US EditionThe Phoenician Scheme Review: Wes Anderson Returns with a Quirky and Quaint Tale of Industrial Espionage
- Wes Anderson premiered his twelfth feature film, The Phoenician Scheme, in competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on Sunday night.
- The film follows European business magnate Anatole Korda, who survives multiple assassination attempts and decides to leave his complex estate to his devout nun daughter Liesl.
- The Phoenician Scheme explores a 1950s father-daughter tale with espionage elements like sabotage and morse code, co-written by Anderson and Roman Coppola and featuring a large ensemble cast.
- Benicio Del Toro stars as Korda, described as a 'ruthless, charismatic business tycoon,' and received praise for delivering flawlessly as the magnetic lead character.
- The film will release theatrically in a limited run starting May 30 with a wide expansion June 6, continuing Anderson's collaboration with Focus Features and promising a curated cinematic experience.
36 Articles
36 Articles
The Phoenician Scheme Is Wes Anderson at His Most Muted
Wes Anderson, who specializes in designing fancifully invented societies, probably doesn’t strike anyone as an angry person. But his espionage comedy The Phoenician Scheme, playing in competition here at the Cannes Film Festival, shows glimmers of something that might be called anger, or at least frustration, over the greed and immorality of people who have too much—and yet only want more. The picture is flat and schematic—even flatter and more …
The Phoenician Scheme review: Wes Anderson returns with a quirky and quaint tale of industrial espionage
★★★★☆The Phoenician Scheme is in cinemas from Friday 23 May. Add it to your watchlistWes Anderson’s latest film starts with a bang. Quite literally. It’s 1950, and we find ourselves on a plane somewhere above the Balkan flatlands. There sits wealthy tycoon Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro) when, all of a sudden, an explosion blows out a hole in the back of the plane, leaving one poor soul splatted. Just his legs and a gruesome splash of blood on …
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