DAN WEBSTER:
It’s long been a debate whether reactions to art are simply a matter of perspective. Are the works of Jackson Pollock, for example, mere splashes of paint on canvas, or are they attempts, at least sometimes sublimely successful, to stretch the very meaning of the art that he pursued?
The dialectic involving Pollock goes on to this day and may never be resolved. But, then, that’s the very nature of art criticism, right? One critic’s masterpiece is another’s, at best, clumsy curiosity.
It’s an argument, anyway, that over the years has embroiled the films of Wes Anderson. Regarding his 2021 film The French Dispatch, TIME magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek wrote, “It's possible to love the past and still be aggravated by Anderson's particular brand of tweed-and-fondant nostalgia.”
Meanwhile, Taryn Allen of the Chicago Reader wrote, “It has everything that we've come to expect from Wes Anderson: carefully crafted aesthetics, perfect color palettes, and intricate tableaux of actors.” The same kind of critical clash no doubt is raging over Anderson’s latest creation, The Phoenician Scheme.
(Personal note: The French Dispatch was one of my favorite films of 2021, so it’s clear where my sentiments reside. And those sentiments extend to The Phoenician Scheme, which—it has to be said—if ever there was a film that captures Anderson’s personal sense of style, it’s this one.)
Benecio Del Toro stars as Zsa-zsa Korda, a controversial businessman who operates mostly outside the law, being a dealmaker of the type that we’re so accustomed to in this chapter of American history. He’s also the target of repeated assassination attempts, which is another familiar aspect of today’s celebrity experience—especially since he keeps surviving them (ranging from airplane crashes to attempted poisonings to, yes, shootings).
When we meet Korda he’s just survived the latest attempt, lumbering out of a cornfield following a crash worse for wear but more than ever intent on carrying out his latest project: a “scheme” to use the fictional country of Phoenicia as a means of generating profits—to him, mainly—that depends on his being able to raise enough working capital through a series of investors.
Besides dodging would-be murderers, Korda’s problem is that a covert government agency is working to bankrupt him, and he is forced to manage a series of difficulties to keep his investors in line. His doing so involves everything from playing a game of HORSE to facing would-be revolutionaries.
In addition, Korda is enduring a late-life sense of self-reflection—and perhaps even regret. He’s fathered 10 children, nine sons (all of whom are housed in a kind of dormitory) and a 21-year-old daughter (Liesl, played by Mia Threapleton). Having been consigned to a convent by Korda since the age of 5, Liesl is intent on becoming a nun. Realizing that he can’t live forever, Korda wants her to be his heir.
The rest of the film involves his dealings with the investors, dodging assassins, trying to connect with Liesl—whose main aim is to discover, and punish, the person who, she believes, murdered her mother. Oh, and there’s the occasional after-life sequence in which Korda is judged by God (played by Bill Murray). All this leads to Korda’s fateful meeting with his estranged half-brother Nubar (played by a virtually unrecognizable Benedict Cumberbatch).
As is usually the case, though, plot isn’t the most important aspect to an Anderson film. The Phoenician Scheme is a pristine parade of Anderson’s trademark stylistic visual devices, from overhead shots and pale pastel colors to the use of tracking and so-called “whip” shots. It is, as well, another of his thematic explorations of family dysfunction and other troubled relationships.
Besides his regular cast of actors, including Murray and Jason Schwartzman, Anderson adds more recent additions such as Del Toro, Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson, Rupert Friend, Bryan Cranston, Richard Ayoade and Michael Cera (the latter of whom, as a Norwegian entomologist, is surprisingly good).
Not everyone is going to like The Phoenician Scheme, even maybe a few longtime Anderson fans. Such is the way with all art appreciation. But some of us will. And, for us, that’s good enough.
For Spokane Public Radio, I’m Dan Webster.
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Movies 101 host Dan Webster is the senior film critic for Spokane Public Radio and a blogger for Spokesman.com.