One of Wes Anderson’s Best Films Is Finally Back on Streaming

Filmmaker Wes Anderson has made some incredible movies. Films like The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Darjeeling Limited have firmly cemented him as one of the most interesting directors of the 2000s, with his films having a very distinct look and feel as well as recurring themes of grief and dysfunctional family dynamics, just to name a couple. He’s also received multiple Academy Award nominations for his work but now, it’s one of his most underrated — and best — films that has made its way back to streaming.

Available to stream on Peacock as of February 11th, Asteroid City was originally released in 2023 and may be one of Anderson’s most complicated films. While the story is superficially about a play about a Junior Stargazer convention in 1955, the film is actually a little more layered and a lot more metatextual than that as it also turns out that the making of the play is the subject of a television documentary. It’s a quirky film, but it’s also one that really explores its characters in a rich and interesting way making it a perfect Wes Anderson film.

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Asteroid City Features Some Unexpectedly Complex Characters

While Anderson’s films never have a shortage of complex characters, those in Asteroid City are almost uniquely so in that they almost seem to act and behave in ways you might not expect given how they’re presented. A primary example of this is Scarlett Johansson’s character, the famous actress Midge Campbell. In the “play” portion of the film, Midge is disillusioned by her work as an actor and is struggling to figure out what the point even is anymore. Through her relationship with photojournalist Augie Steenbeck (Jason Scwartzman), Midge comes to gain new perspective and purpose.

But because Asteroid City is a story within a story, Johansson also plays the actress playing Midge, Mercedes Ford. Mercedes is presented as being a good bit different from Midge, someone who is talented but also temperamental. The layers and nuance between the two characters is fascinating. It’s that duality, created by the metatextual structure of the film, that makes it a fascinating watch but also a rich and complex experience. All of the actors and characters have an interesting duality and when taken as a whole, the result is a really emotional and richly intellectual story that, while it might require a few viewings to completely get, is well worth it.

What Else Is New To Peacock?

Asteroid City isn’t the only great movie arriving on Peacock on February 11th, either. While a bit of a shift in gears from a Wes Anderson classic, the critically acclaimed 2016 zombie thriller Train to Busan also was just added to the streaming platform. The South Korean film follows passengers fighting for survival during a sudden zombie outbreak while on a train from Seoul to Busan. It’s widely considered to be one of the best zombie films ever made.

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