to be symmetrical, I'm Wes fucking Anderson. 🤣🤣🤣
You brought up some good points. It’s a bizarre movie that assumes the structure can place the unanswered questions into a box, but the answers were never given, thus this is the devoid or substance complaint. It’s mainly a character study of imaginary people in odd environments. We are to conclude they are just a clueless as the superhero movies.
I loved the film. It was so well shot especially the bit where the alien first comes down and it really stuck with me with bit where the guy leaves the set.
For me the most interesting thing about the film was this very subtle sense of dread threaded through all the pastel visuals and seemingly content characters. No one knows what is going on or why and yet they still act like everything is fine because everyone else is acting like everything is fine.
I like his other films, but this one instantly became my favourite of his
It's my #2 after Grand Budapest Hotel
The size of this channel does not match the incredible quality at all, hope you grow your audience a lot more in the future.
I clicked on this video and I just want to say I felt like I was hyperventilating when the alien was approaching when all the people where chanting, it was an unreal feeling great vid btw
This is why it’s one of my all time fav movies. It’s the second best of the year after beau is afraid.
Oh you like abstract movies for sure lol
@@jasonmelo9379 I like movies that I like.
@@FlorianFlorian573oh you like abstract movies I see lol
One of my fave scenes would be the cowboy singing. Manifesting a Wes anderson musical 🎵
I did not care for this movie till I watched your review. This review really helped my understanding better. Even the cardboard paper cutout facade town sets lends a sort of flimsiness and impermanent feel to the movie.
Did anyone notice that there were at least two scenes where the letters 'AS' appeared in the top left of the shot?
Unsure if it means anything but I noticed it a few times throughout the film.
“Everything’s connected but nothings working”
Great video!
Probs one of the best opinions about what the film is all about. Thanks.
God, this movie lived in my head for a month after I saw it. I didn’t understand it but I loved it. And it was those small moments, the ones where the fourth wall broke just a little that really caught me. It’s easy to say that I liked it because it was meta but I think ultimately I loved it because it was real. Actors make mistakes. On stage and onscreen. “Use your grief” she says to her neighbor, and yet you know it was the actor who heard it. “Why does Auggie put his hand on the griddle?” Why does Jones Hall? Grief is a weird thing. It makes everything feel one dimensional in comparison to what we feel and what we lost. It makes things feel like they don’t matter or they matter so much you crumple under the weight of it. How do I know I’m doing it right? You just are.
you might just be right about it being his masterpiece. it really blew my mind. something like Wes Anderson's Inland Empire.
Absolutely brilliant!
Brilliant! Thank you!
This is a wonderful film.
I’ve been a fan of Wes Anderson and his unmistakeable style since Moonrise Kingdom.
So, did you catch The French Dispatch? Do.🌿🐇
great video!
dude i love your videos
I say this whenever the subject of stylism versus naturalism or method acting comes up, but the rise of naturalism and social realism was a direct response to the invention of the radio, phonograph, still and motion picture cameras and cinema; these new mediums created the conditions for real life, real sound and visuals could be recorded and displayed, so the theatrical arts shifted from melodrama and pantomime to a focus on verisimilitude, the imitation of reality, through stuff like the plays of Ibsen and O'Neill and the Stanislavki school of acting, which then informed Strasberg, Kazan and Adler's Method acting and their school The Actors Studio. However, one of the primary criticisms of naturalism from way back in the day was that, rather than being a more 'real' version of life or one that would make audience's think critically about what was on stage and what it says about the world, naturalism method acting's focus on replication of emotionality actually creates a more insidious and manipulative form of melodrama, where the audience is switching off their critical thinking and being carried along by the performances; naturalism isn't imitating reality but creating an illusion, a fabricated reality. This is also why whenever anyone talks about stylism as it pertains to say Wes Anderson, I feel that it is best described as Brechtian, because he uses the entirety of the filmmaking process to not only tell the story but to signpost the thematic elements he sees as important. He trades off naturalism for a more heightened style of performance and reality that tells a very specific story.
Tl;dr - the kind of movies method actors make would be written off as mass-market pablum designed to make you turn your brain off by the Dadaists.
I found the play actor who opens the curtain on his set and starts “air boxing” while the prop piece containing the punching bag was in the shot, one set piece over - that says a lot. And again is open to interpretation. For AI, it can mimic real life but will get fundamental things wrong simply bc something is shifted over. It doesn’t understand, it just mimics the actions without meaning.
You can look at that punching bag in other ways too. The fact that it’s in the play, not the movie. That maybe when we think we’re awake, we’re still actually sleeping.
It was a brief shot and easy to miss if you were paying attention to what was happening in the scene. And it’s easy to spot once you know it’s there. And that says something about truths as well.
The broken car being either an easy fix or a complete write-off mimics problems in life, as well as those who try to find solutions. A third type of problem comes up, and it’s unknown how to deal with it. But both mechanic and car owner were quick to give up on the car once it had this new problem. Again - parallels to mental health and other issues in the world that don’t have a known cause.
The movie was written open enough to interpret things in many ways. It can mean nothing, or it can mean everything. But the answer is not in the movie, and watching it 100x will not provide any more clarity. (though it is certainly a good one to watch multiple times to notice things you hadn’t before, or take away new meanings to scenes.)
People hate the film because they went in for story. The film is very philosophical and psychological. I mean quarantine is big clue. Choice of word isn't detained or investigate or witness protection but quarantine.
This film is like life. After watching it, i didn't really know, what to do with it. But i instinctly knew, that there was hidden purpose in every scene.
your videos are great.
This video essay speaks the same exact tonality and flow of a similar analyst decomposing the 1999 film Magnolia.
