There’s no denying that Wes Anderson is one of the most exciting auteur filmmakers working today. Whether his unique style works for you, or his pretentious stories cause you to pull your hair out, he is at least a filmmaker who is doing something stylistically different and irreverent.
Since his Oscar’s run with The Grand Budapest Hotel, there actually hasn’t been a Wes Anderson film that I’ve loved. I’ve appreciated aspects of his work since then, but nothing has really hit me more than his earlier work such as The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom. Yet, he is still a filmmaker that I will watch a new film of with eagerness and anticipation. Enter The Phoenician Scheme.
Anderson’s synopsis of The Phoencian Scheme reads as ‘the story of a family and a family business’. And that’s not incorrect. But it is also an espionage comedy, cross-country adventure, meditation on death, and exploration of purpose, all anchored by an enigmatic lead turn from Benicio del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda, a businessman who has a knack for surviving far too many assassination attempts from his rivals. But, his latest brush with death causes him to have a gloriously spiritual vision of heaven.
Knowing his time is now closer to being up than ever, Zsa-Zsa connects with his estranged daughter, Leisl (Mia Threapleton), who is only days away from taking her vows as a nun, in order to convince her to become the heir to his fortune, but not before he endeavours on one last business pursuit which involves conning a myriad of previous business partners to build his magnum opus and future cash cow for his family.
” Wes Anderson is one of the most exciting autuer filmmakers working today“
The Phoencian Scheme is by far the most I’ve enjoyed a Wes Anderson film in over a decade. There’s a darkness within this comedy that has such an attractive quality, and does indeed lead to many laugh out loud moments. Some of that humour is found situationally, but a lot of it is through the outstanding and dedicated-to-the-weirdness of the lead trio performances, which include Del Toro and Threapleton, and Michael Cera, who plays Bjorn, an insect-obsessed tutor who becomes Zsa-Zsa’s assistant through extenuating circumstances. Their performances have that quirkiness that is to be expected from a Wes Anderson film, but compared to other characters, both in this film and others in his filmography, don’t come across as insipid and annoying. However, there are some performances that still find overdo the quirk styling, often to the detriment of entertainment.
Not one to shy away from the over-stylised, perfectly symmetrical, pastel aesthetic, Anderson manages to combine his unique look with some more conventional visual tropes of the espionage genre. There is far more dynamic camera-work outside of his traditional dolly-shots moving from side to side, plus a handful of action set pieces also show Anderson’s ability to capture pure cinematic excitement and tension. A lot of the more conventional cinematography lends to a lot of the film’s visual gags too, such as a high-stakes basketball game in a mine-shaft, and a plane explosion that opens the film. The filmmaking quirks that are to be expected are still very much on show, highlighting that there aren’t many directors today creating visual languages in the way Anderson does, and it’s that uniqueness that does create an engaging sensibility.
Style is, once again, prioritised over substance. The plot of The Phoenician Scheme is truly convoluted, moving at a breakneck speed with rapid moments of important dialogue often leaving you more confused about the titular scheme, which I believe has to do with building some sort of magnum opus train line/dam-with-waterfall, and the attempts in screwing someone out of their money to make it happen… I think. The main story seems to mostly serve the humorous moments more so, and also acts as a vessel for a touching story about a father trying to reconnect with his daughter.
There is also a subplot within this film that serves as the igniting factor for Zsa-Zsa’s reasoning behind reconnecting with his daughter. After surviving countless brushes with death, Zsa-Zsa comes a little too close to his mortality after the opening assassination attempt, leading him to have a spiritual encounter or epiphany that causes him to evaluate his mortality and purpose. The way Anderson shoots these moments is in black-and-white, using a very surrealist style of editing and imagery – almost dreamlike. Zsa-Zsa encounters figures from his life, and eventually, God himself.
This feels like the most meditative Anderson has been since The Royal Tenenbaums. There is an authenticity that bleeds through these few moments of the story where Anderson himself is coming to terms with the idea of his purpose, legacy, and in a morbidly funny way, death. It’s the most connected I’ve felt to a character too since Moonrise Kingdom, and considering these are comparisons to two of his best movies, in my opinion, there is something to say about the light of substance creeping through the cracks of his quirky stylings.
Wes Anderson is now in the mastery stage of his own cinematic stylings. The Phoenician Scheme is a brilliant looking film, anchored by incredible and quirky lead performances. The style outweighs the substance, but there is no denying the entertainment factor that is on offer is very fun, and the heart of the film is quite meditative.
The Phoenician Scheme is in cinemas May 29.
