It was going to happen sooner or later, there had to be a least favourite Wes Anderson film. And for me, it looks like, at least for now, it will be Asteroid City. I like the idea, the subject matter, and the cast, but it just didn’t pop like Anderson’s other films.

Most of his regular stable of performers are here, but I dunno, something about it just doesn’t work for me. Or at least not as well as it could.

Jason Schwartzman leads a cast that includes Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Hope Davis, Maya Hawke, Sophia Lillis, Liev Schrieber, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton and Steve Carrell (and watch for a brief appearance by Jeff Goldblum).

Schwartzman is Augie, the character in a play, and we get glimpses behind the scenes as the story and characters develop. Augie is a war photographer, who has also been recently widowed. He’s travelling with his four children to a remote town in the middle of the desert, Asteroid City to attend a stargazers’ convention.

As people gather we are introduced to Augie’s father-in-law, Stanley (Hanks), a movie star, Midge (Johansson) and a variety of eccentric characters, including a group of teens, who like in most Wed Anderson films will be the ones to outwith the government in the long run.

The entire town is placed under quarantine by General Gibson (Wright) after a piece of one of the city’s asteroids, is stolen, momentarily, by an alien in his UFO!

The story moves from the colourful world created on stage, filled with some, but not quite all the details we expect from Anderson to black and white behind the scenes as characters and writers struggle with what it all means.

It’s amusing, fun, and it’s always great to see Anderson trot out the regulars, as we wonder where they will fit into the story. The effects are delightfully quirky, as you would expect, and the story plays with the idea of UFO mythology, and things like Roswell, but never brushes as deeply into it as UFO fans may like.

It’s an amusing little film, but for me, this one, like Bottle Rocket are going to hover near the bottom of the list for me, even though there are a number of fun moments and great lines of dialogue. It’s great to see Hanks added to an Anderson film, and I hope he comes back for more of them.

It doesn’t all work, but it ends up being a fun, if not the best, entry in Anderson’s work. Let’s see where he goes next!