The Phoenician Scheme 2025 Movie Review
Hi had a little trepidation heading to the cinema to see this because I was going with my younger sister who often rolls her eyes at the ‘weird’ films I suggest. Whilst Anderson isn’t the quirkiest of filmmakers, he is definitely unique and extremely stylised with, in the best cases of his work: a dry(?) humour that I find very amusing, and a perfect dose of obscure that is wholly entertaining, and speaks of his creativity and clever mind.
At there worst, Wes Anderson films can feel like they are so busy trying to be ‘out there’ that they lose any tangible narrative or real direction, and, for me, are just decent images to look at for a while, but then abandon because there’s only so long the aesthetically pleasing scenes can satiate me.
I also appreciate that Wes Anderson is a little marmitesque(!?!?!?), and understand some people will hate or have no time for his films. My sister is quite mainstream in her tastes so I would have chosen something else for us to watch together but we loathe comic book films, are too scared to watch horror, and Lilo and Stitch was only going to be viewed if it was in aid of entertaining the children!
So, after me triple checking she was sure she was happy to embrace the potential for uber quirkiness or, worse, being bored, we went.
I was pleasantly surprised. In fact I coukd have scared TPS an 8/10 even?! I was constantly engaged, chuckled throughout, loved watching the interactions and sets, plus actually really became attached and invested in the characters. I have since reassured my older sister (a wes Anderson fan who was disappointed in his previous couple of films), that The Phoenican Scheme is definitely a good, entertaining worthwhile watch that she’ll probably really enjoy, too.
