Asteroid City (2023) - I Still Don't Understand the Play Scene | Movieclips

Asteroid City - I Still Don't Understand the Play: Augie (Jason Schwartzman) searches for answers.



FILM DESCRIPTION:
World-changing events spectacularly disrupt the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention in an American desert town circa 1955.

CREDITS:
TM & © Focus Features (2023)
Cast: Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston, Jason Schwartzman, Jeff Goldblum, Margot Robbie
Screenwriter: Roman Coppola, Wes Anderson
Director: Wes Anderson
Producer: Wes Anderson

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[brodawgIL]

One of my favorite lines of all time will always be “I just need a breathe of fresh air - okay, but you won’t find one”

[bowlerhatfilmsandreviews]

I’m so glad someone has uploaded this scene. It’s what ties the whole movie together into such a unique film experience for me. Am I feeling emotional for the character of Augie finding closure for the death of his wife through a dream sequence; or am I emotional for the actor Jones Hall finding closure through the words of his dead lover Conrad through revisiting a scene that was ultimately deleted? Both are ultimately fictional yet it feels like Wes Anderson is asking us which one do you feel is the most real. Wonderfull film, if people are patient with a rewatch of it I hope they come to understand it better.

[digitdean]

This scene is obviously the key to the movie, but there's one detail in it that I noticed: the score repeats the delicate violin motif that plays as the alien is descending from its ship, but the motif doesn't play when the actress mentions the alien; it plays when she mentions Woodrow.

[ExtendedPachiderm]

I love that they cut this scene from the play. They couldn't give Augie that closure. The whole thing is about him not knowing how to live without his wife. She can't just tell him what to do, he has to figure it out on his own. The movie is about loss, and death, and the unknown, and how we deal with it all. Here's this wonderful scene that tells us we won't know if we're doing it right we just have to keep going. Then there's this little string of closure dangled in front of us, that poignantly addresses all our concerns, and just like that it's gone.

[lainey]

It’s been sixteen weeks since I’ve seen this film and I’m madly in love with this scene. My dad and I have never been able to cry at funerals, and I’ve felt heartbroken and lost and not knowing anything, but unable to cry. Margot’s monologue is how it feels internally when my grief ends, even though I never uttered a sob.

[forever_put_at_ease]

2:02 "oh, its you. The wife who played my actresses." I love this movie

[StagFiesta]

"I still dont understand the play."
"It doesnt matter, just keep telling the story. Youre doing him right."

[cakedo]

This scene moved me greatly. I know a lot of people in the comments say “it’s an incoherent mess” but it’s about presentation. The actor breaks character, realizing he’s been blindly following his interpretation, believing he doesn’t understand the writer’s. He’s told it doesn’t matter, that the character he plays is now following him, trying to be him. Then, in the sweetest reversal, it is not the character in the dream, but the actor. A step away from the “material” as showcased by leaving the stagedeck. And here he stands, playing out the scene they cut, with the actress they cut, which allows the actor to find new meaning in the character. And so the mask becomes the man.

[shadyguy]

Imagine watching this and thinking this movie deserved zero awards nominations.

[yoboinicossman]

Hands down the best scene of the movie.

[cirrusB]

So I clicked on this for kicks, realized it was a Wes Anderson movie because of the filming, and then felt like I witnessed a really tender moment between two divorced lovers, but I didn't have the context of the entire scene, so I walked away feeling quite eerie, but nostalgic at the same time.

[TokyoJohn]

This scene redeemed the whole movie, “I’m not coming back Augie..”

Not knowing ”how to play the part” clearly reflects how we awkwardly play a part at a love one’s funeral. Shell shocked like Augie but soldering on.

[Fourleggedfreak]

Don't we wish we could all pause life sometimes and just stop playing our roles and take a moment to get some clarity?

I kind of see these as two separate scenes. His conversation with Schubert is everything to me. To me, it's just about life. We're all trying. None of us knows what we're doing or what's going to happen. "Just keep telling the story." So perfect.

But then ... it's almost like he goes on a little journey and meets guides who can help him understand, but the guides are the divorced man living behind stage and the actress who played his wife in a cut scene.

And they're both emulating their characters. Him being kind of confused and lost. Her being so wise and gracious and well-composed. I can't pin down why we are receiving the story this way instead of having the scene play out as they described it in the movie, except, it feels like something that might happen on a snowy night in between takes.

Someone goes looking for something--guidance, clarity--and happens to run into exactly the person they need to hear it from.

I try to wrap my head around why Wes is telling two stories at all, why all this background information about the play and the actors, but then that's kind of the whole point of the movie to me. The facade of life and the roles we play, and how the mundane isn't mundane at all.

[linusbabcock]

I’d give her the best supporting actress Oscar for just this scene honestly

[JosephDutra]

I couldn’t help but think of my dad during this scene. RIP dad, love you forever.

[chaoticneutralgiraffe]

This movie is a multi-leveled masterpiece that keeps going forward and back, with millions of little pieces of detail.... it's magnificent...

[astrotennessee]

This is such a stunning scene. Completely makes the movie for me.

[bluedaffodil]

I didn't even recognize it was Margot Robbie in the theater. She's such an amazing actress

[FilmSureelist]

This is one of the coolest and best directed scenes of Wes Anderson’s career. It’s a very motivating scene with a unique twist.

[trentonb]

I took this scene to be asking a question that breaks the fourth wall, as evidenced by him looking directly at the camera when he asks, "Am I doing him right?"

That's a question a lot of people could ask when they step out of this play we're all stuck in.