Review: "The Phoenician Scheme"

How to describe a Wes Anderson film?

Maybe it’s best to just list the movies that define his approach and style.  They would include The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch(2021) or Asteroid City (2023).

They are remarkably similar and consistent.  You know when you’re watching a Wes Anderson movie.  His work is unique and unmistakable.  You could say that Wes Anderson is a movie genre unto himself.  He’s an auteur director (as the French would have labeled him back in the Sixties) if there ever was one—the recognizable, identifiable “author” of his cinematic work.

The Phoenician Scheme is another prime example.  It’s a fast-paced, complex, cuckoo-crazy story told in short chapters that plays like a modern-day adult storybook.  It has a charming storybook look, popping with color and strange, kooky details—otherworldly, but inherently amusingly.  Wes Anderson’s movie worlds are delightful places to visit.  Collectively, you could think of them as “Wes World.”

They are places inhabited with memorable, oddball characters; an exaggeration of real people, created for the sake of sheer comic entertainment.  They are often portrayed by his familiar ensemble cast that includes A-List actors like Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Benicio Del Toro, Scarlett Johansson, and Tom Hanks (just to name a few).

Scarlett Johansson as Cousin Hilda and Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of TPS Productions/Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.

Newcomers include Michael Cera paying a character-within-a character. 

Hollywood’s best and brightest all show up when invited to be in a Wes Anderson film.  They love him and the offbeat characters that spring from the deep well of his slightly twisted mind.  In The Phoenician Scheme, Anderson shares writing credits with frequent collaborator Roman Coppola.

Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda, Michael Cera as Bjorn and Mia Threapleton as Liesl in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release.

Benicio Del Toro stars as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a 1950s-era unscrupulous but successful businessman, with ten children (nine boys and one girl) and several ex-wives who he may or may not have murdered.  He is a man who is not well liked.  Competing businessmen and ex-employees have repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to assassinate him in a variety of ways.

The movie opens with a shocking mid-air explosion on Zsa-Zsa’s private plane that prompts an emergency landing.  When an argument ensues with the pilot, Zsa-Zsa ejects him through the ceiling of the plane (007-style) before it crashes in a corn field.  He emerges from the wreckage bloodied and battered but with a weary expression that lets you know he’s been through things like this a dozen times before.  The extreme close-up of Del Toro’s face says it all.  It’s funny.

Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda and Mia Threapleton as Liesl in director Wes Anderson’s THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, a Focus Features release.

Things get funnier when Zsa-Zsa attempts to reunite and reconnect with his only daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton) who has decided to distance herself from dad by becoming a nun.  Zsa-Zsa is determined to bring her back into the fold as his future heir and successor.

He reveals an elaborate business plan -- The Phoenician Scheme -- that will bring power and wealth to his family.  It involves a complicated, mid-eastern, desert adventure with multiple stops and a series of bizarre deals and negotiations.   The former business associates me meets all have bizarre backstories. He greets each of them by casually offering a hand grenade (out of a wooden box of hand grenades that travels with him) the way someone would offer a friend a stick of chewing gum.  

As always in Wes Anderson movies, The Phoenician Scheme is heavy on dialog, witty, charming and non-stop.  It has the feel of bouncy British comedy. Often, the line delivery is deliberately deadpan and flat.  It’s a strange mix that borders on high-brow sophistication, but the addition of silly slapstick gags keeps the movie grounded and hilariously funny.

At times, the movie ventures into the realm of the Monty Python.  A great example is a scene in which characters meet on the railroad tracks of an underground tunnel where a heated argument breaks out, only to be resolved with a ridiculous impromptu basketball hoop shot competition.  The jolting unpredictability of the movie underscores what fans like about Wes Anderson’s work.  You can’t second guess it.  You wouldn’t want to attempt to.  You just watch it and try to hang on.

Like many great directors, Wes Anderson isn’t afraid to take chances and push the boundaries of his work. It doesn’t always work.  A few of his more recent films (like Asteroid City) may have have fallen short of expectations and box office revenue predictions. 

Happily, The Phoenician Scheme marks the triumphant return of Wes Anderson and his signature style.  It may not be for everyone, but his quirky cinematic vision is refreshing.  Interestingly, it is a movie that reflects some major, real-life current events in a remarkable way, considering it was probably actually written a couple of years ago. Watching it, it’s hard to believe that it wasn’t written just a couple of weeks ago.