Asteroid City
Asteroid City
Asteroid City: a fictional American desert town, circa 1955. Junior Stargazers and Space Cadets from across the country assemble for the annual Asteroid Day celebration but the scholarly competition is spectacularly upended by world-changing events. Equal parts comedy, drama, and romance. Directed by Wes Anderson and featuring an all-star cast including Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Hanks.
James Saenz reviewedJune 13, 2025
“you can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep.”
existentialism and grief orbiting each other, unable to confront one another or themselves. a gradual loss of autonomy as both the narrative and its creation unravel. how do you reconcile the story and its themes when the words keeping escaping your fingers, bleeding ink into paper without your control and when you don’t understand it? how can your actors understand it? why does june feebly attempt to stick to the lesson plan? why do mercedes and her character midge run away from the beginnings of things? why does augie burn his hand on the quickie griddle? these are problems the cast and characters of the stage play of asteroid city have never seen before. it’s the chaos of creation and destruction and our desperate attempts at making sense of it.
the story of the universe is written in innumerable riddles across myriad stars; the story of the art we create is much the same, and even if we don’t quite grasp it, we’re compelled to make it. there’s purpose in it, as opaque as it may seem. we just keep telling the story.