JASON EVANS' 100-WORD REVIEWS: The Phoenician Scheme

 Haphazard Wes Anderson

Film critic Jason Evans has made it his mission to tell you about movies in less time than it takes to pull out a hand grenade. His reviews are exactly 100 words long (99 is never enough and 101 is too much). Here is his 100-word review of Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme.

The Premise: It is the 1950s and ruthless businessman Zha-zha Korda (Benicio del Toro) discovers there is a gap in the financing for a huge project he is building in Phoenecia. He must go to each of his major investors and convince them to cover the gap. He brings his estranged daughter Liesel (Mia Threapleton, the daughter of Kate Winslet) along in the hope of building a real relationship with her. Along the way, Korda begins to realize that maybe his fanatical devotion of business isn’t the path to eternal happiness. The film is directed by quirky auteur Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenebaums, Grand Budapest Hotel, Asteroid City) and features an all-star cast including Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeffrey Wright, and many more.

The 100-words: I long for an Anderson film that will bring his quirky style to a wider audience. Sadly, this isn’t that movie as it has a convoluted plot that zooms from one eccentric encounter to the next. Anderson has remarkable gifts – especially in framing, camera movement, and color – and his films are always funny. But this time the stilted line deliveries and eccentric characters just didn’t connect for me the way they do in his better movies. Make no mistake, this isn’t a bad film, but it is probably just for those who are already fans of Wes’ hyper, unusual style.

Reach out to Jason Evans on Twitter @JasonDukeEvans