The Phoenician Scheme

If you are a newbie to the world of Wes Anderson, I would not suggest an introduction via this summer's THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, the latest in the director's obsessively detailed and mannered comedy/dramas.  It would be difficult and upon reflection isn't really necessary to try to go into too much detail about the plot.  It deals with a wealthy, unscrupulous industrialist who attempts to usurp a West Asian region with slave labor.  Anderson script mines almost as many details as the film's art direction, complete with onscreen stock market tickers and periodic tallies of the percentage certain investors are willing to cover the Phoenician scheme's budget shortfall.

I probably missed a lot.  I'm sure I did.  Plot wise and otherwise.  I've said before that one doesn't merely watch an Anderson film, you absorb it.  I saw this in the theater (my first in 2025, in fact) and wanted to stop and rewind it several times.  To rehear some of the wry dialogue, to review narrative developments.  To marvel at the set design.  Also, to hear Alexandre Desplat's marvelous score again.  

Benicio de Toro portrays Anatole "Zsa-Zsa" Korda, said industrialist and thrice widower.  He's a lout who barely bats a lash as he swindles his colleagues, but he's awfully engaging.  Cool as a cucumber, even during several airline crashes and other attempts on his life. He has developed said scheme and wants to give his only daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton)who is in a convent, the family business. Never mind that he has a gaggle of sons who live across the street in poverty.   

The heart of THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME is Korda's attempt to have a relationship with his daughter.  I was reminded of earlier Andersons like THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS and THE LIFE AQUATIC.  Father and daughter share exchanges in the same flat, deadpan fashion everyone else does (and often hilarious, though the film elicits more chuckles than hearty laughter).  The quirkiness is less abundant than in Wes' recent films, but omnipresent enough to delight fans.

The entire cast, many of whom are Anderson regulars, is terrific. Special recognition must go to Michael Cera, who plays a Norwegian entomologist who has designs on Liesl and more than a few secrets.  It is one of the best comic performances I've seen lately.    

If I were that newbie I'd probably start with RUSHMORE.  Or maybe even THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.  Those versed in Wes Anderson's showy and snarky stylistics will likely find much to enjoy, though it may well continue to divide the devoted who feel the artist has maybe gone too far up his own arse.