In American desert town Asteroid City, 1955, parents and children are gathering to attend the Junior Stargazer Space Cadet convention. The assorted group, including recently widowed photographer Augie Steenbeck and Hollywood starlet Midge Campbell, are about to experience something life-changing.

A scorching desert town is the setting for one of Wes Anderson’s warmest films, in which a potential alien encounter is the catalyst for strange advances in both science and human connection. Directly riffing on his work’s theatricality, Asteroid City is among Anderson’s funniest and most moving.