A methodical and well selected color palette, symmetric framing, characters that look like they just stepped out of a cartoon and a good tone of subtle and honest humor: these are just some of the traits that makes everyone quickly recognize a Wes Anderson movie when they see one.
With his theatrical formula and his language that takes advantage of everything that is most creative in Hollywood, the Texan filmmaker can build not only his own aesthetics, but a whole world of his own where his characters – even those who are exaggeratedly caricatured – are motivated by deep emotional bonds.
Wes Anderson is a big name in industry, but despite all the success with the public, his methods still divide opinion. While some love Anderson’s excess and see it as pure cinema essence, others see the director trapped in his own formula that no longer sustains itself.
This year, the director is back to the big screens and to divide the critics opinion again. With a strong cast and actors who are already very familiar with Anderson’s works, in Asteroid City, we follow a writer on the world of his own fictional play about an itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention, created to bring together students and parents from across the country to compete for a scholarship. The story happens in a fictional city located in the middle of the American desert.
In Asteroid City, everything that is most characteristic of the filmmaker this time is taken to the extreme. Exploring themes like grief, quarantine and the meaning of life and art as a reflect of it, is not hard to associate the whole fictional plot to Wes Anderson as an artist himself.
But who is Wes Anderson anyway?
Even though the actor, producer and director nowadays lives in France and his movies pass a lot of the stereotypical “French cinema vibes”, Wes Anderson was born in Houston, Texas on May 1, 1969. Son of an archeologist and a writer, he’s probably the Frenchest Texan we know. Anderson studied philosophy and arts at the University of Texas in Austin, the place where he would meet one of his future most faithful partner in movies – and roommate -, Owen Wilson. They both graduated in 1991 and moved together to California.
It was with Owen, Owen’s brother Luke Wilson and the producer James L. Brooks that Wes Anderson gave his first steps at film industry. In 1996, the Texan director debuted with Bottle Rocket, being also the debut of Wilson brothers in acting. The comedy film written by both Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson is based on the director’s short film of same name released in 1994.
Even though Bottle Rocket was a big commercial flop, the producer James L. Brook was sure of Wes Anderson’s potential. According to an interview with The Guardian in 2014, the producer believed that Anderson “saw things differently ‘than the billions of other ants on the hill'”. So, two years after Bottle Rocket, in 1998, the Texan filmmaker – with the help of the producer – released his second film: Rushmore.
The independent comedy movie about a student that falls for his elementary school teacher had a better budget return and starred Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray, both actors that later would also become Wes Anderson ‘s big collaborators. Until now, Jason Schwartzman has starred in 7 Wes Anderson films – just as Owen Wilson – including Asteroid City, and Bill Murray in 9.
With the passage of time, the director would always count on a series of other great actors. Most of them became recurring figures in the filmmaker’s films, which turned out to be another feature of the director. In an interview with The New York times in 2021, Anderson explains the phenomenon.
“I don’t know who gravitated toward whom, but as soon as Owen Wilson and I started making a movie, well, I wanted Owen to be involved with the other movies I would do. As soon as I had Bill Murray, I wanted him on the next one. I wanted Jason Schwartzman. It was natural to me.”
Wes Anderson
With 12 pictures credited as a director to date, Anderson has been nominated for Oscar three times for Best Original Screenplay, with The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel. And once for Best Animated Feature with Fantastic Mr. Fox.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), considered one of the director’s greatest successes, also earned him nominations for Best Picture, and won the statuette in 4 technical categories.
Love or hate, the way that Wes Anderson makes movies is still a big example of how to create an authentic, enchanting and memorable formula that transcends only one specific public.
Wes Anderson’s newest film, Asteroid City, stars Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johanson and Jason Schwartzman and is already showing in Brazilian cinemas.
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The article above was edited by Juliana Sanches.
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