Weekend Watch: Asteroid City, Secret Invasion

Alien encounters of very different kinds

Image Credit: Universal Pictures

Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Wes Anderson has a close encounter and Samuel L. Jackson is fighting the war at home. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite

Wes Anderson gets accused of making the same film again and again, partly because he has a strict visual style (beautifully composed shots featuring artfully crafted sets) and prefers mannered performances from his cast to more naturalistic acting.

Yet if you’re prepared to buy into his unique vibe, his films can be very entertaining. I haven’t loved everything he’s made, but I do have my favourites –– Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums among them. True, it can become wearing watching familiar actors bring quirky characters to life. But there’s always more heart in an Anderson film than his detractors suggest, and he’s certainly not short of funny moments, either.

For his latest, the director is working on two levels. The first is the production of a play called Asteroid City, written by playwright Conrad Earp (Edward Norton). His new stage production is itself the subject of a TV documentary fronted by Bryan Cranston’s unnamed host, which is peeking into the creative process behind the work.

We watch some of the cast outside the play, and Earp at work on the script, before sets are built and other actors are introduced. Then the movie itself follows the story of the play, introducing us to war photographer Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), who is bringing his son Woodrow (Jake Ryan) to the titular desert town to take part in a Junior Stargazers event when his car develops trouble.

Steenbeck, who is recently widowed, calls his father-in-law, Stanley Zak (Tom Hanks) to pick up Woodrow and Auggie’s three daughters (who have yet to learn the news of their mother’s passing), and makes the most of the situation.

Asteroid City is hosting the Stargazers’ event partly because it is the site of an asteroid that landed 5,000 years ago and has attracted various characters to its dusty locale. And that’s when things get strange…

I won’t go into exactly how odd, but if you’ve seen the trailer (and the 1950s aesthetic and location suggest it), you’ll figure that out. Yet this is really the story of the people involved –– Auggie, his family, and his sudden romantic connection with actress Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson), who is bringing her own genius sprog to the convention. And there are various others drawn to the location, including military types (Jeffrey Wright is great as a general with a nice line in rambling speeches) and school kids.

The whole cast is great here ––Tom Hanks fits into the regular ensemble without a hitch and even people (such as Willem Dafoe) who drop in for tiny appearances. Anderson has crafted one of his best films with Asteroid City –– it’s well worth a visit.

Asteroid City is in UK and US cinemas now.

Image Credit: Disney+

After years of box office success, Marvel Studios is definitely in the doldrums these days, with movies showing smaller returns, TV series criticised for being less than thrilling and the whole endeavour seen by some as overly complicated and challenging to get into.

Yet the company is still putting out solid work and Secret Invasion, while not the best thing they’ve done, is certainly an interesting, gritty take on a spy thriller show.

Invasion brings Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury back to the forefront for what is essentially a sequel to Captain Marvel (minus –– so far –– Brie Larson’s title character, who would be a tad overpowered for this and is conveniently elsewhere). Fury is summoned back to Earth from the space station he’s been helping to establish because a new faction of the shapeshifting alien Skrulls he helped back in the 1990s are unhappy that he and the Avengers didn’t follow through with a promise to find them a new home planet… So now they’re thinking they’ll take Earth instead. And they plan to do that through terrorist action, led by the idealistic Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir).

Fury reunites with Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), the Skrull leader he’s been friends with for decades, and with the help of comrades such as Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), starts to track down this emerging enemy. But when they can look like anyone, how do you fight them?

Two episodes were provided to the press, and Secret Invasion is taking a slow-burn approach to its story (at least until the final scene of the first episode, which delivers a big shocker). So far, it’s an enjoyably low-key, superpower-free affair, which works to make it stand out. It is a bit visually flat, though, which sucks some of the fun out of it.

Will the show ultimately prove to be a success? It’s too early to tell, but this is a solid start.

The first episode of Secret Invasion is on Disney+ now. Episodes will launch weekly. I’ve seen the first two.