Paul Schrader lauds ‘Asteroid City’ as ‘Wes Anderson’s best movie’ ever
Paul Schrader may not have seen the memes, but the Oscar winner calls “Asteroid City” the most Wes Anderson movie ever.
The ‘Master Gardener’ director took to Facebook to praise Anderson’s ‘Asteroid City’, comparing it to Alain Resnais’ surreal 1961 French New Wave classic ‘Last Year at Marienbad’.
“The greatest Wes Anderson film that Wes Anderson has made. And for that reason, the best,” wrote Schrader of “Asteroid City,” now in theaters. “He has distilled his design-driven anti-empathy cinematic style down to its very essence. in mind is ‘Last Year in Marienbad.’”
Schrader added, “I’m heartened that it opened so well, though I’m not entirely sure why.”
Similarly, fellow author Guillermo del Toro took to Twitter to express his admiration for Anderson’s vision.
“Unique Signature – What started as an Ashby-esque beat and Demy-esque mix of image design has evolved,” del Toro tweeted. “Now we have a beautiful, painful and paradoxical exercise in controlled image and neurotic passion. An essential voice for modern cinema”.
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The sparkling “Asteroid City” has already become a critical success thanks to its ensemble cast consisting of Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, Maya Hawke, Jeff Goldblum, Ed Norton, Margot Robbie and Tom Hanks.
Anderson spoke to IndieWire’s Eric Kohn about the cinematic inspirations behind “Asteroid City,” including Wim Wenders, Martin Scorsese, and even Schrader himself.
“Now we see Paul Schrader with a whole series of subsequent films that are kind of Bressonian, where he kind of took a focus and reshot something for himself,” Anderson said. “Spielberg’s collaborations with Tony Kushner have produced such interesting work and it’s all aftermath stuff. Even Francis Coppola, who hasn’t made a film in a long time, is now doing something gigantic. He’s tackling a tremendously personal project that he’s wanted to do all these years. It’s a twist overall that was interesting and surprising. But I would argue that everyone has a different kind of virtuosity that is totally unique to them.
He added: “I’ve tried to do parts like a scene by (Brian) De Palma, setting up a sequence like De Palma would, but it’s almost impossible for me to do that. (Quentin) Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson have done scenes where they set things up like De Palma and they do it well. Not me. I had to find other things in his work. There are certain things he does that I certainly steal but others I can’t steal, because I’m not capable of them.