Latest news with #PhoenicianScheme
New Indian Express
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
The Phoenician Scheme Movie Review: Overindulgence and overreliance on humour spoil a film with profound themes
The film touches upon profound themes, notable among them being Korda's quest for purpose and redemption. The Phoenician Scheme explores whether or not someone who has lived a life full of 'mischief' can fully redeem themselves. Anderson goes for a comedic and often absurd exploration of these themes. The trademark whimsicality dominates whatever little attempt Anderson makes at exploring the film's themes. Often, the characters converse as though they are in a state of electrocution, making it hard for the emotional and philosophical weight of the themes to truly land. Besides the humour, the rushed exposition also keeps you from understanding the true nature and mechanics of Korda's business. What is his upshot? Is it absolute power and/or something else? Wes Anderson's films tend to have operatic qualities and unfold in a whimsical world, and The Phoenician Scheme is no different. The film is rife with trademark Anderson touches: meticulous set designs, deadpan humour, and many charmingly eccentric characters. The dry humour and subtle emotional expression make the characters' motivations and stakes feel somewhat ambiguous. For example, Korda's occasional 'trips' to the afterlife and back give a glimpse into the moral framework within which he operates. The trips seem to hint at Korda's desire to explore a more ethical way of life. While there is the occasional humour to enjoy, it is difficult to connect with the characters' inner struggles and feel the full weight of the dramatic events.
Mint
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Wes Anderson's ‘The Phoenician Scheme' and Aamir Khan's ‘Sitare Zameen Par' — Hidden money lessons
Both Wes Anderson and Aamir Khan have a fan following that is set in their ways. Fans gave Aamir Khan a label 'Mr. Perfectionist'. Makes you wonder why he is remaking a movie - Woody Harrleson starrer Champions - about basketball, a sport that can be described as 'niche interest' for Indians and about a Chak De like plot but with differently abled young people. The debacle of Lal Singh Chaddha wasn't enough for him? Or do Indian writers not have any original stories? Wes Anderson is known for his films that are 'different'. The Phoenician Scheme is as niche as it gets. Fans will flock to watch a film that has big stars like Tom Hanks, Bill Murray, Benedict Cumberbatch, and more… With Benicio Del Toro handing out live grenades to his relatives, fans have a big screen treat in store for them. . Two very different films with totally different plots offer money lessons to the smart investor. Aamir Khan plays an assistant basketball coach with a short fuse and yes, an even shorter temper. His personal failures earn him fines as well as community service (a concept introduced to the judicial system in India only in 2023). He has to coach a team of differently abled people - those who are autistic and afflicted with Down's Syndrome - and win like Kabir Khan a la Chak De, India!. This bunch of rag tag folk with different quirks - one won't bathe because he is afraid of water, but loves animals, another tends to stare at the sky to track flights, and there's one who is scammed by his employer to work at half the pay but longer hours… Every story is meant to touch your heartstrings, but because each comes with a moral science lesson, the film makes you want to upchuck into your popcorn. The film gets 'A' in its report card because the 'Sitare' team wins despite not winning. That lesson is just better than anything else the film tries to 'teach'. This should have been slotted for a Direct to OTT slot, because Woody Harrelson's Champions does the same job much better. If the film teaches us to be more inclusive and that 'our normal is our normal and their normal is their normal', but in front of these differently abled folk, I wish Aamir had at least tried to be genuine rather than put on an act. His whole schtick just feels hollow. But the film teaches us valuable money lessons. Financial stability often requires effort and adaptability. The movie shows that Hargobind, who is on the spectrum, does not trust coaches, and prefers to play alone. The coach has to win his trust, and get him to play in the team. Kudos to the director who manages to convince us that there is joy in playing the game and that winning is not everything. This can be a powerful lesson, reminding viewers that while financial security is important, it shouldn't be the only pursuit. The movie explores themes of overcoming personal struggles and finding redemption, both for Gulshan the grumpy coach and the team members. So take a quick break and call your personal finance manager just to say thank you. After all, your success is because you have a great team working with you. A businessman chooses his successor - his daughter, a young novice who insists she is going to become a nun. He has ten sons as well, who are happiest using a real crossbow aimed at dad. Dad though has survived many assassination attempts across many geographies. His assistants die horribly, and even though he has been shot