THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME

The Phoenician Scheme

Written & Directed by Wes Anderson 

At this point, in our year 2025, it feels like audiences have given up on Wes Anderson. Not just general audiences either but even self proclaimed cinephiles seem to have abandoned ship. It's a damn shame too, the director of such stone cold masterpieces like "The Royal Tenenaums" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" has never missed. In fact his latest release, the spy comedy "The Phoenician Scheme" is his best film in a decade.

Benicio del Toro stars as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a comically ruthless but unbelievably charming and charismatic business tycoon. He's a raconteur and a rapscallion, incredibly smart and a real lover of art. The movie opens as he survives his 7th or 8th assassination attempt, "I'm in the business of surviving!" he often says. 

But perhaps one too many plane crashes have him rethinking his priorities, and he reconnects with his estranged daughter, Sister Liesl and tries to get her to take over the business and help him complete his magnum opus, The Phoenician Scheme.

It may not sound like it but this is the funniest movie I have seen in a long time. I was literally howling with laughter from beginning to end as it maintains this breathless thrilling pace. We get tons of cameos from the usual Anderson players but the main focus is Zsa Zsa, his daughter and surprisingly enough the private tutor he hires played brilliantly by Michael Cera. In a surprise to absolutely no one, Cera fits into the Wes Anderson world like a glove and in both my screenings got the loudest laughs. He is so funny. This movie is so funny.

Benicio del Toro gives the performance of his career, the movie hinges on him. He is the glue that holds the ridiculous story together and at the end of the day, this is a story about a father and daughter. The visual palette is typical Anderson, which is to say it looks and sounds incredible. While he is using the same box of crayons, there's quite a few things in here he's never done before. It's disingenuous to say he does the same thing every time. 

THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME is really hard to sum up, most great movies usually are. This is one of the very best pictures of the year and finally the first GREAT movie of the summer. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Out of 4