Wes Anderson is at it again with Asteroid City.

Once more, an elaborate structure plays games with the viewer. Asteroid City is the name of a play within the movie, a fictitious place in America. We go back and forth between fictions, sometimes in black and white sometimes in colour. It never seems real. The film conceals a vast amount of detail under the surface, inviting you to watch the film over and over. Sure you can get through it the first time, indeed this one felt easier than the last one, Paris Dispatch. But as usual there’s much more to be found with every additional viewing. I know that’s what I’ve done in the past with Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, French Dispatch, Isle of Dogs. And while I’ve only watched this one once, I know there’s lots there to discover.

Every few minutes someone says something preposterous. For instance in the trailer we hear this announcement:
“Each year we celebrate Asteroid Day, commemorating Sept 23, 3007 BC, when the Arid Plains Meteorite made Earth impact.“

The cast is a stunning array of talent, including the usual suspects coming back again and again (Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Liev Screiber, Bob Balaban, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Norton, Scarlett Johansson, Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum and Adrien Brody) as well as newcomers Tom Hanks, Matt Dillon & Steve Carell. It feels at times as though they’re having so much fun that they’re paying Anderson to be in the film rather than the other way around.

The musical score includes a couple of set pieces from Anderson’s regular collaborator Alexandre Desplat although the film is full of popular songs evoking a period.

This is again full of moments of beautiful symmetry, an artificial work of art that never seems real. It feels less challenging than previous Wes Anderson films, perhaps because it’s so American, often very silly.

While we may be in a surreal version of the 1950s, we’re exploring contemporary issues. In a summer when the film Oppenheimer will remind us of the Manhattan Project, it seems perfectly natural when we see atomic bomb tests nearby in the desert. Or maybe it’s because of the war in Ukraine.

We will see an alien land a space-ship. As in ET and Close Encounters, the military gets involved, censoring everyone and shutting down the town, although they’re so inept as to be comical.

As in his previous films the children are the smart ones, although their special gifts may be a liability. This time they’re even more nerdy and brilliant than before, performing astonishing feats among the goofy adults.

I must watch it again of course. I came out of the film smiling.