Tell the truth, but tell it slant*

You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep. I think this is as close as Wes Anderson has ever come to explaining and defending his very peculiar style of filmmaking. What he’s telling us is that the most vital and the most painful things in life cannot be confronted directly, explicitly, artlessly. There must be masks — contrivances, artifice — that distract us, lull us, distract our agitated minds. Tragic experience, to be properly worked through, must wear the mask of comedy. And perhaps for the deepest griefs a single mask is insufficient; you may need several. So here we see layer after layer being peeled away, but no matter how many layers we remove we just find more artifice.

Jacobs, Alan. https://blog.ayjay.org/what-the-bird-said/. August 21, 2023

Professor Alan Jacobs’ explanation of Asteroid City is the most considered I’ve read so far. Many puzzled observers want to dismiss it. I was puzzled by it after my first viewing.

Why does does Augie burn his hand on the Quickie Griddle?

What was with the You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep chanting at the end?

The flash mob hoedown?

But professor Jacobs seeks to understand what Wes was trying to achieve.

Read his full take here.

*Emily Dickinson