The Lost City of Twee: Anderson Continues Quest of Counterfeit Sentiments

Somewhere along the way, over the past twenty years, Wes Anderson’s style completely eclipsed his substance, and never has this been more apparent than the tiresomely shallow Asteroid City. Seemingly unable to produce a narrative not buoyed by an overstuffed assembly of celebrity, his latest deepens the sense of Russian Doll syndrome which pervaded 2021’s The French Dispatch, forgetting to imbue his customarily impressive production design with any discernible objective. A vast, empty spectacle of meandering, overly mannered happenings submerged in layers of fussy, intricate details quickly deflates beneath a hodgepodge of Anderson’s expected peripheral spasms for a film which feels unsalvageable in its shambolic intention.…...