"It's always raining frogs. Everything is raining frogs. Raining frogs is what decided your genes, your environment, your worst fears, and your happiest memories. It's all out of your control. All of it. Every single thing is just one of those things." -Fallopium Films
Finally, someone who is talking about the good parts of this movie
The first reviews I saw of the movie were so off based, I wasn't sure they'd actually seen it. One channel actually complained about the "revolutionary overtones", specifically the scene in which the cast are shouting at the audience "You have to wake up!".
The scene has the cast saying "You have to go to sleep", literally the opposite of their takeaway.
Well done! IMO there is much to say here about the untethered culture we currently reside in. Asteroid City only existed because of an ancient past event. The cause (the Asteroid) is taken away, chaos ensues and the prescription is government mandate. The cause returns and life proceeds as normal.
There are several references to religion, and the loss of faith within the characters speaking for (Western) society at large and I wonder if the un-tethering to the ancient (religion) has a larger play than realized.
"Well I don't even know myself to tell you the truth. I hadn't planned that way. He just sort-a did it while I was typing." Yeah, I've been there. When the writing is flowing, the characters just do what they do, and all you can do is just record it. Frankly, it's a little scary.
Sometimes, finding the right question is more important than the answer.
I watched the movie, I don’t know what happened but I enjoyed every bit of it.
Looks like the backrooms of a Norman Rockwell painting with live people to me.
Gotta admit, the use of dutch angles in this movie caught me off guard
not knowing what is going to happen is the only thing that conforts me. If I knew, based on life, I wuold just end it now. Maybe tomorroe I will be happy, and if not, prehaps the day after; otherwise sadness is the default and why would I choose to be sad?
So glad someone is defending this film! Everyone hated it and i defended all the time! Good reading of the film too. You gave some interesting paths to go.
I liked this movie. The whole time I watched it I had the feeling it was conveying something personal. On the surface it pretends to be camp but I think it hides sadness. I appreciated the sadness hidden in it. Normally I watch brutal action adventure so if it won me over it must be good!
Not talking about films but as for the cinema’s future, I think maybe a city in the future might have 2-3 instead of the current 6 or whatever depending on the city.
Another inconsistency is the placement of the audience during the stargazer’s presentation when the alien first appears.
It’s all over the place. Different groupings of characters for the closeups and the wide shots
I instantly thought there was no way Anderson did this accidentally. There had to be a reasoning
i see Asteroid City in the same context as Roadside Picnic, the alien visit representing cosmic insignificance as all the little people run around wondering what the meaning of it all is when the truth is there is essentially no meaning.
Just opposite, the alien gives their life meaning. It is why Woodrow decided to spend the money on the girlfriend.
I really love his use of color but his production designers don’t get enough of the credit
The photographer burns his hand to wake up. He needed the “sleep” made up of this wilderness of events that was his stagnation and grief or else he would never have burned his hand. Now because of burning himself on purpose, unexpectedly and un-premeditated, he is thus free of his belief in determinism. Romance doesn’t free him like in a Hollywood payoff scene. Pain is how he seeks freedom.
“Misunderstood masterpiece” is the rallying cry of the Wes Anderson faithful.
I respect your piece. I watched it all the way through and I can believe that Wes was working with those ideas. I just don’t think it works very well. It’s one of my least favourite of his films.
Burned his hand to feel something… Numb to emotions, & numb to the world.
I finally got to watch this movie last night. As a person that’s fond of anthropology, and ancient religions, and physics, I couldn’t help but geek out the entire time watching this movie. It represents truth that has been around all of us but never seen. As represented with the “To wake you must first sleep”. Immediately seeing the alien I noticed it’s connection with religion only after the fact while seeing the picture of Scarlett and the Alien mirrored. It doesn’t imply they are the same, in fact, with every other context, it implies the Alien, too, is with the stars. The stars being the cosmic wave of light that flows through the universe, also being the energy in which we exist. The alien is not an alien at all, nor does it represent doom. It can, it very much can. But I think it truly represents the soul. And the commentary around it is how we have taken advantage of this knowledge that has given us all of Society (Asteroid City). The people within that society though are more introspective, meanwhile as the movie progressed the society became more distracted with money, fame, and the egotistical parts of the psyche. It’s a vastly underrated film. One pointing towards a look from the outside in within one’s soul. And it’s a commentary, at least to me, about how this process has changed, even though it’s how we actually progressed. Such a beautifully done masterpiece. Every scene was riddled with references. From the Egyptian hieroglyphics, all the way to the alien. It’s saying the true message and meaning of life is there. We, as a society, drastically missed the point, as we progressed. And that’s kinda why the ending feels like it has no close, when in reality. It very much does. I need to watch this movie about 5 more times in order to feel as if I truly know the story, but so far. This is one of my favorite films I’ve ever seen!
Can someone clarify something for me, Is that clip of Wes Anderson yelling real? I know it isnt, but is it?
Atroid City is about cars (automobiles) and how this invention is so powerful, Europeans had to colonise Native Americans in order for them to invent a car. The car wanted to be invented and it called out to ppl and some ppl responded to the call. Ps: see the Native American decorations in the bg slowly turn into the land being the bg and the first foreground of the automobile until the end when the car becomes the bg.
All characters in the movie, each and every one have a common perk:
They have trouble expressing their emotion while being affected by trauma. Especially to their loved ones. A huge communication barrier.
Also, I'm, the screenwriter is the director itself, trying to cope with the changing world.
The shot before the girl scout asks if Woodrow and Dinah are in a relationship. They are sitting apart but in the next shot, they are sitting next to each other sharing a snack.