While sci-fi has often explored fears of outsiders perceived as threats, there’s room for a extra lighthearted tackle aliens as properly. That’s rarer, however not unprecedented, a minimum of on tv. In Futurama, Zoidberg turned the alien at Roswell, the place he annoys and horrifies his captors however enjoys assembly new folks, and in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it’s the Ferengi, who’re shocked how Twentieth-century people poison their our bodies and pollute their planet however see a enterprise alternative on Earth.

In Asteroid City, the extraterrestrial is simply Goldblum in an alien swimsuit. It appears to be like as skittish and as inquisitive because the folks transfixed by it, however doesn’t say a phrase or utter a sound earlier than rapidly leaving, making it extra of an enigma. Offstage (keep in mind, this can be a play-within-a-play), Goldblum says the alien is a metaphor, however of what, he isn’t positive.

Anderson doesn’t fairly convey as successfully or explicitly as, say, Contact how alien encounters can function catalysts for the viewers to develop a extra inclusive view of humanity and a imaginative and prescient of a future the place folks don’t succumb to worry. His characters have an excessive amount of work to do for Asteroid City to get that far. It’s primarily the stargazers, like Steenbeck’s son and Campbell’s daughter, who’re extra prepared than their dad and mom to speak with the alien outsider and conceive of a which means for all times. As he has finished earlier than in The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom, Anderson exhibits how dad and mom typically have little understanding of the challenges their kids face, which are sometimes completely different from their very own.

Like the fantastical sea creatures conjured up in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Anderson inserts particulars that draw the viewers’s eye, making the theatrical Nineteen Fifties-era, Roswell-like world of Asteroid City like our personal, however a bit completely different. For instance, it features a jetpack the younger proto-scientists invented, a “galactotron,” which isn’t an actual kind of telescope, and not-quite-scientific-sounding terminology, just like the “celestial flirtation” of galaxies. The alien, in the meantime, appears to be like humanoid, but additionally not like people in any respect.

Pop tradition representations of aliens and public curiosity in house and UFOs appear to go hand-in-hand. While the X-Files was within the zeitgeist, many individuals weren’t solely obsessive about alien craft however have been satisfied that the federal government was hiding them someplace. Asteroid City might not encourage new alien truthers, but it surely does land at a time when a UFO “whistleblower” and former intelligence officer has the ear of Congress, the Pentagon has opened a new office tasked with investigating UFO experiences, an impartial, UFO-assessing committee set up by NASA is holding public conferences forward of its last report, and a non-public firm is releasing a UFO report-tracking app.

The film additionally comes amidst society’s ongoing curiosity in listening for alien indicators, known as the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, and in sending messages of our personal into the cosmos, known as messaging extraterrestrial intelligence, or METI. This work, too, will get a nod in Asteroid City within the type of an astronomer performed by Tilda Swinton who watches for beeps and blips that may very well be alien signals from space, and works with the Junior Stargazers and Space Cadets to determine what sort of message to ship to the aliens. Frank Drake and Carl Sagan they don’t seem to be, however their intentions are the identical.

Beyond the plain Roswell references, there’s one thing becoming about setting an alien sighting in an old-timey desert city like Asteroid City. Some of probably the most beautiful views of the night time sky, unhindered by light pollution, will be discovered within the American Southwest, and the timeless high quality of the panorama reminds us of humanity’s endless seek for which means. It’s not clear whether or not Anderson actually pulls off the alien metaphor, however he provides us, like his characters, quite a bit to ponder.