The Phoenician Scheme, 2025.
Directed by Wes Anderson.
Starring Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, and Hope Davis.
SYNOPSIS:
Wes Anderson’s latest delightful little story world, The Phoenician Scheme, arrives on 4K Ultra HD, with a Blu-ray disc and a digital code included too. While it’s not one of my favorites in the writer and director’s filmography, it’s still a fine piece of work with a great ensemble cast and a point-of-view on the world that is unique only to him. The extras found here are pretty scant, but I assume Criterion will make up for that in the next year or two.
In this crazy world we live in these days, I take comfort in knowing that Wes Anderson will put out a new movie every few years and transport me to a unique world that filters our reality through a lens that only belongs to him. He has become one of my favorite filmmakers.
While his latest movie, The Phoenician Scheme, is not among my favorites in his filmography, it’s still a solid outing that shows he can continue to breathe new life into his chosen method of moviemaking. Benicio del Toro stars as Anatole “Zsa-Zsa,” a ruthless arms dealer and industrialist.
After surviving an assassination attempt but lying in an unconscious state, Zsa-Zsa visits the afterlife and receives a harsh estimation from God (Bill Murray) of his worthiness to enter Heaven. After he recovers, he decides he will reconcile his relationship with his only daughter, Catholic novice Sister Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who is estranged from him.
Meanwhile, Zsa-Zsa’s unscrupulous business practices have drawn the ire of governments around the world, and he decides he will risk his fortune on a scheme to remake Phoenicia’s infrastructure with slave labor. When a conspiracy against him drives up the cost of building materials, Zsa-Zsa decides to figure out how to rip off his investors, rather than end up in bankruptcy.
Traveling with Liesl and his new assistant, Bjørn (Michael Cera), he travels the world meeting with investors played by Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, and Mathieu Amalric. They’re an eclectic bunch in their own right, of course — for example, Hanks and Cranston’s characters are Californians known as The Sacramento Consortium, and they like to use basketball as a way to settle grievances.
However, Zsa-Zsa’s dealings with his investors are just the start of his convoluted plans to preserve his fortune and win back his daughter, which also pull in his cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson), Prince Farouk, the crown prince of Phoenicia (Riz Ahmed), and his estranged half-brother, Uncle Nubar Korda (Benedict Cumberbatch), who is the only person who can truly strike fear in him.
This 4K Ultra HD edition of The Phoenician Scheme also includes a Blu-ray disc and a code for a digital copy. Unfortunately, the extras found here are pretty scant, but Criterion has a long history of putting out editions of Anderson’s movies that are packed with bonus features, so I imagine they’ll fill in the gap pretty soon.
In the meantime, we have four featurettes running about 14 minutes total and given the umbrella title, Behind the Phoenician Scheme. The first one, The Cast, runs 7.5 minutes and its subject matter is pretty self-explanatory. Anderson has plenty of comments about the main characters in the story.
The other three featurettes are pretty quick: The Airplane (1:20) goes behind the scenes of Zsa-Zsa’s often tumultuous flights; Marseille Bob’s (2:02) gives us a glimpse of the creation of the world of a Phoenicia investor who’s also a nightclub owner and a gangster; and Zsa-Zsa’s World (4:16) uses his composite mock-up of his projects as jumping-off points to talk about those particular sets.
The trailer rounds out the platter.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
