Nate At The Movies

I’m so hyped for my movie-watching June (I’ve got tickets to six different movies already), and it all begins with The Phoenician Scheme. Though I have yet to see every Wes Anderson movie, I’m quite an admirer of his meticulous precision and details-focused style, and The Phoenician Scheme seemed to continue his descent into this stylistic rabbit hole.

I had postulated before that Asteroid City was the most Wes Anderson film he’d made, but that might’ve changed. The Phoenician Scheme was so committed to its style—its specificity, the range of wacky circumstances the characters found themselves in, and the always-clever dialogue—and the viewer (me) was often rewarded, with a ton of hilarious scenes built on precarious situations with caricaturistic(?) characters played by another impressive lineup of actors.

The obvious highlight from this cast for me was Michael Cera. I’m not sure how this was his first Wes Anderson film, but it certainly won’t be his last. His delivery and on-screen presence were unmatched in this film, and if I ever watch this film again, he’d be the reason why. Benicio del Toro and Mia Threapleton were great as well, but Cera simply stole the show.

What I didn’t get as much behind, though, was the story. Anderson has had a knack for immensely creative and unpredictable stories, and while The Phoenician Scheme had its share of twists, I wasn’t as engaged with the “renegotiation globetrot” as some of Anderson’s other films. It was also disappointing that the film titled “The Phoenician Scheme” only showed the funding of the scheme, and not the actual scheme in motion. Maybe there’s a sequel in the works, who knows.

The Phoenician Scheme was a pretty standard effort for Wes Anderson, full of his charm and style and continuing to show that he can pull egregiously talented casts like no other, but I definitely did want a little more out of it. I hate to say it—I wouldn’t be the first, though—but Wes may be past his prime. I still enjoyed The Phoenician Scheme, and I’ll be seated for his next one; let’s hope it’s a masterpiece.