The Phoenician Scheme (2025)
Directed by: Wes Anderson
Premise: An industrialist (Benicio del Toro) who is targeted for assassination by rivals in government and business reconnects with his estranged daughter (Mia Threapleton).
What Works: Filmmaker Wes Anderson is renowned for his unique style. The production design, camerawork, and performances have a very specific pitch and in the best cases Anderson and his collaborators are so in command of their craft that everything fits together like clockwork. That is certainly the case in The Phoenician Scheme which has some of the most elaborate and artfully produced images of Anderson’s filmography. Viewers who are looking for the standard Wes Anderson experience will find it here, at least superficially. One of the standout qualities of The Phoenician Scheme is the score by Alexandre Desplat. A lot of the music for Anderson’s films is rather light and supports the whimsy of the filmmaking but Desplat’s score for The Phoenician Scheme hits differently. It’s a darker and moodier score that suits the constant threat of assassination. Wes Anderson’s films include a consistent roster of actors but The Phoenician Scheme includes two notable additions: Mia Threapleton as the daughter and Michael Cera as the industrialist’s assistant. They both get Anderson’s style and Cera is very funny.
What Doesn’t: As Wes Anderson’s career has proceeded he has become increasingly self-indulgent, often to the detriment of his movies. Anderson’s early work was similarly stylized but Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom had a human quality underneath the style. The performances of those films adhered to Anderson’s specific pitch but the characters felt like flesh and blood people which gave those stories an organic and human quality. Anderson’s more recent feature films, and especially The French Dispatch, Asteroid City, and now The Phoenician Scheme, feel entirely plastic. Comparing Anderson’s filmmaking to clockwork is fitting because these films play like meticulously crafted cuckoo clocks. The workmanship is undeniable but The Phoenician Scheme has no substance. The characters are collections of mannerisms but they have no depth or humanity. The Phoenician Scheme is ostensibly about a father and his estranged daughter reconnecting. Filmmakers are not obligated to provide a particular emotional experience but there’s nothing here. The filmmaking and the performances are so restricted by the quirky style that everything about the movie comes across shallow and artificial. As impressive as it is to look at, The Phoenician Scheme is rarely engaging. It feels like an imitation of Anderson’s earlier work.
Bottom Line: The Phoenician Scheme is beautifully crafted but empty. It is further evidence that Wes Anderson’s filmmaking has plateaued and is in dire need of a creative shakeup.
Episode: #1052 (June 15, 2025)