The Phoenician Scheme

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Director Wes Anderson

Anderson on the set

Anderson with Mathieu Amalric,Mia Threapleton, and Benicio Del Toro

Kate Winslet with her daughter Mia Threapleton

Benicio Del Toro with Mia Threapleton and Scarlett Johansson

THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME             B                                                                               USA  Germany  (101 mi)  2025  d: Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson is a descendant of the Marx brothers and Jacques Tati, humorists enthralled with the idea of creating their own cinematic universe, and while Anderson’s quirky dollhouse world may not be for everyone, with production designer Adam Stockhausen on full display, this esoteric espionage caper is among the harder to follow storylines of all his films, but that hardly matters as this just barrels along at a scintillating pace, with an evocative score by Alexandre Desplat, where one thing that is unmistakable is just how bat-shit crazy it is, told with a deadpan, screwball comedy relish, taking us places no one else in the world is willing to go, where this unique mindset and miniature visual aesthetic are certainly his own, as the attention to detail is stunning.  With all the throwaway gags, witty asides, and the historical and cinematic references, it’s nearly impossible to follow it all onscreen (an entire exhibition is dedicated to Anderson’s career at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, Enter the world of Wes Anderson at the Cinémathèque ..., while an exhibit at London’s Design Museum is planned in the fall, Wes Anderson: The Archives), as it’s gone in the blink of an eye, like the product placement of L.S./M.F.T. during a blood transfusion, a notorious advertisement for cigarettes, Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco, Lucky Strike Commercial #1 (1948) YouTube (1:01), a seemingly insignificant detail that only speaks to those old enough and crazy enough to remember that advertisement jingle.  While a darkness has crept into his later films, often reflecting contemporary authoritarian trends, the director is way ahead of his times in that regard, as evidenced by The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), which allegorized a creeping fascism, or 2018 Top Ten List #7 Isle of Dogs, where a corrupt authoritarian mayor has banned all dogs to an abandoned island, mirroring the current practice of Trump sending so-called dangerous immigrants to languish in overseas prisons.  Anderson’s framing and composition are, as always, exquisite, producing stills that are literally designed to look good enough to hang in an art gallery, where the end credits are among the more uniquely designed in recent memory, showing images of famous paintings that inspired the look of the film, all set to the music of Stravinsky’s Firebird, Stravinsky: Finale - Suite from The Firebird / Los Angeles ... YouTube (3:00), suggesting they have a profoundly liberating influence, while also including an amusing statement that this may not be used for the purposes of training AI.  Perhaps the biggest surprise is the casting of Kate Winslet’s daughter, Mia Threapleton, as a novitiate nun, who surprisingly holds her own against a cast of stars, most only appearing briefly, yet the A-list of names in the ensemble cast is impressive, suggesting there’s no shortage of people who want to work with Anderson, who is one of the defining visionaries of our generation, whose influence is felt far and wide.  Threapleton watched the animated feature FANTASTIC MR. FOX (2009) when she was about eight or nine-years old, then was blown away by 2012 Top Ten Films of the Year: #3 Moonrise Kingdom, deciding then and there that she wanted to work with Anderson one day, sending him a self-made audition tape for this film, recreating a scene from ISLE OF DOGS (2018), which the director loved, choosing her immediately after reading with leading protagonist Benicio Del Toro, who felt a connection working with her.  While people have different reactions to the idiosyncratic Wes Anderson experience, as all the characters are essentially cartoons, yet this film would just not be the same without her, providing the heart and soul that the other characters lack, inspired by Anderson’s relationship with his own daughter, making this a very personal film for him.  The film is dedicated to Anderson’s late father-in-law, Fuad Malouf, a Lebanese engineer and businessman who had a vast array of ongoing international projects in the works.  

