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When the trailer for _Asteroid City _was released, my first reaction was, “Yes, that certainly is a Wes Anderson movie.” No filmmaker working today has such a readily recognizable visual
mode, to the degree that discovering it in reality and mimicking it in AI-assisted fan films have become cottage meme industries. Of course, no one can make a Wes Anderson movie like the man
himself, which turns out to be a mixed blessing. When your every casting quirk and cinematographic fetish has become a virtual trademark, how do you continue to till the same aesthetic
fields without becoming a parody of yourself, a one-trick pony whose once-refreshing stylization has become little more than a brand? Anderson demonstrates his awareness of that predicament,
if not a fully satisfying answer to it, in _Asteroid City_. Using a narrative structure that’s as mathematically precise as his camera movements, he has crafted a
movie-with-a-play-within-a-TV-show that has at its tiny emotional core a story about grief and loss. That core consists of Augie Steenbeck, a pipe-smoking war photographer who has traveled
to a remote Nevada hamlet with his teenaged son Woodrow (Jake Ryan) and his three identical triplet young daughters. It’s the 1950s, and Woodrow, a scientific prodigy, has been invited to a
camp for fellow brainiacs conducted under the auspices of the U.S. military. (Atomic bomb tests occasionally rattle the town’s few windows.) Augie is played by Jason Schwartzman, and it’s
worth pausing to note how Schwartzman has evolved from playing the precocious misfit in Anderson’s _Rushmore_ to playing the father of one here. What hasn’t evolved is his characters’
ability to process and express emotions: Augie has yet to inform his children that their mother died three weeks ago and summons his father-in-law (Tom Hanks) to help deal with this dilemma.
When, on the camp’s first night, an extraterrestrial sighting prompts a quarantine of Asteroid City, the Steenbecks are trapped there along with the other attendees and their parents, who
include movie star Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson); a school teacher (Maya Hawke) and her class; a cowboy (Rupert Friend) and his pals; the local grease monkey (Matt Dillon); the motel
manager (Steve Carell); the general overseeing the whole thing (Jeffrey Wright); the lead scientist (Tilda Swinton) and others. (Just writing that sentence feels like a parody of a Wes
Anderson trailer.) Woodrow strikes up a tentative romance with Midge’s daughter (Grace Edwards, who’s a standout in her first significant role), while his father develops a bond with the
ennui-laden star herself. We only get to all this, however, after an introduction from a black-and-white Bryan Cranston, the host of a TV program that purports to take viewers (us) inside
the preparation and production of a play, namely the one we eventually see in vivid color with a roster of stars. The behind-the-scenes stuff centers on Tennessee Williams-esque playwright
Conrad Earp (Edward Norton), macho director Schubert Green (Adrien Brody), and the casting process. So, for instance, Schwartzman plays Augie in the movie, but he plays the actor playing
Augie in the black-and-white scenes. Sponsor If this seems like a lot to pack into an hour and forty-four minutes, it is. True to form, Anderson rarely lets more than a few seconds go by
without rapid-fire dialogue or a gracefully executed side pan, or both. Because he knows what he’s doing, this never feels assaultive or overwhelming, and it’s certainly never boring. But
there’s also a certain evanescence to all these bells and whistles, a sense that they’re ways to get around dealing with the feelings at the heart of the tale. Which, I suppose, might be the
point. If _Asteroid City_ is about how stories can both help us process trauma and distract us from it, then there’s an additional layer of metafiction to contend with, since Anderson’s
tightly controlled creations have always seemingly served that purpose for him. Nostalgia, missing parents, forging trivial order out of existential chaos—these have been constant themes,
and they’ve been tackled with dry-eyed and dry-witted aplomb. One of the reasons _The Royal Tenenbaums_ remains Anderson’s highest achievement is that it’s the one film where his characters
are allowed to fully break down, where the anguish and fury of a dysfunctional family is allowed to vent. There are hints of that in _Asteroid City_, as there have been in most of his films.
