Wes Anderson's Asteroid City-Stellar Film with an All Star Ensemble Cast

Wes Anderson is an American filmmaker known for films in the oeuvre of "American Eccentric Cinema."  Anderson (b. 1969) tends to use repeating multi-star casts and garners A listers for small cameo parts.  His unique art direction and visual affects are distinct, but identifiable by his steadfast fan base despite the films varying styles.  Anderson's films have been animated, stop action, live action or a combination of styles within the same film.  The memes tend to involve loss, family dysfunction, loss of innocence and the supernatural.  "Asteroid City" is set in a retro-futuristic style of the 1950's in a fictional desert town out west where atomic bomb testing is a regular event and the awards for scientific achievement to high school students are being awarded.  The framing of the movie is narrated by Bryan Cranston in a Rod Serling intonation.  Cranston sets the stage for the screenplay as it's being written by Conrad Earp  (Edward Norton) for a broadcast format morphing into a play within movie.  Jason Schwartzman a consistent muse of Anderson who plays the lead, Augie Steenbeck, a widower with three precocious, preadolescent daughters and a teenage son, Woodrow (Jake Ryan).  Woodrow is a science wiz and the reason the family is traveling to Asteroid City.  Augie has yet to inform his children their mother has died. He intended to do this during the trip which is derailed by their broken down car.  Augie contact his wife's father, Stanley (Tom Hanks) who was waiting for the family's arrival.  Aggie asks his father-in-law to come get them.  Stanley asks Augie if he's informed the kids of their mother's death.  Stanley and Augie are somewhat detached but still sensitive to each other's grief.  The bizarre, bewitching and extra-terrestrial phenomena occurrences flow in rapid succession.  The dialogue, however, is delivered larghetto for comedic largesse.  Woodrow and his fellow scholastic science winners demonstrate their remarkable inventions which now all belong to the US military being run by General Gibson (a glib Jeffrey Wright) at this military installation where the convention is held.  The main feature of the desert terrain is an asteroid crater.  During the students' demonstrations of their ingenious inventions, an alien craft appears above the crater.  A cartoon-like alien timidly lowers himself above the crater then zooms off with the asteroid in tow.  The gobsmacked crowd takes all in stride.  Gen. Gibson informs everyone they are under quarantine by the US govt.  The high school students use the lockdown time to get to know one other. They bond over their shared interests and outsider social status.  Grandpa gets to bond with his granddaughters.  Augie, a prof. photographer, captures the images of stage/screen star, Midge Campbell's and her affections.  The multilayered artistic directions are spellbinding.  Anderson pays homage to famous photographers; William Egglesgon. Alex Webb and Richard Misrach to name a few while creating vibrant, indelible  imageries.  Anderson advances his artistic visions and storytelling to another stellar level in "Asteroid City."  The film is hilarious and poignant and always stunning to look at.  It will leave an impact that reverberates with brilliance and beyond.  "Asteroid City" is a must see!