Anderson has a multi-billionaire benefactor/business partner in Steven Rales, whose Indian Paintbrush (company) has almost exclusively produced every Anderson movie since 2007, with just a handful of other movies thrown in.  As for the film itself, it’s a wild and wacky affair, shot on 35mm in the Babelsberg Studio in Germany (the same studio where Fritz Lang shot METROPOLIS in 1927) by Bruno Delbonnel, responsible for the cutesy style of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s AMÉLIE (2001), Julie Taymor’s psychedelic Beatles fantasia ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (2007), and the magnificent look of Joel Coen’s 2022 Top Ten List #5 The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), where this is the first live-action film not shot by Anderson’s regular cinematographer Robert Yeoman.  Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, with a script co-written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, this film delves into the nefarious world of trade and commerce, which includes sabotage, a hidden espionage ring, and multiple assassination attempts, as personified by industrialist and arms dealer Anatole “Zsa-Zsa” Korda (Benicio Del Toro), a ruthless opportunist and the richest man in Europe who also dabbles in the defense and aviation industry, loosely based on Armenian oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian, who helped Western companies exploit the oil-producing regions of the Middle East while amassing a huge fortune and art collection of more than 6000 works of art, which he kept in a private museum at his Paris house (now housed in a museum in Lisbon), described by an art expert in a 1950 article from Life magazine, Mystery billionaire, "Never in modern history has one man owned so much."  This unscrupulous element of wielding power in order to make as much money as possible is a stark contrast to the art-inspired visual feast that commands the screen, showing a darker side of the American artist, perhaps reflected by that same turn of events in American politics, as it’s difficult to say whether Anderson really wanted to offer thoughts on global capitalism, but the connection to a contemporary reality, and some well-known billionaires, is all too evident.  Set in 1950, we first meet Zsa-Zsa flying in his private plane somewhere over the Balkans when he hears a strange sound, like a loud thump, quickly turning around, only to see a bomb blast completely eviscerate a fuselage side panel, taking his personal secretary with it, but he miraculously survives a crash landing.  This near death experience, apparently his sixth or seventh assassination attempt, plunges him headlong into a vision of the afterlife, shifting to black and white imagery, where he literally sits in judgment of his life from beyond the grave, confronted with his own mortality, where God is played by Bill Murray, a large bearded figure in white robes, surrounded by otherworldly beings.  Because of the shadowy forces repeatedly targeting him with assassination attempts, while also trying to undermine his business ventures, he summons his long-abandoned and pious daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who he hasn’t seen in years, to discuss making her the sole heir to his fortune, having mysteriously disinherited all his many sons, The Phoenician Scheme Movie Clip - Sole Heir (2025) YouTube (42 seconds).  This brief, yet highly effective scene taking place in his palazzo-inspired residence full of fine art establishes the particulars, “Never buy good pictures.  Buy masterpieces,” setting the framework for the rest of the film, becoming a battle of wills, like a morality play, where despite all the absurd encounters and theatrical shenanigans turning into an action-packed, globe-trotting romp, it’s all essentially a cover for a story about a father trying, in his own bizarre way, to connect with the daughter he barely knows, embracing themes like tragedy, redemption, honor, and yes, happiness.

