‘Asteroid City’ to Stream on Peacock Next Week
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Wes Anderson’s dazzling desert Americana “Asteroid City” will be available to stream on Peacock starting Aug. 11. The film tells of a desert tourist trap that was once the sites of an asteroid landing, which also doubles as the location of an annual camp for “stargazers and space cadets.” The conceit is a story-within-a-story, as the cast plays a troupe of actors and stage crew for a play.
Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jason Schwartzman, Matt Dillon, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Norton, Margot Robbie and Jeff Goldblum are among the starry ensemble cast. Read More: The Ultimate Wes Anderson Gift Guide The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where it earned a six-minute standing ovation.
Although it earned $9 million over its opening weekend, the highest grossing weekend for an Anderson film, the project received mixed reviews from critics and viewers alike, many of which agree that it features the auteur’s signature dazzling cinematography but is dramatically inert. “If the setting of ‘Asteroid City’ feels succulent in that vintage Anderson way, the scenes and events that unfold there do not,” writes Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman in his review. “They add up to what may be the filmmaker’s most hyperactive yet coyly obtuse piece of storytelling.
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