The Phoenician Scheme

MOONRISE KINGDOM was the first Wes Anderson movie I saw, and it's still my favorite. His newest is THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a caper about Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro), a businessman trying to squeeze his investors for more money to help overhaul the infrastructure of Phoenicia with slave labor. Joining him on his swindling journey are his estranged nun-to-be daughter Liesel (Mia Threapleton) and his assistant/tutor Bjørn (Michael Cera). It's a wonder how this is the first Anderson film that has Cera in it, the style is a perfect fit for him. If you're not familiar with the style, it's basically side scrolling camera work, symmetrical compositions, vibrant colors, and quick, whimsical dialogue. His best works have both style and substance. This movie definitely has the style, but I think the substance was lacking for me. Maybe I'm just getting tired of his schtick. The plot felt too mechanical and less emotional. It didn't truly have me invested in any of the characters. I laughed quite a bit though. It's always fun to see who Anderson has in his movies. They probably just come in for a day or two, have some fun filming their scene then leave. As always, this has exquisite art direction and production design. I really enjoyed the main trio. Ultimately, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME boils down to whether or not you're a fan of Wes Anderson movies. This is one of the quirkier ones in his repertoire. In my opinion, it's visually beautiful and funny, but forgettable.

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.

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.

Many world-renowned auteurs with distinct styles take years between projects-filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, Kathryn Bigelow, or Steve McQueen. Wes Anderson is inarguably in league with them. Yet lately, he seems to be hurting his own legacy by producing too much, too quickly. In the past five years alone, he's released four feature films and four short films-including The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023), which finally earned him his first Oscar. The latest in this near-annual output is The Phoenician Scheme (2025).

The Phoenician Scheme tells the story of wealthy and maligned industrialist Zsa Zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro), who, after surviving one too many assassination attempts by rivals, names his forgotten novitiate daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton) as his sole heir-over his eight sons. Together with Liesl and his insect-obsessed secretary Bjorn (Michael Cera), he sets off to secure his magnum opus: a network of infrastructure projects in Phoenicia.

Since Isle of Dogs (2018), Anderson's films have increasingly felt like cast reunions performing stylized imitations of his earlier work, rather than urgent artistic ventures. Both The French Dispatch (2021) and Asteroid City (2023) wandered through quirk without narrative drive-pleasant but aimless. His Roald Dahl short films, by contrast, felt stronger, largely because they stuck closer to plot, message, and character. In The Phoenician Scheme, Anderson attempts a return to plot, giving his aesthetic more structure and a clearer objective.

Yet the story at the film's core feels creaky. It plays like a director trying to reawaken his own narrative instincts, so strong in weaving together tones and threads in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) or The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). The Phoenician Scheme in contrast lacks emotional depth. It rarely moves beyond clever quips and fails to fully explore the father-daughter relationship central to the film. The political commentary, meanwhile, is blunt and didactic, sacrificing subtlety and impact in favor of heavy-handed messaging.

Anderson has always toyed with caricature and cliché-it's part of his charm. But here, the self-awareness seems to have dulled. There are still magically hilarious moments where everything clicks-like a high-stakes basketball game featuring Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston-but many other scenes come across as oblivious to their own hollow aphorisms and tropes.

The cast, as ever, is impressive-and thankfully more curtailed than in recent ensemble-heavy efforts. This tighter scope allows for some character development. Newcomers Threapleton and Cera adapt well to Anderson's rapid-fire, deadpan style. Del Toro, however-despite being one of the most talented and underrated actors of the past few decades-feels miscast. His gritty, grounded style clashes with Anderson's hyper-stylized cadence. Del Toro seems out of sync, his performance feeling stiff and unnatural. Zsa Zsa doesn't come across as a genuine industrialist, but rather as someone pretending to be one.

That said, Anderson's signature aesthetic remains intact. The film is visually immaculate, his humor still lands in places, and the editing maintains that conspiratorial wink to the audience. Wisely, Anderson pulls back from the exaggerated look of Asteroid City and The French Dispatch, which had begun to feel like parodies of his own work.

Ultimately, The Phoenician Scheme corrects some of Anderson's recent missteps but still leaves viewers emotionally cold and narratively uninvested. The technical mastery is still there, and familiar faces remain endearing, but Del Toro's misaligned performance in such a pivotal role weakens the film's core. The result is a forgettable, if not unwelcome, addition to Anderson's unique filmography. One hopes the American director continues to pursue his singular style-but slows down and reinvests in story and heart next time around. There's no need to rush.