Zsa-Zsa has a habit of carrying around a satchel of hand grenades, which he hands out to business partners like souvenirs during their encounters, where he typically starts out with the familiar refrain, “Help yourself to a hand grenade,” which people are more than happy to accept.  His titular “scheme” is to develop multiple infrastructure projects across “Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia,” a fictional land populated by princes, spies, revolutionaries, and large investors, and a mammoth Korda Land and Sea Phoenician Infrastructure Scheme involving a canal, a massive tunnel, a railroad line, and a hydroelectric dam.  His wheeler-dealer style has created many enemies, known disparagingly as “Mr. Five Per Cent” for his ability to always take a cut, hated the world over as he thinks everyone can be bought, having no friends and an unloving family he has largely ignored, but the business world hates him for exploiting local workers as slave labor, for his rampant lies and deceit, accountable to no laws whatsoever, and for dubiously cutting corners to become ridiculously successful.  Liesl has lived in a convent ever since her mother died when she was young, still stinging from the belief that Zsa-Zsa may have had something to do with her demise, as all his ex-wives died under suspicious circumstances, yet he steadfastly denies any involvement.  While he’s obviously a galvanizing figure, her insistence at discovering who was behind her mother’s murder leads her to accept this vaguely conceived succession agreement, on a trial basis, of course, bringing these seeming opposites together.  Zsa-Zsa’s grand scheme is outlined in a series of labeled shoeboxes, each containing a core component to the project, but rising production costs means he needs to close a gap in the plan’s financing, requiring visits to various key players to cover the artificially inflated costs, as his enemies have skyrocketed building material prices for his construction projects.  Liesl agrees to join Zsa-Zsa on his journey, accompanied by his special assistant, the family’s Norwegian tutor and entomologist, Bjørn (Michael Cera), who utters the unthinkable, “I speak my heart, I’m a Bohemian,” returning to the skies once again, with Zsa-Zsa repeatedly offering the reassuring words, “Myself, I feel very safe.”  Liesl is stunned to discover he’s been spying on her, though Zsa-Zsa is quick to retort, “It’s not called spying when you’re the parent.  It’s called nurturing.”  Where it all leads is to pure chaos and pandemonium, with a flurry of scenes strewn together, each more strangely disconcerting than the next, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME - "Human Rights" Official Clip YouTube (1:10), THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME - "Oh Dear" Official Clip YouTube (42 seconds), THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME - "You Used to Work for Me ... YouTube (44 seconds), meeting with fez-wearing, French nightclub owner Marseille Bob (Mathieu Amalric), a reference to Jacques Becker’s TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI (1954), interrupted by a group of armed revolutionaries, weirdly getting stuck in quicksand, while also visiting his second Cousin Hilda (Scarlett Johansson), who runs a “Utopian Outpost.”  But the ultimate showdown is with his big-bearded brother, Uncle Nubar (Benedict Cumberbatch, looking like a Russian czar), “He’s not human, he’s biblical,” which is literally a blood feud made to resemble a battle between a Marvel superhero and a villain, set to the bombastic music of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Orch. Ravel) : Promenade 1 YouTube (1:44), turning into a day of reckoning.  What follows is not what anyone would expect, with a beautifully charming Buñuelian twist at the end that does not disappoint, feeling strangely humanizing all of a sudden, saturated with dry wit and humor, yet the incessant business jargon used throughout seems intentionally designed to leave viewers emotionally disconnected through an obsessive ironic detachment, as none of it really makes any sense, nonetheless this is a welcome addition to the Wes Anderson universe, filled with pastel appeal and memorable charm, where what really stands out is that the actors truly shine, displaying impeccable comic timing in this elaborately constructed geometrical puzzle box.      

Dream Scenario

 

Director Krystoffer Borgli

Borgli on the set with Nicolas Cage

Borgli directing a scene

DREAM SCENARIO            B-                                                                                                   USA  (102 mi)  2023  d: Krystoffer Borgli

When a nerdy evolutionary biology professor (a balding Nicolas Cage) suddenly starts appearing in the dreams of hundreds of thousands of people, he becomes an immediate media sensation, seemingly harmless at first, with marketing strategists crafting get rich quick schemes of how to take advantage of his massive recognition, but when things take a dark turn, as the dreams grow violently terrifying, that instant stardom turns sour, becoming the object of derision, where he is literally shunned by the same society that initially embraced him.  This is a cringeworthy satirical assessment of failed dreams, missed opportunities, and the devastating harm done by social media, where fame is equated to hysteria, as innocent people can easily be ostracized by false and fabricated accusations, where a herd mentality takes over with violent tendencies that blindly condemns anything out of the ordinary, as society has always embraced security through conformity, in this case leaving careers shattered and lives destroyed, paying little consequence for their bullying behavior, hiding behind the anonymity of their invisible lives, leaving behind a trail of reckless impulsiveness.  Reminiscent of a terrifying scene in Jacques Audiard’s 2021 #6 Film of the Year Paris, 13th District (Les Olympiades, Paris 13e) where a law student is mistaken for a porn star, with both male and female students openly demeaning her with cyber bullying and sexist taunts, forcing her to withdraw from school and alter her career, while also seemingly spawned from the wild imagination of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman in Spike Jonze’s ADAPTATION (2002), where writer’s block turns into a screenwriter’s nightmare.  The common thread here is actor Nicolas Cage, known for choosing oddball roles played with a strange, over-the-top quirkiness, where his extended range is allowed to shine in this film where he can be completely unfiltered, bringing an eccentric intensity into the role, from a mousy nobody to an unhinged maniac, appearing in ADAPTATION twenty years ago in perhaps the greatest performance of his career, utterly brilliant in a dual role as rival sibling screenwriters, earning an Oscar nomination, with this film feeling like an extension of that role, kind of an absurdist and often surreal writer’s fantasy written and directed by Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli in his English language debut. Shot on 16mm film, giving this an intentionally grainy texture, using distorted sound and abrupt cuts that continually keep viewers off-balance, the film creates its own visual language.  