at and suffered plane crashes, you sit there in the dark grinning. Wes Anderson is obviously going somewhere with these delightful attempted murders. The businessman Anatole 'Zsa Zsa' Korda (played by Benicio Del Toro) is going to divert waters and build a new expansive infrastructure (train, towns et al) across the desert. He has made deals with his family and friends. He needs to renegotiate deals to finish the railroad, which has just fallen short by a few feet. He could put his own money, but this is a Wes Anderson movie, so he embarks on a quest to meet and make new deals with every partner. Feels like a bit of a maths lesson, but who cares when the scheme by this rich man looks so enticing? Zsa Zsa even offers to marry his cousin (Scarlett Johanson!) and plays a game of basketball against Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston… The American government has sent a spy to figure out his business deals and if he's evading taxes. How he manages to survive a fight with his murderous brother (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a fun watch. As an investor though you must realise that investing your money into businesses with family and friends is great until you are faced with the disadvantages. There will always be someone who is dissatisfied with their share of earnings, dividends and what have you to trigger them into finding faults. Zsa Zsa is how we perceive rich oligarchs - travelling in their private jets, dodging taxes because they have different nationalities, men who think nothing of destabilizing governments and exploiting local workers and yes, fathering many children… If you work with someone like Zsa Zsa Korda, or have enough money to plan your own Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia, know the pitfalls of being rich: People will be out to get a slice of your wealth (learn to negotiate!); They will want to kill you (appoint your heirs on time, sign a living will with the help of a lawyer and update your bank KYCs); Have a Plan B in case you don't succeed at creating your Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia (Korda has cooking skills that help him start a restaurant!). And for God's sake, don't evade taxes. Wes Anderson's gallery of scoundrels gets an awesome addition with this beautifully detailed, stylish film. You step out of the theatre with a smile on your face and if you bump into someone who claims 'All Wes Anderson films are the same' you smile wider and reply, 'Help yourself to a grenade'. If only one could persuade Aamir Khan to wipe off that knowing 'I'm so good' smirk and get back to making movies, not moral science lessons. And yes, I also wish more people would watch Wes Anderson who refuses to make 'massy' movies… But will they listen? So I'm off to spend a little more of my hard earned money to watch Dhanush and drink overpriced multiplex coffee. Manisha Lakhe is a poet, film critic, traveller, founder of Caferati — an online writer's forum, hosts Mumbai's oldest open mic, and teaches advertising, films and communication. She can be reached on Twitter at @manishalakhe.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tom Hanks Has Heartfelt Response to Being Called 'America's Dad'
Tom Hanks gave a heartfelt response to Variety after being called 'America's Dad' by his The Americas producer Mike Gunton. Hanks narrates the NBC nature series, which explores the natural wonders of the Americas through never-before-seen footage of animals in their habitat. While Hanks himself admitted that his off-the-cuff narration style is different from the typical nature-doc energy, it was exactly what Gunton was looking for when putting his series together. After calling Hanks 'America's dad,' the Phoenician Scheme star launched into a thoughtful response. 'I think that might say more about the induced trauma of family of origin issues for most of America. But I will say, I would love to be called something specific: The best park ranger they've ever heard,' Hanks joked. The actor recalled attending an event as a child in which he watched a park ranger hold court for nearly an hour. 'It was riveting to my 8-year-old mind. Believe it or not, part of me thought, 'How do I get that job?'' Hanks continued: 'Look, I have enthusiasms that are particular to me. I have a willingness to dominate every dinner table that I sit at. It's one of [my] character defects that I'm working on. But I'm going to treat that seriously when someone comes in and says, 'We look upon you as a dad.' Because the best dads are going to offer up wisdom, patience and just the right amount of discipline when the time comes.' He added that he's more than happy to accept the title in perpetuity 'provided I don't have to campaign for it.' 'I'm just going to have it handed to me!' he cracked.'People need to trust the the person who's telling these stories has got integrity and is telling them the truth,' Gunton explained of his reason for choosing Hanks to lead the series. 'Because nature is complicated, and people want to know what really is going on here, what's the real science, the real environment, all those things.' Hanks added: 'There's no lies in this thing. There is no crypting together of stuff in order to present some sort of sensibility or an idea, or promote an idea…No CGI, no lies.' Tom Hanks Has Heartfelt Response to Being Called 'America's Dad' first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 19, 2025
