You can set your (vintage 50s) timepiece to it: one of the unbreakable laws of 21st-century cinema is that a new Wes Anderson film must always be greeted with a chorus of moans about how Wes Anderson-y it looks. That was proven by the reaction to the the trailer for Anderson’s next film, Asteroid City, as a host of Twitter users furiously raced to be the first person to post “Wes Anderson has made his film again”.
Admittedly, there was plenty for the haters to go at. Symmetrically perfect imagery. Intense attention to period detail. An almost comically overstuffed cast of A-listers. (Good to see that Wes has chucked in a budding unknown by the name of Tom Hanks this time around, just to even things up.) Dialogue so arch McDonald’s could sue it for copyright infringement. Great needle drops. A bearded Jason Schwartzman – that one’s an absolute deal-breaker for Anderson. And, above all, a vibe of fussy tweeness that seems to perfectly bifurcate audiences into “love” and “loathe”.
So yes, you’re right: Wes Anderson has made his film again, but frankly … who cares? The inference from Anderson naysayers is that the director is unwilling or incapable to change his style, but should he have to? Shouldn’t he instead be celebrated for finding an original mode of storytelling – so original that while many film-makers have tried to mimic it, few have been able to nail its distinct Anderson-ness – and endlessly working, film by film, to fine-tune it?
Some directors freewheel, others work within restrictive boxes, discovering new things to say within that tight framework. But even the freewheelers have their recurring themes and preoccupations. Paul Thomas Anderson, for example has delivered some wildly differing movies (his last two were a stately drama set in the world of 50s British haute couture and a shaggy Californian coming of age comedy) but he still has fascinations he regularly returns to, notably the Hollywood-adjacent San Fernando Valley region he grew up in.
Granted the other Anderson’s preoccupations are more obvious, right there on the screen, than most – as someone in the comments of the Asteroid City trailer pointed out, you could tell it was a Wes Anderson film even from the tiny thumbnail image. Even so, he has shown signs of evolution and recalibration over the years. At odds with his twee reputation is the fact that recent films have taken on a darker tone, featuring heavier thematic elements (his last three have explored, in various ways, the creeping menace of authoritarianism) and even some surprising flourishes of violence.
If his aesthetic is consistent, his subject matter is wildly varied. Anderson has tackled historical dramas, road trip movies, coming of age comedies, family sagas. His films have been set in pre-second world war eastern Europe, May 68-era France (pictured above), an imagined post-apocalyptic Japan. He has played with different storytelling techniques – anthologies, tales within tales within tales – and has even tried his hand at two stop-motion movies that look and feel distinct from one another. (The unkempt and downbeat visuals of Isle of Dogs are a world away from the cleaner, more classically animated Fantastic Mr Fox.)
Judging by its trailer, Asteroid City – about a convention for young stargazers which is disrupted by what looks like an alien invasion – is something new again, with its desert setting and tinge of sci-fi. Even its sun-blasted colour palette looks different from what has come before. And, perhaps most shockingly of all, there’s no sign of Bill Murray. Sure, his mix of deadpan and whimsy might bring you out in hives. Sure you might find his characters robotic or unloveable. But, ultimately, Wes Anderson’s films are far more original than the snarky tweets bemoaning them.
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