Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” the first film in two years, is the nervous, meticulous attention to detail in the composition. The artwork and the impressive use of music that are the hallmarks of Anderson’s work are still present in this film.
Yuji Shibasaki, music director and music critic, explains the “dissimilar effects” of the country music and skiffle from the 1940s to the 1950s used in this film. This is the fifth installment of the series “The Music Selection Creates the Movie“.
This article contains spoilers for the movie.
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Wes Anderson’s excellent use of pop music
In a previous interview, Wes Anderson said the following.
“So much emotion comes into a movie with music. When the pictures and the music come together, you never quite know what the chemistry is going to be. Sometimes it really surprises you with something that is just arresting.”
Source: https://www.nme.com/features/film-interviews/wes-anderson-seu-jorge-reinvented-david-bowie-songs-he-didnt-know-i-didnt-realise-until-i-was-shooting-the-movie-3458990
You might already know if you are a Wes Anderson fan, his films have long been acclaimed for their clever use of pop music: The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, Love, Nico, Elliott Smith, and others, as well as jazz and traditional music from around the world. The wide-ranging selection of music is outstanding, not only evoking an immersive visual experience, but also allowing the audience to rediscover the hidden charm of each song. Anderson and his longtime collaborator, music supervisor Randall Poster, deserve much credit for their mastery in breaking new ground in the “use of pop music” in contemporary commercial film.
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Intricate structure and fantastic setting
“Asteroid City” is Wes Anderson’s 11th feature film. He also wrote the screenplay based on the original idea by himself and Roman Coppola.
First of all, although I would like to briefly introduce the story, the setting is quite complicated as usual. The setting is 1955. The film has a parallel/nested structure: a fictional new stage play called “Asteroid City” itself, behind-the-scenes footage of the play’s production, and a TV program featuring the play on. The film stars Jason Schwartzman, a regular in Anderson’s films, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Jeff Goldblum, Margot Robbie, and Jeffrey Wright. Bram, Margot Robbie, and others, the superb cast is a vertically and horizontally intertwined, complex drama.
“Asteroid City” is set in a fictional town in the desert of the American Southwest. The center of this small town of 87 residents is dominated by a motel, a gas station, and a diner. A short distance away, there is a crater that was formed by a meteorite impact in 3007 B.C. and a small observatory. Augie (played by Schwartzman), who has just lost his wife, his grieving children, and Midge (played by Johansson), a comedic actress with a traumatic past, and her daughter Dinah, visit the town for the Junior Space Science Awards celebration. However, an unexpected visitor (an alien) arrives during the celebration, and everyone who witnessed the event is stranded in Asteroid City by military order, which is the synopsis of this play within a play.
As mentioned above, the story of the play-within-a-play is also depicted in parallel, showing the delicate human relationships among the playwright, director, and actors.