The sheer audacity of the film is at times hilarious, taking us down a dark turn we’ve never taken before, yet what stands out is the utter cluelessness of Paul Matthews (Nicolas Cage), a tenured professor with aspirations of publishing a book on the Swarm intelligence of ants, not exactly in everyone’s wheelhouse, but in his delusional and self-obsessed mind it’s something people should be interested in, where a driving force may be to pull him out of the obscurity of anonymity, resentful of his lack of notoriety, as he hungers for validation.  While it’s been decades since his research in grad school, he still hasn’t published or even started writing anything.  He leads a banal yet comfortable life with his architect wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) and two teenage daughters, Hannah (Jessica Clement) and Sophie (Lily Bird), with the film opening with Sophie reluctantly floating into the air screaming for her Dad to help while he passively looks on, remaining conspicuously unconcerned, never showing any interest in his daughter’s anxiety.  But it’s all a dream.  Nonetheless, Paul grows defensive, baffled and embarrassed at having to explain his lethargic behavior in the dream to his daughter, trying to convince her this would never happen in real life.  However, Paul is not a man of action, and may as well be invisible, as he’s the kind of guy people pass by on the street without giving him a second thought.  For most people he simply doesn’t exist, forever lurking in the background.  Even in his classroom, he’s largely ignored by students who are only there because it’s required, and are otherwise bored by his teaching methods, which generate no spark of interest.  So when he starts appearing in their dreams, finding himself in the fantasies and nightmares of strangers, mostly as a non-intrusive bystander who simply happens to show up, watching the most horrible things happening to people without helping, he is there, but just stands around, useless and impervious to what’s happening to them.  It wouldn’t really amount to much except their friends and other people they know also have the same kinds of dreams, where he always appears as a passively inert figure who just happens to be there, as if taking a wrong turn somewhere.  To the film’s credit, they never offer any explanation for this astounding development, yet somehow it feels connected with just how unlikable Paul is in the eyes of others, perhaps a manifestation of his own subconscious feelings of self-loathing and inadequacy, becoming a hideous example of his own crippling insecurities.  

Social media is what connects all these people together, as they’re surprised to discover the same man is appearing in all their dreams, becoming an instant celebrity, talked about on television reports, where Paul’s photograph becomes a viral Internet meme shared by people around the world, showering him with the attention he has long sought after, where it goes to his head, thinking he’s somehow responsible for this phenomenon, literally bathing in the limelight.  “So, then I’m finally cool,” he says to his daughter, hoping it will draw attention to selling his book.  He’s not alone, as others also try to capitalize on the moment, including an enterprising new-age PR firm called Thoughts? headed by CEO Trent (Michael Cera, always appearing in a baseball cap) and his associate Mary (Kate Berlant), suggesting Paul could enter a dream holding an advertised product, or have Obama dream about him, thinking they could rake in the money, literally naming their own price, as Paul is the hottest thing on the market, with Trent describing him as “the most interesting person in the world.”  But the film veers off on another tangent when Trent’s attractive assistant Molly (Dylan Gelula) takes Paul aside and expresses a personal interest in spending some time with him, as in her dream Paul was an active participant in a sex fantasy, which catches him a bit off guard, as he was never active in another person’s dream before.  This goes about how you might expect, as Molly is thrilled by the idea, but Paul fails to live up to what she imagines.  It’s an unsettling experience causing humiliation and shame, yet it’s played for laughs, where the experience alters the entire tone of the picture, knocking him off his pedestal, suddenly becoming angry and testy with people, as he can’t control what is happening in their dreams.  The subtle shift turns nightmarish, becoming disturbing and alarming, as Paul’s benign passivity in dreams grows more menacing, turning into a grotesque Freddy Krueger figure, where his instant stardom quickly fades, and people turn on him with a vengeance, becoming more aggressively vicious, hounding him wherever he goes, spray painting “Loser” on his car, where the entire world loathes what he’s become.  They no longer want to have anything to do with him, including his own family, who reject him, tragically losing his job in the process, spiraling into a pathetic netherworld of exile and ostracization.  The flip-flop into horror loses the acidic bite of satire, resembling something else altogether, yet the cruelty on display is staggering, mirroring what can happen when social media turns toxic and runs amok, leaving a hollow emptiness where reality used to be, creating a heartless, soulless landscape of what the world would look like without a human conscience.