Tag Archives: Asteroid City

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Song of the Day #5,722: ‘You Can’t Wake Up if You Don’t Fall Asleep’ – Jarvis Cocker

Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…

Best Films of 2023
#4. Asteroid City

Last year saw an interesting trend of films serving as a metaphor for their directors’ careers. Michael Mann’s Ferrari depicted a man relying on corporate funding to execute his vision with the help of a dedicated team that he drives a bit too hard. David Fincher’s The Killer portrayed a ruthless perfectionist tireless in his pursuit of each objective — a fitting topic for a director known for shooting hundreds of takes of even the simplest scenes.

Even Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has been read as a metaphor for regrets over the superhero era ushered in by the director’s Dark Knight trilogy — not exactly the atomic bomb, but a pretty seismic and destructive cultural event.

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Song of the Day #5,695: ‘Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven)’ – Preston George Mota

Wes Anderson has always made wonderful use of music in his movies, whether it’s the memorable scores by Alexandre Desplat and Mark Mothersbaugh or needle drops of 60s pop and rock songs.

But before last year’s Asteroid City I can’t recall another live-action Anderson movie that features a song performed by the actual characters (I’m in danger of losing my Wes Anderson Fan Club membership if I’m forgetting something here).

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