THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME

May 22, 2025

Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Mia Threapleton, Scarlett Johansson, The Phoenician Scheme, Tom Hanks

Words by JANE CROWTHER


The scheme at the centre of Wes Anderson’s latest is as precisely matriculated and detailed as the auteur’s work. Wily 1950s business tycoon Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) decides to go full hog on a business plan to build an Empire via infrastructure, deals and percentage financing after surviving his sixth plane crash (one of the film’s best sequences). A Charles Foster Kane crossed with Trump egotist who wants to win at all cost, Korda is determined to leave a legacy – in business via his scheme, and generationally via his offspring. Though he has nine sons, he reconnects with his 20 year-old daughter Leisl (Mia Threapleton), a nun who carries unresolved family hurt and a pipe. Korda’s biggest deal then involves globetrotting via complex sets and dioramas, to raise capital and outwit a bureaucratic group who are falsely inflating costs – all while handing out hand grenades as gifts and outrunning a mysterious assassin who keeps trying to pop him. Along for the ride: Michael Cera’s delightful Norwegian tutor Bjorn, who has a dazzling collection of insects and ends up working above his paygrade as Zsa-zsa suffers another plane crash, quicksand and a battle to the death in a luxury hotel.

Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Mia Threapleton, Scarlett Johansson, The Phoenician Scheme, Tom Hanks

Del Toro, in practically every frame, is a hoot as Zsa-zsa, a man who is casual about death, serious about cards and a fan of hot baths. He’s matched by deadpan Threapleton who can transmit an exasperated eyeroll without actually moving her peepers. Another newbie to the Anderson stable, Riz Ahmed, makes an impression as Prince Farouk, while the returning troupe (Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray et al) do their fast-talking, comedic thing. But it’s Cera who really steals focus with a performance so singularly sweet and a lilting Scandinavian accent so charming that one wishes Anderson had given this character a whole film to himself.

Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Mia Threapleton, Scarlett Johansson, The Phoenician Scheme, Tom Hanks
Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Mia Threapleton, Scarlett Johansson, The Phoenician Scheme, Tom Hanks

Though there’s plenty of physical gags and willfully opaque business speak which could be interpreted as Anderson criticising capitalism, the matter at the core of the hijinks is the redemption of a man and the relationship between a father and daughter. And to that end – and the film’s end – there is emotional satisfaction. As expected, production design is a whimsical trove and monochrome scenes set in heaven (with Murray as God) are quirky sojourns. Anderson fans will likely not be unduly disappointed.

Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Mia Threapleton, Scarlett Johansson, The Phoenician Scheme, Tom Hanks

Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs courtesy of TPS PRODUCTIONS/FOCUS FEATURES
The Phoenician Scheme premiered at the 78th Cannes Film Festival

TRENDING

Charlie Polinger, Everett Blunck, Kenny Rasmussen, Lennox Espy, The Plague, Joel Edgerton

THE PLAGUE

In his debut feature Charlie Polinger riffs on The Lord Of The Flies but makes it entirely his own and pertinent to today’s politics

Imogen Poots, Jim Belushi, Kristen Stewart, The Chronology of Water, Thora Birch

THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER

No bodily fluid is left untouched in Kristen Stewart’s raw, unflinching poem to wetness, adapted from Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir…

BUY

You may also like…

oh canada, richard gere, urma thurman, jacob elordi, paul schrader

OH, CANADA

After Quintin Dupieux and Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic essays on their relationships with art, Paul Schrader offers his own at Cannes this week.

lily-rose depp, the idol, cannes film festival, cannes dispatch, hollywood authentic

LILY-ROSE DEPP

CANNES DISPATCH 8 …Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS Lily-Rose Depp stars in new Sam Levinson-directed drama, The Idol, co-starring Abel Tesfaye, AKA The Weeknd. The HBO show premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. Following a nervous breakdown that caused the cancellation of her last tour, Jocelyn (Depp) is determined to reclaim her rightful status as the