The Phoenician Scheme
I adore this movie. It’s visually stunning, wickedly smart, and dripping with satire. The aesthetics alone could have won me over—but it’s the layers of absurdity and razor-sharp wit that make it unforgettable.
Our protagonist, Anatole “Zsa-zsa” Korda, is a billionaire tycoon so morally bankrupt he treats people like line items. He’s survived more assassination attempts than most dictators, adopts children on a whim (because statistically, one of them might be a genius), and drifts through danger with one unwavering life goal: making a steady 5% profit on absolutely everything. It’s dark comedy, but with a kind of twisted integrity.
His daughter, Liesl—a novice nun—is pulled back into his orbit when he dangles the promise of an inheritance if she’ll renounce her vows and take over the family empire. She refuses to compromise her morals, demanding “no slave labor” in his next grand venture. Their push-and-pull gives the film its moral heartbeat: a clash between pure profit and a stubborn streak of decency.
The business negotiations are pure theatre. He plays his partners like a piano—charming, gaslighting, bribing—always with a smile, a shrug, and the confidence of someone who believes rules are for other people. One minute, he’s finessing a deal over dinner; the next, he’s casually upping the stakes in a game of HORSE like it’s part of the contract.
Wes Anderson’s visuals are as indulgent as ever: pastel palettes, perfectly symmetrical frames, jewel-encrusted props, and bursts of cartoonish violence—plane crashes, dynamite, even chaotic gunplay—all staged like moving dioramas. It’s brutal and whimsical in the same breath.
The cast is a dream—Scarlett Johansson, Riz Ahmed, Willem Dafoe, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeffrey Wright—and somehow Michael Cera’s insect-obsessed tutor still manages to steal scenes with his deadpan weirdness.
Some see this as one of Anderson’s most emotionally grounded films; others think the lush visuals and layered plot keep you at arm’s length. For me, it’s a delicious paradox: warm and cold, moral and corrupt, sentimental and savage.
Sharp, stylish, and gloriously immoral—The Phoenician Scheme is a velvet-wrapped satire that cuts deep. 10/10. No notes.
