The Phoenician Scheme

Things have taken an interesting turn with Wes' films since Grand Budapest and his films since have not been universally popular, with their more experimental structure splits and dream sequences. Like any other Wes film The Phoenician Scheme is utterly beautiful. Despite this being the first Anderson film not to benefit from the master camerawork of Robert Yeoman the style is still very familiar and the use of props and stunningly created wardrobe are as much stars of the film as the many A-listers who make an appearance, no matter how brief. The dry wit of Richard Ayoade, one of Britain's smartest comedians, and Michael Cera particularly stand out.

It's difficult not to see Benicio del Toro's empathy free, slave-owning, greedy oligarch character spawning children (mostly boys) with wives he has no relationship with as making some reference to some of today's real life characters, much like Isle of Dogs was used to make a subtle reference to the growing anti-immigration narrative when released around a decade ago, but like Isle of Dogs, the ending of the film leaves room for a positive interpretation of current turbulent times.

If I could sum up Wes Anderson's films in one word, it would be "meticulous". Everything in his frames, dialogue, design and production is carefully manicured to a T, and as a result is both very beautiful and hilarious.

As a result of this, all of his films feel like they are on a knife's edge to tip to either an enjoyable masterpiece or a tedious dud. This one feels more like the latter.

It's not to say there aren't some good or funny moments, along with a fantastic cast. But the main relationship between a high ranking corrupt tycoon and his estranged religious daughter never really feels like it hits that mark of deep emotional resonance.

The Grand Budapest Hotel remains his magnum opus. And Henry Sugar is also when Wes is at his finest, which earned him an Oscar for Best Short.

Phoenician felt like a beautiful looking piece added to his collection rather than a film.

If you love mid-century fashion and decor and Benecio Del Toro, they'll carry you at least a quarter way through the schemes of 1950's shady industrialist Zsa Zsa Korda (Del Toro) as he plans a byzantine scheme of stock battles to build a railway through old Lebanon. Then the typically precious, overelaborate Wes Anderson dialogue, animatronic cardboard characters in place of actual feeling ones and general sense of being caught in the slow turning pages of a hipster control-freak children's story book will gradually diminish your interest in the film. It's nice someone still employs Michael Cera, but even my grandparents would start checking their watches at The Phoenician Scheme.

This is a gloriously mad film from beginning to end.

Personally I laughed a lot and really enjoyed it, but it will definitely leave many people cold. There's no point to it, you won't be enriched, the plot never really becomes clear, and none of the characters is really sympathetic.

It felt very like a Monty Python film to me - absurdism, unexpected shifts, weird motifs, and recurrent dream sequences highly reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's cartoon interludes. And it's almost as silly.

An incredible cast of actors is reduced to a series of bit-part cameos, which should be annoying, but I couldn't help thinking that it was probably enormous fun to make. And Bill Murray as God is without doubt one of my favourite ever bits of casting. The Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston double act is a total hoot.

So I certainly can't recommend it to everyone, but I will definitely recommend it to people who I think will get it. And l'll probably be wrong. The world needs more weirdness like this, to counterbalance the weirdness that matters. Enjoy.

The Phoenician Scheme doesn't push Wes Anderson's usual tropes to the extreme like Asteroid City or The French Dispatch but it does end up doing just about everything you'd expect from one of his movies without any of the flair. The movie feels like it's on autopilot from the very first scenes and Anderson just ends up feeling like he's recycling his usual tropes to the effect of feeling so dull. I didn't hate this movie but I was amazed by how much of a chore it was to get through.

Anderson's last few movies have been criticised for disappearing too far into his own style but I personally enjoyed the unique experiences those movies provided. The French Dispatch is his magnum opus in my opinion and even if I thought Asteroid City was too overwhelming at times I still liked how much it left me to chew on but that's not the case here at all. The story was painfully uninteresting to me and it's told in the flattest, more linear way imaginable. It's essentially a series of business negotiations for nearly the entire runtime and not only do they feel insanely repetitive but they often drag on far longer than necessary.

I'm not really sure what Anderson's ultimate vision for this film because he doesn't really do anything behind the camera that we haven't seen from him before and his trademark humour really didn't work for me this time around. It's very deadpan with a lot of moments of quirkiness that just feel forced, it actually made me cringe more often than it didn't with the climax in particular feeling quite ridiculous. From a cinematography perspective it looks gorgeous and I really did feel like the performances were hitting the right notes but I just felt nothing. Most of the supporting characters just feel one noted and they end up feeling like quirks more than anything. Benicio Del Toro's character can be entertaining but he's just far too unlikable and never really felt like the script did much to redeem him by the time the film ends.

The Phoenician Scheme is disappointingly flat in almost every way and for whatever criticisms people might have with Anderson's recent offerings at least they had the energy that I thought was sorely missing here. It's not a particularly interesting story with characters that never really peaked my interest at all and the few interesting gimmicks Anderson does use feel like they've been done by him before and better. There's almost surprises technically and it really did end up feeling like Anderson was trying to make one of his own movies. Anderson is very hit and miss for me and I can honestly say that this movie felt like my least favourite aspects of all his work wrapped together in one package.