18-05-2025
The Phoenician Scheme review — Mia Threapleton shines in dour Wes Anderson
The best Wes Anderson movies work on two levels at once, the head and the heart. The Royal Tenenbaums, for instance, bursts with cerebral allusions to Salinger, Welles and the films of Powell and Pressburger while also exploring the lingering wounds of family life and of love unexpressed. Even the Wes Anderson films that don't work on the heart level have such head-spinning cleverness that their impact can be dizzying — think of Asteroid City, with its audacious 'play within a play within a TV show within a movie' structure. If, however, a Wes Anderson movie doesn't work on either the head or the heart level, you're in big trouble. And that takes us to The Phoenician Scheme, premiered at the Cannes
