"Asteroid City" presents Wes Anderson’s fanciful 1955 desert city

Writer/director Wes Anderson is a unique, admittedly offbeat auteur who presents zany settings exhibiting characteristic whimsical, entertaining humor. Nominated seven times for Academy Awards, three for Best Original Screenplay, Wes Anderson has forged his own unconventional empire: “French Dispatch,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” His latest, “Asteroid City,” will enhance and solidify his revered, idiosyncratic brilliance.

Set in the title location, reportedly formed by said asteroid in 3007 B.C., “Asteroid City” begins as a television event, introduced on a black-and-white sound stage by its director (Bryan Cranston) in the 4/3 tv aspect ratio. The playwright (Edward Norton) will weigh in before the image expands to widescreen as a chugging train delivers John Deere tractors, avocados, pecans, sleek Pontiacs, and a nuclear warhead. Yes, it’s 1955 and the military will detonate it with the resulting mushroom cloud. Meantime the Junior Stargazer convention proceeds apace, a car needs repair, a quarantine is enforced, a photographer shows his expertise, singing cowboys perform, an acting teacher contributes—in other words, it’s wacky Wes Anderson at his wacky best.

Visitors from Earth and beyond intermingle with residents, most in candy-colored costumes at various venues: a diner, a motel, outdoor landscapes, a local observatory, the television studio, and the theater stage. Against desaturated desert/Monument Valley style backdrops, several individual and group crises occur, most often subdued as they interrogate relationships, life and death.

A who’s who of over twenty fine actors contribute fabulous, droll interpretations to characters’ encounters and collisions. Deriving maximum comic effect from all this, director Anderson presents his skewed humor as if nothing could be more natural or normal. Alexandre Desplat’s music interprets and complements the ambiance as the film shape shifts through topics: science and science fiction, musicals and heartfelt romance, existential drama and philosophical treatise. All this is embedded in an hour forty-five minutes of fabulous entertainment. Check listings.