Asteroid City 2023 by AverageMansReviews

Asteroid City 2023 by AverageMansReviews

Review Time

Warning: there is flashing effects/colourful effects/breaking/self harm/shooting/references to child abuse and domestic violence

This is an odd little film: this film is shot from the prospective of making a TV program; the host of an anthology TV series [Bryan Cranston:] simply put he is like a narrator/physical on-screen narrator. In my opinion he has the best comedy moment in this film; because it is simple yet effective to pull off, basically there is a moment in this film where he is in colour as it relates to the film and he realises that he shouldn't be there on-screen at that time. Conrad Earp [Edward Norton:] a legendary playwright and then we have Schubert Green [Adrien Brody:] the director of this project in black-and-white.

Generally speaking: the framework and pacing of this 105 minutes film is; well straight off the bat the first thing I should point out is; basically this project has been split down mainly into two rotating timelines; beforehand production and anything to do with that which can be signified in these scenes or a sequences being in black-and-white, meanwhile the actual theatre production in its complete form using normal colour. Moving on slightly with their framework and pacing; I am sitting here scratching my head, because much later on in a black-and-white sequence; as far as I can make out of putting your audience in this false sense of sleep or something like that, I think what they were going with here is; making your audiences go through this really slow film and on top of that to really push that idea we have this of something to the effect of; this chant of "If you don't fall asleep you can't wake up!" Which obviously then brings up the questions of; so you are deliberately making this film slow and in hindsight making it a chore to get through them? Why? Is it a inside a joke that we are not privy to?

I mean everything you need to know about this film is; the art of the colour parts of this film; the bed designs, the costumes and everything else, as we are being sit down in the era of the 1950's and not forgetting the spaceship this is all captivating and the strongest asset to this film by none. Don't get me wrong I am not disrespecting any of the cast because they all put in a good job, but because of the framework and pacing I felt really disconnected and made sleepy; but also drawn in by the art, it is a very mixed of things with this film.

I mean I am British so we understand deadpan comedy easily, but there is deadpan and then there is tumbleweed coming across the screen, other than the brief moment of comedy I mentioned earlier, this film is quite depressing and bleak.

This film receives: 5/10, this film is mixed; this mark is clearly to represent the positives of this film such as; all of the artistic visions of including the division between the two timelines in a nutshell one using black-and-white and the other not and the cast is all good. I mean for a moment I was going to go for a lesser mark, but then I went back to my original marking, because it just became really hard to justify it. So if you like weird films with a well assembled cast of names including a science-fiction theme, then take a look at this film, I should just say I like my weird films also, but as I have already alluded to in one way or another this film wasn't/isn't the most easiest to understand in its construction not by content. This film also has some awards accredited to its name; 5 Nominees that includes International Cinematographers' Film Festival Manaki Brothers 2023 Golden Camera 300 Main Competition Camera 300 Robert D. Yeoman