In The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson once again turns up the style knobs to the max: symmetrically styled sets, pastel palettes, deadpan humour and cameos galore. Benicio del Toro plays Zsa-Zsa Korda, a European oligarch who rises from his umpteenth “death” with good intentions. Instead of his nine sons, he names his daughter, a disarming Mia Threapleton, as heir to his megalomaniacal dream: a prestigious construction project in fictional Phoenicia. Their journey together, full of eccentric stops and religious surrealism, is meant to lead to reconciliation.  

Anderson’s recurring themes – fathers and daughters, mortality, the desire for meaning – are present here too, but The Phoenician Scheme largely relies on his familiar style. The images are beautiful, the dialogue clever, and actors such as Michael Cera and Jeffrey Wright clearly feel at home in this metronomic universe. The film is a light-hearted footnote in an impressive oeuvre.