While this latest is a marvelous piece of whip-smart entertainment, we’re still waiting to see what might happen when the director relaxes his grip on the wheel and lets his gut take a
little more control. (Opens Thursday, June 22, at theaters nationwide.) ALSO THIS WEEK: It’s no secret that theaters have continued to struggle to attract audiences post-pandemic, especially
to see films that don’t have superheroes or video game characters in them. Portland’s LIVING ROOM THEATERS has come up with an initiative to address that problem that’s hard to beat: free
movies! Every Sunday night, Living Room will screen a different repertory title for free, in the hope that once folks experience the joys of communal viewing in comfy seats with a refreshing
beverage and a tasty snack, they’ll get back in the habit. And the selections are nothing to sneeze at: George Lucas’s first feature, _THX-1138_, screens this Sunday, June 25, followed by
_Jaws_, _Silence of the Lambs_, _Blazing Saddles_ and other favorites throughout the summer. If you miss the free screenings, each title will also screen on the Tuesday of the following
week…for a price. Check the Living Room Theater website for a full schedule. Portland-based rockers Portugal. The Man are in the middle of a busy year, touring to support their first album
in six years, which will be released Friday, June 23. Despite their considerable success, they’ve always had a knack for keeping things local and real. (The Portland Pickles baseball club is
hosting Portugal. The Man night on Sunday, for instance.) Three videos from that new record, _Chris Brown Saved My Life_, will have their world premiere on Saturday, June 23, at Movie
Madness. The clips will play on a loop from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the store’s miniplex, so pop in to get a sneak peek. And I’m sure the folks at Movie Madness wouldn’t mind if you picked up a
DVD or three to rent while you’re there. BLU-RAY OF THE WEEK: Speaking of movies on disc, I don’t know if Movie Madness will stock the new three-disc _Anna May Wong Collection_ or not, but
wherever you have to go to get it, it’s worth the trip. Wong, of course, was early Hollywood’s best-known Asian-American star, bringing glamour, mystique, and keen intelligence to a series
of movies that mostly didn’t deserve her. The three titles in this set, all produced by Paramount Pictures in 1938 and 1939, offer ample proof of two things: Wong’s ability to rise above
stock material, and the studio system’s ability to churn out eminently watchable, fast-paced product at an astonishing pace. _Dangerous to Know_ and _Island of Lost Men _are brisk, if
creaky, fun, but it’s _King of Chinatown_ that really demands attention. Co-starring Akim Tamiroff and a very young Anthony Quinn (a frequent co-star of Wong’s), it features Wong as a
surgeon and Philip Ahn as her lover, a lawyer. Seeing Asian-American stars playing capable, socially integrated professionals in a 1939 film is refreshing and astonishing. (Sadly, onetime
Charlie Chan Sidney Toler, a Swede, plays Wong’s character’s father in yellowface.) It’s barely an hour, and barely a story, but boy is it fascinating. Frankly, all three of these films are
the sort you can probably find streaming for free on YouTube in some degraded print, but they are marvelously restored on these Blu-Ray discs, which come with informational and entertaining
audio commentary tracks from journalists and historians who have done their research. REPERTORY TITLES: FRIDAY: _The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition)_
(Cinemagic); _Who Framed Roger Rabbit?_ (Hollywood, also Saturday) Sponsor SATURDAY: _His Girl Friday _(Cinema 21); _The LEGO Movie _(Cinemagic); _The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(Extended Edition)_ (Cinemagic); _Nashville_ (Hollywood, also Sunday) SUNDAY: The revealing documentary _All Male: The International Male Story_ tells the rags-to-riches tale of the
mail-order clothing catalog that became a touchstone of the gay community (Hollywood); _The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition)_ (Cinemagic) MONDAY: _Happy Together_
(Clinton St.), _The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Standard Edition)_ (Cinemagic); _RRR _(Hollywood) TUESDAY: The 1983 documentary _Dressed in Blue_ follows six trans women
living in conservative post-Franco Spain (Clinton St.); Lucio Fulci’s gory 1980 grindhouse favorite _Gates of Hell _(Hollywood, 35mm); _The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Standard
Edition)_ (Cinemagic) WEDNESDAY: The compilation _FHAR/MLF_ features an array of rare work made by the Homosexual Front for Revolutionary Action (FHAR) and the Women’s Liberation Movement
(MLF) in post-May 68 France. (Clinton St.); _The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Standard Edition)_ (Cinemagic); _V: The Original Minseries _(Hollywood) THURSDAY: _King Kong
_(2005) (Cinemagic)