Film Review - The Phoenician Scheme (2025)

The Phoenician Scheme is Wes Anderson’s new movie and stars Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda a businessman who survives numerous assassination attempts and attempts to anoint his daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton) a Nun to take over his businesses as he plans a new venture in Phoenicia which could be the deal of the century.

The Phoenician Scheme is honestly one of my favourite films of the year so far as I had a great time with this one as it feels like that Wes Anderson is actually telling a coherent story instead of just a series of vignettes and gags which his previous film Asteroid City felt like at times but here all of those moments weave together very well and tell a fun story of corporate espionage, family and business and family scheming and planning.

And this is anchored by a game cast for the most part, Del Toro is excellent here not just with his American accent but also in adapting to Anderson’s specific directing style which he does wonderfully well, Michael Cera is also terrific here as Bjorn a tutor with an interest in insects as is Benedict Cumberbatch as a ruthless uncle with a gripe of his own to pick with Korda complete with a Rasputin-esque beard.

But sadly Mia Threapleton isn’t as good here, don’t get me wrong she is a good young actress but at times she struggles with Wes Anderson’s direction and his style of performance and her thick British accent doesn’t help at times either as it sometimes feels like she’s trying to adapt her voice to the straight laced/fast pace of Anderson’s acting style and the two sometimes clash but Cera was in a similar situation with Edgar Wright in Scott Pilgrim vs The World in 2010 so this is far from now and Threapleton won’t be the last actor to face a struggle like this one.

And so that was The Phoenician Scheme and it is one of my favourites of 2025 so far combining great performances, a fun story and good humour, I liked this one a lot, 4 out of 5.