If there was ever a director defined by an aesthetic style it’s Wes Anderson. Audio recently was leaked from one of his sets with him shouting ‘if it’s not symmetrical it’s not in my f***king film’. The obsessive quality of his set designs, costumes, and locations are the stuff of legend. His latest film ‘Asteroid City’ set in desert US is a pastel 1950s homage to buttoned up shirts, dainty signs and cultural cringe. In terms of the aesthetics it is a visual delight on what must been a huge perfectly designed set. Visually it’s like eating bespoke chocolate. The set is then stuffed with a who’s who of Anderson favourites.

Unlike his other films though ‘Asteriod City’ is purposely ‘meta’ in the sense that it sets up the drama as seen through the frame of a theatrical play. It’s this meta theatrical framing device along with a lack of emotional substance that was where film starts to wear thin. The main story of a families grief gets lost by the cuts to a ‘meta’ narrative that seems forced. Grief is explored in many of his films with deadpan delivery of sometimes devastating lines. However here the well acted star cast can’t seem to convey much real feeling. His films start to feel like a roll call of cameos amid stunning set design. The film is at its best when it is more lighthearted and fun, particularly the hilarious musical number, and feels forced in its ‘deeper’ ‘meta’ moments. Like other great stylised film makers of our time, Tarantino and Luhrmann, Anderson seems more and more a parody of himself. An Instagram feature, lacking the emotional punch of some of his other films. Not merely style over substance but parody over genuine emotion. That being said it’s visually stunning and at times very funny, just don’t expect this to rank as one of his best. 7/10