Benicio del Toro heads stellar cast as Wes Anderson gets back to his best in The Phoenician Scheme

News.com.au

28-05-2025

With a quirky comedy from a revered Hollywood veteran and truly terrifying horror from homegrown up-and-comers, it's a week of quality extremes on the big screen.
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME (M)
Director: Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
★★★★
Life is but a scheme
For 30 years, American writer-director Wes Anderson has been constantly refining the most distinctive visual aesthetic in movie history.
No-one uses colour, light, texture and the precision placement of cameras and props in remotely the same way.
Considering Anderson has been at it for so long – the magnificent The Grand Budapest Hotel remains an absolute career high point – most moviegoers will have already decided where they stand on his work.
Therefore those who have never connected with all things Wes Anderson can safely put a line through his new movie, The Phoenician Scheme, immediately.
However, for those who can't get enough of this singular stylist, the release of The Phoenician Scheme definitely calls for both immediate celebration and attendance. This is definitely one of the best things Anderson has ever put his name to.
Benicio del Toro leads the way with a wired and inspired comic performance as the wily billionaire industrialist Zsa-Zsa Korda.
The year is 1950 and, as the story gets going, Korda is not only one of the richest men in the world, but also one of the most despised. This would explain all the failed assassination attempts and ill-fated aeroplane journeys that appear in his diary on an all-too-regular basis.
In fact, Korda is so loaded and so loathed, no country will have him on their books as a citizen. Nevertheless, the lack of a passport or the likelihood of imminent death is not about to stop Korda from sealing the deal of a lifetime: a project which will bring water to some of the driest locations in the Middle East.
All Korda has to do to score his biggest-ever payday is keep a select group of private investors in line until the deal is approved.
This proves to be much more difficult than it sounds until Korda's estranged daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton) takes some time off from her day job as a nun to help her embattled father realise his lucrative dream.
As is often the case with Anderson's movies, the intensely deadpan sense of humour underpinning his work needs an exemplary cast to tell his oddball jokes in the right way.
Therefore the presence of names such as Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston and newcomer Threapleton (daughter of Kate Winslet) is a gift that keeps on giving throughout.
BRING HER BACK (MA15+)
★★★★
General release
It was a only a few years back that Adelaide filmmaking brothers Danny and Michael Philippou snapped Hollywood to attention with their low-budget debut Talk to Her. That cleverly creepy horror flick cost around $5 million to produce, and made roughly 30 times that amount worldwide. Was this all a fluke, or are the Philippous the real deal?
On the strength of their second feature, they could be the most accomplished and commanding filmmakers in the country right now. All the proof needed is stamped on every frame of Bring Her Back, a consummately intimidating and genuinely frightening horror movie that is clearly one of the year's best.
Sally Hawkins has the lead role of Laura, a foster parent of supposed good standing with bad things in mind for the next youths unluckily enough to land on her doorstep. The recently orphaned siblings, Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong), are still in a state of shock when they first arrive, but soon notice all is not right inside Laura's dingy, dimly-lit bushland home. Particularly when they start crossing paths with a third child in Laura's lamentable care. Anchored by Hawkins' grotesquely deranged performance (you'll never think of her as the kindly mum from the Paddington series ever again!), Bring Her Back reveals the Philippou brothers to be truly imposing masters of their craft. Whenever they let loose with the scary stuff here, the shocks are instantaneous and powerfully unsettling. Be very afraid … and be very impressed.
FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH (M)
★★
Now streaming on Apple TV+
A big bland shambles of an action-adventure movie, stacking many familiar templates from the genre (in particular, the Indiana Jones and National Treasure flicks) into a neat, non-offensive, not-so-entertaining pile.
John Krasinski is Luke Purdue, leader of a bunch of a misfits who make a buck nicking rare antiquities on behalf of conniving collectors. Luke's latest assignment is a doozy: a cancer-stricken tycoon (Domhnall Gleeson) reckons a sip from the fabled Fountain of Youth might just reverse his terminal diagnosis.
Could Luke find it? Probably. But only after determining whether this magic spring actually exists. This he will ultimately do with assistance from his snarky museum-curating sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman). However, first there must be a rather dull wild goose chase all over the globe before the job at hand can really get started.
Though this movie never truly falls apart at any time, it does wobble and shake unconvincingly should you think too hard.