LWLies 99: The Aster­oid City issue – Out now!

Eigh­teen years and nine­ty-eight edi­tions since The Life Aquat­ic with Steve Zis­sou graced the cov­er of our very first issue, the stars have aligned once again, just in time for issue #99. It’s a full cir­cle moment of sorts here at LWLies HQ, as we cel­e­brate one of our favourite auteurs with a fourth issue ded­i­cat­ed to the world of Wes, this time tak­ing inspi­ra­tion from his stel­lar eleventh fea­ture: Aster­oid City.

Set in 1955 in a fic­tion­al, space-obsessed desert town some­where between Parched Gulch and Arid Plains, the film sees a crew of astro-enthu­si­asts from across Amer­i­ca flock­ing to the town’s Junior Stargazers/​Space Cadet con­ven­tion for Aster­oid Day. It’s anoth­er star-stud­ded ensem­ble piece boast­ing reg­u­lar col­lab­o­ra­tors Jason Schwartz­man, Til­da Swin­ton, Adrien Brody, Scar­lett Johans­son, Bryan Cranston, Jef­frey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Edward Nor­ton, Stephen Park, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Gold­blum et al. They’re joined by an impres­sive line­up of Wes new­com­ers includ­ing Steve Carell, Mar­got Rob­bie, Maya Hawke, Tom Han­ks, Matt Dil­lon and Hong Chau. Our esteemed Edi­tor in Chief David Jenk­ins calls it his ​“most com­plete, rich and sur­pris­ing film to date, and per­haps his most auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal in some obscure, alle­gor­i­cal way”.

For this issue, we’ve embraced Wes’ love for colour, tex­ture and hand-made craft by going all out on all things hand-made. Con­tact was made with the film­mak­er him­self, who let us in on some per­son­al insights regard­ing the mak­ing of this won­der­ful new fea­ture. We speak to some of his long­time col­lab­o­ra­tors includ­ing cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Robert Yeo­man and lead­ing man Jason Schwartz­man, as well as brand new inductee Maya Hawke. And as a spe­cial side-project, we put togeth­er a care­ful­ly curat­ed itin­er­ary of items for a spe­cial inter­galac­tic cap­sule to be blast­ed into space as a way to edu­cate alien species on the Wes Ander­son canon.

On the cover

Ali Mac’s incred­i­ble por­trait of Jason Schwartzman’s wid­owed war pho­tog­ra­ph­er, Augie Steen­beck, made entire­ly out of felt, adorns the cov­er of this issue. Explore her work at ali​mac​doo​dle​.com. Else­where in the issue we have new art­work from Ori­ane Dufort, Bec­ki Gill, Clau­dia Mandagie, Mol­ly Kirk, Lore­na Spu­rio and Lucas Burtin.

In this issue

Lead Review: Aster­oid City
David Jenk­ins lauds a pos­si­ble mag­num opus from film­mak­er Wes Ander­son, a week­end of won­der in 1955 that picks apart the very essence of creativity.

Memo Re. The Sud­den Receipt of ​‘New Record­ing 674.m4a’
A record­ed mis­sive from Wes Ander­son, answer­ing a series of ques­tions sent to him by Sophie Monks Kaufman.

Trip­ping the Day­light Fan­tas­tic
Cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Robert Yeo­man on why Wes Ander­son remains a suck­er for 35mm film.

Writ­ten in the Stars
Han­nah Strong meets Jason Schwartz­man, the Wes Ander­son totem whose own life mys­te­ri­ous­ly over­laps with his char­ac­ter in Aster­oid City.

Touch­ing Down in a Strange and Beau­ti­ful New World
David Jenk­ins talks to Maya Hawke, who is effu­sive about her first-time vis­it to Andersonville.

Itin­er­ary of Pro­posed Car­go for ​‘Wes­plor­er 4’ Space Pod
The vital task of teach­ing as-yet-undis­cov­ered inter­galac­tic species about the films of Wes Ander­son is tak­en-on with aplomb by a gag­gle of LWLies’ finest.

In the back section

Pedro Almod­ó­var
The Span­ish leg­end talks to Anna Bogut­skaya about unlock­ing his for­ma­tive pas­sion for the west­ern in his spell­bind­ing new short, Strange Way of Life.

Alice Winocour
The French film­mak­er speaks to Han­nah Strong about the nuances of recre­at­ing a real-life ter­ror­ist attack in her reflec­tive new film, Paris Memories.

Syd­ney Sweeney
Charles Bramesco meets the Eupho­ria star piv­ot­ing with grace to exper­i­men­tal cin­e­ma as she dis­cuss­es her role in Tina Satter’s cham­ber thriller, Reality.

Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux-Briot
The Nobel Prize win­ner and her son explain the process of dig­ging up mem­o­ries from the attic for their diary film, The Super 8 Years.

Har­ris Dick­in­son
Han­nah Strong meets one of the most promis­ing young actors work­ing today to dis­cuss his turn as beach blonde club promoter/​absentee father in Char­lotte Regan’s Scrapper.

Patri­cio Guzmán
The vet­er­an Chilean activist-film­mak­er speaks to Mari­na Ash­i­oti and picks apart the polit­i­cal lay­ers of his vital new film, My Imag­i­nary Country.

In review

Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life
James Mangold’s Indi­ana Jones and the Dial of Des­tiny
Alice Winocour’s Paris Mem­o­ries
Claire Denis’ Stars at Noon
Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s War Pony
Thomas Hardiman’s Medusa Deluxe
Tina Satter’s Real­i­ty
Barn­a­by Thompson’s Mad About the Boy: The Noël Cow­ard Sto­ry
D Smith’s Koko­mo City
Car­oli­na Cavalli’s Aman­da
Stephen Williams’ Cheva­lier
Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux-Briot’s The Super 8 Years
Jean-Paul Salomé’s La Syn­di­cal­iste
Char­lotte Regan’s Scrap­per
Dionne Edwards’ Pret­ty Red Dress
Léonor Serraille’s Moth­er and Son
Patri­cio Guzmán’s My Imag­i­nary Coun­try
Quentin Dupieux’s Smok­ing Caus­es Cough­ing
Shami­ra Raphaëla’s Shabu
Dan­ny and Michael Philippou’s Talk To Me
Fyzal Boulifa’s The Damned Don’t Cry

Plus, Matt Turn­er selects six key home ents releas­es for your consideration.

The sec­ond edi­tion of Mari­na Ashioti’s col­umn Sticky Gold Stars, explores the queer under­tow in the films of gial­lo mae­stro, Dario Argento.

Final­ly, team LWLies report their find­ings from the 2023 Cannes Film Fes­ti­val with a round-up of gems and new discoveries.

LWLies 99 is avail­able to order now from our online shop. Become a LWLies Gold Mem­ber or sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.