Asteroid City (2023)
Asteroid City takes place in a fictional American desert town circa 1955. The itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention (organized to bring together students and parents from across the country for fellowship and scholarly competition) is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.
Director Wes Anderson has spent his career developing a particular set of skills. His work takes the auteurist idea of the director as the personal and primary creator of a film to its logical conclusion – not as a tyrant or a tortured artist but as the infinitely patient and maniacally precise builder of a living ship in a bottle. His control over the frame as the fundamental filmic atom is unrivaled and absolute. And his style is distinctive enough to spawn waves of satire and meme-simulation every few years. But his movies aren’t empty aesthetics; the distancing, self-conscious artifice of each ultra-detailed scene usually echoes in his hard-to-love but desperate-to-be-loved main characters. Advance info about Asteroid City is strictly limited, because Anderson’s attention to detail trickles down all the way to its promotion. So we don’t know exactly how to prepare you, except to say that the cast is packed with more A-list actors than face serum sample day at the WeHo Gelson’s, and we happen to believe that if Anderson ever has to location-scout a movie palace, Tampa Theatre would be at the top of his list.
Join us for a Franklin Street Block Party from 5:00 to 7:00pm Friday, June 23 to celebrate the opening night screening of Asteroid City at 7:30pm. The Block Party is FREE and open to the public, and will feature food samples, music, giveaways, photo ops, activities from our neighbors and community partners.