ASTEROID CITY - a Review by Guy S. Malone, Researcher 

"I want to know what the f**k Wes Anderson is on." -- Captain HE's first comment as the credits rolled after we saw Asteroid City, the newest addition to the wild, wild world of Wes Anderson.

With a cast second to none, it's evident that Wes is an actor's auteur. The question remains: is he a moviegoer's auteur? We used to think his films were an acquired taste, but we aren't so convinced anymore. The Czarina, for example, loves Fantastic Mr. Fox and thinks the rest of his films are "weird for weird's sake," and she has seen his most accessible films, Moonrise Kingdom and Grand Budapest Hotel.  And I know two people who went to Wes's movies on the recommendation of friends and were so incensed afterward that they broadcast across social media that it was the worst drivel they had ever seen.  

Our conclusion: you either like Wes Anderson films or you don't. If you like his movies (we do) your affection from film to film is a matter of degree. If you don't like his films, the matter of degree ranges from thinking he's "just weird" to a hatred that burns like a thousand suns. For the record, Captain HE liked Asteroid City, calling it "a masterful understatement of 50's America. A nation concentrating on the wonders of terrestrial science while living placidly with the destructive power of atomic fission."

Wes takes us back to 1955 in the titular small southwestern town with a grand painted desert vista. The camera does a 360-degree pan, revealing a more colorful version of the town in Bad Day at Black Rock, except for an on-ramp to nowhere (of course.) But the town is deserted--our cue that this is a set. And here is where a newbie to a Wes Anderson film either buys in or cashes out. Our film goes black-and-white and the aspect ratio becomes that of an old Sylvania TV set. We become witnesses to a 1950s-era teleplay-in-the-making, as explained by a Rod Serling/Edward R. Murrow-type host (Bryan Cranston). He introduces us to a stuffy playwright (Edward Norton) and an angsty director (Adrien Brody). The idea of showcasing a play-within-a-TV-show-within-a-movie is difficult to describe, but those three set the stage, as it were.

This is the transition that takes us back to the colorized movie set, where Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson), a Marilyn Monroe-esque celebrity arrives with her daughter Dinah (Grace Edwards), an award winner in Asteroid City's Annual Junior Stargazers and Space Cadets convention. Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), a recently widowed war photographer, shows up with his daughters, who think they are witches (Ella, Gracie, and Willan Faris), and his teenage son, Woodrow (Jake Ryan), another award-winner.  Augie's children have recently lost their mother, but Augie has not found the right time to tell them. His wife's ashes are in a Tupperware container, which Augie intends to present to his cranky and disapproving father-in-law Stanley (Tom Hanks) when he arrives. Woodrow falls for Dinah, which brings the laconic Augie and the aloof Midge together. They share their tales of woe and ennui through the windows of their side-by-side cabins in a rental park. Their confessions evolve into a kind of seduction. But it's difficult for romance to blossom when cars zip through the streets shooting at each other for no apparent reason, mushroom clouds from atomic bomb tests blossom on the horizon, and a close encounter of the second kind brings chaos and a military quarantine to Asteroid City.

Just when we're becoming accustomed to what is happening in the colorful movie, we're returned to the black-and-white world behind the scenes. 

As usual, a lot is going on--too much, really to take in with one viewing, and the detail and minutiae are big parts of what makes Wes Anderson movies special. They are the baubles that decorate the plot and provide the backdrop for the wide array of characters, many, little more than cameos. In addition to Johansson, Schwartzman, Norton, and Brody, many other Anderson regulars show up: Jeffrey Wright as an Army General, Tilda Swinton as an astronomer, along with Willem Dafoe, Tony Revolori, Liev Schreiber, and Jeff Goldblum as the Alien (of course). We also welcome newcomers to WesWorld: Tom Hanks, as mentioned; Hope Davis and Stephen Park as parents; Rupert Friend as a cowboy smitten with science teacher Maya Hawke; Steve Carell as the happy-go-lucky motel manager; Matt Dillon as an auto mechanic; Margot Robbie, in a walk-on, and many others.

Cinematographer Robert Yeoman perfectly visualizes Anderson's co-writer Roman Coppola's screenplay, as does Adam Stockhausen through his delightfully detailed production design. They frame both the order and the chaos of the film, with its inspired toggling back and forth between the paranoid 1950s-era Grade-B Sci-Fi flicks and the gravitas of anthology TV series, like the much-feted Playhouse 90.  Even as we write this review and reflect, the inventiveness and soul of Asteroid City grow in our estimation.  

