Welcome Back to Wes World

At this point in his career, Wes Anderson is too gifted a filmmaker to take for granted. But it’s also becoming a bit of a chore to take him on his own terms, which increasingly seem to be those of a perfectionist on autopilot. Either way, the director—who at 54 retains the precociousness that informed the brash, Salingerian cosplay of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums nearly three decades ago—is hovering over familiar territory. Following a pair of excursions to Europe in The Grand Budapest Hotel and The French Dispatch, Anderson’s precisely (of course) executed new comedy Asteroid City brings him back to his home turf of Texas—specifically a comically small and sparsely populated hamlet playing host to an annual “Junior Stargazers” convention wherein teen prodigies show off their latest contraptions to scientists and defense department representatives alike. (Prizes include “The White Dwarf Medal of Achievement.”) As ever, though, regardless of the actual geographic location, we’re in Wes World.