The Guardian
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Phoenician Scheme is fantasy. It is also a remarkable engagement with the real-life conflict in the Middle East
The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson's makebelieve treatment of the war-ravaged near east, reimagines the region as a sunlit Levantine fantasia of cypress trees, fez hats, camel-riders and kitsch hotels, all photographed with the lustre of an Ottolenghi cookbook. Meanwhile, livestreamed daily to our news feeds, the warlords of the Holy Land exhibit for us an equally spectacular dystopia of cities pummelled into sawdust, of skies scarred with scorching white phosphorus and gun-toting paragliders. How could these images be of the same place? What does it mean that they have been produced at the same time, and that we are consuming them alongside each other? The film is set in the Middle East of a parallel universe. It's 1950, but decolonisation, the Holocaust, the world wars – none appear to have taken place; history has stalled in a kind of perpetual belle époque, leaving only a pastiche of the orient in its imperial heyday, meticulously reconstructed in the film's geography and production design, its storylines and characters. In place of the warring states unleashed by Europe's botched withdrawal from its imperial mandates, the entire Levant forms a single nominally sovereign territory known as Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia, named after the ancient civilisation once inhabiting what would now be Lebanon, Palestine and Israel. Those national demarcations don't exist in the film, as you can see from all the quaintly displayed trademark Wes Anderson cartography, the whole region pristinely undivided – as it was before the first world war. All the ethnic and sectarian squabbles that beleaguer these lands in the real world are magically replaced by a peaceable patchwork of aristocratic families, each with their respective toeholds. Their inflated titles mean nothing, their names allusions to the toothless dynasties once patronised by imperial overlords. The film's King Hussein refers to more than one Hashemite monarch installed by Britain and Prince Farouk to Egypt's last king. The fact that a svelte Riz Ahmed has been cast to play a character, whose real-life inspiration, King Farouk, was a worldwide celebrity infamous for his fatness, tells us everything we need to know about the distorting mirror through which Anderson reflects the history of empire. Above all, the colonial order is represented by the film's devious protagonist Anatole 'Zsa-Zsa' Korda and his visionary scheme to build railways, tunnels, canals and dams across Phoenicia. The significance of infrastructure in colonial mythology cannot be overstated. Anderson says Korda was inspired by his father-in-law, the Lebanese construction magnate Fouad Maalouf, also the film's dedicatee. But Korda is as much an empire-builder in the mould of Cecil Rhodes or Ferdinand de Lesseps. With his African mines and railways, Rhodes brought to heel the better part of a continent. In building the Suez canal, a waterway in the deserted sands between Africa and Asia, De Lesseps performed Moses' miracle in reverse. Such magnificent infrastructure projects, said to be beyond the wit of the native, were the glory of empire and still feature in reappraisals of it ('What about the railways?'). It's in this context that Korda's Phoenician scheme must be understood: a plot to re-engineer the Middle East in his image. This is the east as a career, in Disraeli's famous words. And through such a career, the Palestinian literary critic Edward Said wrote, 'one could remake and restore not only the Orient but also oneself'. That sums up Korda, who is as motivated by megalomania as money. There's always been something grippingly cinematic about that. It was another Korda – the Hungarian Jewish émigré film director Zoltan Korda – who more than anyone demonstrated that, in colonial adventure films that he made with his brother Alexander in the 1930s, relating heroic adventures in a timeless orient under eternal British rule. In naming his hero Korda, Anderson proudly acknowledges his debt to a controversial narrative tradition. In its most pointed contrast with reality, its greatest hallucination about empire, The Phoenician Scheme unfolds in a cosmopolitan world that is, for all its lying and cheating and double-dealing, completely free of racism. Imperial cosmopolitanism is symbolised, of all things, in headwear. The fez is absolutely ubiquitous in the film, as it was among colonial elites, Muslim, Christian and Jewish. (There are photos of Israel's founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, as a fez-hatted law student in Istanbul.) It fell out of fashion in the postcolonial Middle East, becoming a symbol of colonial nostalgia. Sign up to Film Weekly Take a front seat at the cinema with our weekly email filled with all the latest news and all the movie action that matters after newsletter promotion Anderson positively luxuriates in that nostalgia, in the ecumenical fellowship of the