Movie · 2025 · Comedy, Adventure, Crime · 1h 42m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 5.1/10 (734.8K ratings)
If something gets in your way: flatten it.
Overview
Wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda appoints his only daughter, a nun, as sole heir to his estate. As Korda embarks on a new enterprise, they soon become the target of scheming tycoons, foreign terrorists, and determined assassins.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.1/10
IMDb: 6.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.53/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 77%
Metacritic: 70
TMDB: 6.5/10
Director
Wes Anderson
Production
American Empirical Pictures, Indian Paintbrush, Studio Babelsberg
Cast
Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Alex Jennings, Charlotte Gainsbourg, F. Murray Abraham, Steve Park, Scott Shepherd
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A playful, meticulously designed caper that leans into Wes Anderson’s trademark symmetry, deadpan wit, and storybook adventure energy while adding a bit more warmth than some of his recent work. The result sounds especially appealing for viewers who enjoy stylized ensemble comedy with espionage, family dysfunction, and elaborate comic plotting.
Best for
Wes Anderson fans
Viewers who like whimsical capers and elaborate production design
Fans of deadpan ensemble comedy
People who enjoy crime stories with a light, fable-like tone
Audiences looking for a colorful, highly stylized theatrical comedy
Skip if
You want naturalistic acting or realism
You’re tired of hyper-stylized visual precision
You prefer straightforward plotting over digressive caper structures
You dislike dry, mannered humor
You want action-heavy adventure rather than comic intrigue
Overview
The Phoenician Scheme looks like Wes Anderson returning to his sweet spot: a globe-trotting caper built from immaculate design, clipped dialogue, and a cast of eccentrics colliding over money, inheritance, and moral obligation. The premise gives him a clean comic engine, and the mix of tycoons, assassins, and family tension suggests a brisker, more plot-driven film than some of his more inward recent work.
Worth noting
The strongest signal from audience response is that it plays as both familiar and freshly affectionate. Viewers are responding to the warmth, the visual precision, and the sense that Anderson is using the machinery of a spy-crime adventure to tell a story about loyalty and family. That combination tends to work best when the film balances absurdity with emotional sincerity, and this one seems to do that well.
Bottom line
If you already enjoy Anderson’s formalism, this should be an easy recommendation. If his style has started to feel self-parodic to you, the film may not convert you, but it likely offers enough charm, invention, and comic momentum to satisfy anyone still open to his particular brand of controlled chaos.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Tristan (4★) · 38938 likes
they do a “girl takes off her glasses and is suddenly hot” moment with michael cera in this movie and somehow it works
typarsons (4★) · 17878 likes
Bryan Cranston and Tom hanks are the greatest basketball duo I’ve ever seen
Jay (3.5★) · 15147 likes
why is wes anderson so late to michael cera? practically engineered in the wes labs. i’ve been on his game for decades while he was distracted by timothee chalamet. we wasted so much time
ellie (3★) · 8672 likes
reacting like lucille bluth seeing gene parmesan every time willem dafoe appears in a movie
cerys (4★) · 8185 likes
i would love to be in a wes anderson film but i have an extremely asymmetrical face and i don’t think he’d fw that (he loves symmetrical things) and also i can’t act
1963 · Comedy, Mystery, Romance · 1h 53m · NR · Curator 8.5/10 (289K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Philo, Pure Flix, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Bloodstream
A stylish blend of romance, mystery, and light espionage that balances charm with suspense.