The Phoenician Scheme is a very Wes Anderson film
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Chapter One: On the beauty of Michael Cera
It is an undeniable fact, proven by the entire academia of the known universe that the most handsome and perfect specimen of human race is in fact sir Michael Cera.
I personally, my loyal readers, have been fascinated by the man for a very long time. Because obviously "why shouldn't I ?" ( referencing another perfect appearance of this beautiful human being in a different film ).
The absence of Michael Cera from the filmography of Wes Anderson was a highly debated phenomenon after the much needed inclusion of his royal perfection in this masterpiece. I do believe that Michael Cera and Wes Anderson should in fact rejoin for another endevour later in the future.
Chapter Two: On how Wes is being an Anderson
The film, this review is intending to be about, is a gorgeous example of the phenomenon that could be described by the words "Wes Anderson". As in, the movie is an embodiment of the man's style. It seems like, and many already pointed that out, that Wes Anderson only becomes more Wes Anderson-like with each of his projects. The Phoenician Scheme is a good example of this trend.
In the entire picture I noticed only one shot that was not completely in the style of Wes Anderson. And even that shot, which was designed to show chaos of a fight scene, for which the camera was hand held ( and therefor unable to stay very long in the most perfectest of compositions ) was still attempting with a high degree of success to remain firmly in the style of Wes Anderson.
Chapter Tree: On the messaging
From the large body of work that Wes Anderson has presented over his career, he has been, it seems, strangely fascinated with the prospect of youth outgrowing the adults. But not in an ageism kind of way, but rather in a balancing kind of way, which removes, an otherwise omnipresent sense of ageism.
You can observe throughout his filmography a large quantity of child or otherwise young characters that showcase a large degree of autonomy and adulthood.
The Phoenician Scheme seems to entertain some of this ideas more directly. First, by being a story primarily concerned with a relationship between a father and a daughter. But then also by making the character of the daughter be a force influencing growth in the father, rather than the other way around.
There was an interesting exchange between the two characters showcasing Anderson's understanding of the current state of affairs when it comes to invasive parenting. At some point the father character played by Benicio del Toro reveals to the daughter character played by Mia Threapleton that he was spying over her when she was a child, which made her obviously upset about it. Yet he immediately brushed it off as being an expression of "care" when this spying comes from a parental figure.
Chapter Four: On actors that I believe would be nice to mention
The film is full of characters played by very good actors ( as one should expect from Wes Anderson ). Some of the more interesting ones are:
Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe and of course Bill Murray as God.
Happy Hacking!!!
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