fez, worn in the film by Frenchmen, Arabs, Armenians, all happily sharing cocktails. Korda appears to be Armenian (judging by the script on his birth certificate) but in a bizarre twist Korda dons the distinctive white fez and robes of Lebanon's Druze sect, just as pharaonic imagery strangely adorns Phoenician hotels: all part of the pastiche. This is history stylised beyond all proportion. It's meant to evoke the urbane world that existed under imperial rule, before the emergence of violent ethno-nationalism. The state of Israel is absent from the film, but Zionism, interestingly, isn't. One corner of Phoenicia, visited by Korda, has a kibbutz, replete with Hebrew signage, quotations from the Old Testament and the suggestive imagery of 'making the desert bloom', palm trees sprouting from the barren earth. It has its own visionary founder, a rival of Korda's, played by Scarlett Johansson, working the land in khaki shorts, like the pioneer kibbutzniks portrayed in early Zionist posters. Crucially, though, it's labelled a 'private utopian outpost'. Nationalism is such an anathema to the ethos of the film that Zionism is reduced to the personal enterprise of another one of those visionaries making a career in the east. It has no aspirations to statehood. Such nonpolitical strains of Zionism were originally favoured by followers of the movement, including Einstein and Kafka, and one suspects it's the kind most palatable to Anderson. But this sanitised, fantasy vision of Zionism is of a piece with Anderson's fantasy of empire. Historically in both, violence and racism were always simmering. The Phoenician Scheme may at once be Anderson's worst and most profound film, a beautifully textured engagement with the past, and an almost morally repugnant retreat from the present. Its transformation of tragedy into comedy feels perverse. To watch The Phoenician Scheme amid the devastation of Gaza – during which it was also filmed – is to see two images of history, two maps of our time, disorientingly superimposed over each other: the sweet fantasy of a much-promised land, and the bitter, bloody reality of how it's turning out.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Scarlett Johansson Pops in Strapless Saint Laurent Dress, Mia Threapleton Goes Green in Elie Saab and More From ‘The Phoenician Scheme' NYC Premiere
Members of the cast and creative team of 'The Phoenician Scheme' came together on Wednesday for the film's New York City premiere. The Wes Anderson-directed film features an ensemble cast of past collaborators and burgeoning stars. Several high-profile figures attended the event, including 'Phoenician Scheme' actors Scarlett Johansson and Kate Winslet's daughter Mia Threapleton. The film previously held its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Ahead, WWD breaks down the celebrity style moments from 'The Phoenician Scheme' NYC premiere. More from WWD Sarah Jessica Parker Goes Boho Chic in Paris, Kristin Davis Favors Florals in Rixo Dress and More Looks at the 'And Just Like That...' Season Three Premiere Ana de Armas Goes Strapless in Louis Vuitton for 'Ballerina' Premiere in Paris Queen Letizia of Spain Welcomes Summer in Espadrille Wedges and Floral Dress Scarlett Johansson opted for a pop of color and strapless design courtesy of Saint Laurent. The two-time Oscar-nominated actress wore an orange gown with a fitted bodice and draped fabric at the waist. The actress accessorized her look with jewelry courtesy of Taffin, including an ornate statement necklace. Johansson's makeup was done by artist Hung Vanngo, with hair styling provided by David von Cannon. The actress' look was curated by stylist Kate Young, who WWD named Best Stylist at the 2025 Style Awards. Kate Winslet's daughter Mia Threapleton also wore a strapless dress. The burgeoning star, who co-leads 'The Phoenician Scheme' alongside Benicio del Toro, wore a flowing green dress courtesy of Elie Saab's fall 2025 ready-to-wear collection. Threapleton accessorized her dress with jewelry pieces courtesy of Boucheron. The actress' hair was styled by Ben Skervin, with makeup provided by artist Quinn Murphy. Threapleton's look was curated by stylist Farrah O'Connor, who's also collaborated with Ambika Mod and 'Bridgerton' star Hannah Dodd, among others. 'The Phoenician Scheme' star Benicio del Toro suited up in gray. The Oscar-nominated actor wore a double-breasted blazer with a muted dress shirt with a collar and a sleek black tie. Del Toro completed his attire with black patent leather shoes. Wes Anderson opted for a black suit. The director of 'The Phoenician Scheme' wore a white shirt and black patent leather shoes to complete his ensemble. 'The Phoenician Scheme' follows Zsa-Zsa Korda (del Toro) in an effort to save his business and reconnect with his daughter (Threapleton). The film hits theaters June 6. View Gallery Launch Gallery: 'The Phoenician Scheme' New York City Premiere: Scarlett Johansson and More Celebrity Style, Photos Best of WWD Princess Charlene of Monaco's Grand Prix Style Through the Years: Louis Vuitton, Akris and More, Photos Princess Charlene's Monaco Grand Prix Style Evolution at Full Speed: Shades of Blue in Louis Vuitton, Playful Patterning in Akris and More Kate Middleton's Royal Rewears Through the Years