A second viewing will likely push the score higher, but for now: 8.0 out of 10

No Hard Feelings

NO HARD FEELINGS - a Review by Guy S. Malone, Researcher (with input from Serfing Dude, Captain HE, and FilmZ).

A lot of fans who have seen Jennifer Lawrence's talk show riffs and red-carpet improvs will wonder why she hasn't done a comedy film before this. Her off-the-wall goofiness, quick wit, charm, and beauty seem to make her a natural for the genre.  Many of those same fans will see No Hard Feelings and wonder why an Academy Award-winning actor would do an R-rated teen comedy.  A girl can't win.  It's a mark of her star power that people are lining up at theaters asking for tickets to "the Jennifer Lawrence movie" as if the film takes a backseat to her presence in it.  And the J-Law phenomenon is what has given No Hard Feelings a successful launch, but word-of-mouth has given it legs. 

J-Law plays Maddie Barker, a 32-year-old Uber driver in her native Montauk. Maddie's life is a mess; she can't commit to anything, including financial management which has resulted in her car being repossessed. Forced to rollerblade to her second job as a bartender and in danger of losing the house she grew up in, she commiserates with her married friends, Sara (Natalie Morales), a compassionate sounding board, and Jim (Scott MacArthur) a model of comic ineptitude. After only cursory consideration, Maddie replies to an ad placed by wealthy helicopter parents (Matthew Broderick, Laura Benanti) that promises a Buick Regal to a woman in her early-20s who is willing to "date" their son, Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), a timid 19-year-old recluse, before he heads off to Princeton. Despite her age, Maddie is hired and conspires with Percy's parents to set up a "happenstance" meeting at the animal shelter where he volunteers. 

The meet-cute turns ugly fast--Percy thinks he is being kidnapped and maces Maddie.  Still, as awkward and fearful as he is, he does see the upside of a possible affair with a beautiful older woman, and despite numerous pitfalls ranging from the cringy to the hilarious, he finally promises to “put out." As events unfold, the humor becomes more subdued and the story evolves into a sweet coming-of-age story for Percy and, surprisingly, for Maddie, whose own father issues have left her emotionally stunted and fearful of commitment. To this end, the film works better than it should. Growth can come at any age and inspiration from the strangest of circumstances. 

The film's trailer promises a raunchy sex comedy, and it has its moments, like the scene where a skinny-dipping seduction turns into a brawl in which a nude J-Law takes on three drunken kids who have stolen their clothing. Some may say the scene is beneath an Academy Award winner. A fellow filmgoer, Captain HE, saw this as "an opportunity missed. The poignancy of the relationship was wasted on sophomoric humor.  There were layers of real human angst and growth ... sacrificed for a gratuitous naked beach fight." In his opinion piece for Vulture, Nate Jones asks if similar gripes were lodged after Viggo Mortensen's full frontal fight in Eastern Promises? No. In fact, J-Law's assault could be seen as a major leveler for women in film. She definitely tweaks the idea, and the ideal, of the traditional Hollywood bombshell.  As Serfing Dude, another friend put it: "J-Law was great as always! Her comedic timing and sense of humor are only surpassed by her beauty!"

As a perk, we have the unexpected onscreen chemistry between Lawrence and Feldman, a star in the making. Reportedly, the film's director Gene Stupnitsky had Lawrence in mind for the script he collaborated on with John Phillips, and Lawrence loved it so much that she committed her production company to it.  No Hard Feelings does capture the vast culture gap between teens and even someone in their early-30s: the younger set's reliance on technology and the resulting social ineptitude that cuts them off from real intimacy.  

In reflection, our major criticism is that No Hard Feelings tries to do too much, touching on many points while truly addressing a few. This was true of both set pieces and characters. We would have been happy--maybe happier--had the story focused solely on the Maddie Barker character. And we were flummoxed by the presence of the excellent and charismatic actor, Zahn McClarnon, as the surfing lawyer. In NHF, he seems to exist as a character for one throwaway line that capitalizes on his Native American heritage, and then he is jammed into another scene to make his presence worth his time. As the genre goes, few expect great art, but Stupnitsky's scattershot ambition should have been reined in to flesh out a few good ideas and set pieces into a tighter plot.  Luckily, Jennifer Lawrence and the rest of the excellent cast save his bacon.

7.0 out of 10

No Hard Feelings is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for sexual content, language, some graphic nudity, and brief drug use. Run time: 103 minutes.