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The Evolution of Wes Anderson’s Unique Style: A Closer Look at The Phoenician Scheme

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Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton in The Phoenician Scheme (2025) – TPS Productions / Focus Features
Photo: The Phoenician Scheme (2025), starring Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton/TPS Productions/Focus Features - Filmdb.co.uk

Wes Anderson’s latest film, The Phoenician Scheme, instantly became one of the top contenders for the Palme d’Or when it was listed among over 1000 films premiering at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Featuring Anderson’s signature mosaic storytelling, symmetrical shots, and saturated color palettes, the film is a step closer to the perfection of his unique style that has redefined auteur cinema since his entry into the industry in the mid-1990s.

Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton in The Phoenician Scheme (2025) – TPS Productions / Focus Features
Photo: The Phoenician Scheme (2025), starring Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton/TPS Productions/Focus Features – Filmdb.co.uk

Very few people in cinema can boast of becoming legends without ever appearing on camera, as is the case with Wes Anderson, which is why his story is so interesting. The popularity of Anderson’s style largely traces back to Rushmore (1998), when he introduced his distinct niche of contemporary cinema, where stylization serves as both aesthetic and narrative function. His films are often set in complicated spaces where whimsy meets melancholy and tragedy is simplified through deadpan.

Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton in The Phoenician Scheme (2025) – TPS Productions / Focus Features
Photo: The Phoenician Scheme (2025), starring Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton/TPS Productions/Focus Features – Filmdb.co.uk

While he often doesn’t embrace realism as much as many fans would like, his quirky storytelling has earned a significant global following among auteur film fans. The Phoenician Scheme, therefore, brings the next stage of the evolution of Anderson’s creative genius, and here is a look at what it is all about.

What is Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme About?

Set in the 1940s, The Phoenician Scheme is an espionage comedy that follows the adventures of an awkward father-daughter duo around the world as they try to survive a string of targeted attacks and save their empire from scheming billionaires and terrorists. The film features Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, one of the richest men in Europe, who has survived six plane crashes and, most importantly, fathered 10 children.

Mia Threapleton plays Sister Liesl, Korda’s only daughter and sole heir of his empire, who also happens to be a nun and with whom the billionaire has been estranged. The duo is introduced in typical Anderson style, bloodied and beat up on a Mediterranean island where Korda has just survived his sixth plane crash.

Battle scenes dominate most of the film as the billionaire’s past in armament and espionage activities catches up with them. He is still determined to accomplish his mysterious titular mission, which leads him and his daughter on a precarious journey around the world. The Phoenician Scheme also retains Anderson’s trademark traits, including a meticulously executed period setting, flawed characters, and dry humor.

Photo: The Phoenician Scheme (2025), starring Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton/TPS Productions/Focus Features – Filmdb.co.uk

However, the standout feature of The Phoenician Scheme is its darker tone presented in Anderson’s stylized goofy fashion with fast-paced humor and slapstick comedy. The film is more action-intense than Anderson’s previous films, though, featuring more violence, but it doesn’t extend into extreme gore. It also features a large star-studded ensemble cast, mostly made up of Anderson’s favorite A-listers.

Besides Del Toro and Threapleton, Michael Cera appears as Bjorn Lund, Tom Hanks as Leland, Bryan Cranston as Raegan, and Riz Ahmed as Prince Farouk. Scarlett Johansson, who has also teamed up with Anderson in multiple films, plays Cousin Hilda alongside her MCU costar Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Uncle Nubar. Rupert Friend also appears in the film as Excalibur. Other popular cast members include Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Bill Murray, Hope Davis, and Willem Dafoe.

Comparing The Phoenician Scheme To Anderson’s Past Films

The Phoenician Scheme introduces a new narrative with more depth and substance, but doesn’t stray too far from Anderson’s unique style that he has maintained throughout his 12 previous films. Wes Anderson’s first film, Bottle Rocket (1996), was a low-budget crime drama whose intensity and pacing were not given much credit because it is a lot more straightforward than his future films. Anderson’s signature style, therefore, came into recognition in 1998 when he released Rushmore.

Early Career

Rushmore (1998)

Photo: Rushmore (1998) Starring Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman/Buena Vista Pictures-Filmdb.co.uk

Rushmore is an eccentric comedy about a student and a middle-aged parent at a prestigious school in Houston who fall in love with a teacher. The film marked Anderson’s first collaboration with Bill Murray, who apparently loved the film’s script so much that he took a huge pay cut to appear in the role of Herman Blume. Murray has since appeared in 11 of Anderson’s 13 films, playing a big role in bringing his most off-beat characters to life.

Photo: Rushmore (1998) Starring Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman/Buena Vista Pictures-Filmdb.co.uk

Anderson wrote the film in collaboration with Owen Wilson, with whom he would collaborate again on his next hit film, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). They wrote the role of Herman Blume with Bill Murray in mind, despite having neither met nor spoken to the actor before. The film’s lead character, Max Fischer, is based on Anderson’s personal life and experiences. Anderson also adopted his strictly formal style with the lead role of Max Fischer, on which he worked with Jason Schwartzman for days to perfect.

Despite budget restrictions, Anderson insisted on his distinctive visual style with the now-popular montage sequence and overhead shots dominating the film despite Disney’s reservations. Anderson also introduced his famous color palettes with deep reds, blues, and greens. The film’s quirky storyline was a forecast of Anderson’s style that he has maintained since then.

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Photo: The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), starring Gene Hackman, Owen Wilson/Buena Vista Pictures – Filmdb.co.uk

Anderson’s vision was better achieved in his third film, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), which features a multilayered narrative, also based on another dysfunctional family. The film features Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum, an absentee father who later claims to be terminally ill in a bid to win back his family’s affection. It features the peak of Anderson’s idiosyncratic style, with narratives within narratives telling most of the story.

The story was inspired by the divorce of Anderson’s parents. The film became Anderson’s biggest commercial success at the time, upon release, with Gene Hackman winning the Golden Globe for his performance in the lead role. Its success cemented Anderson’s career as an auteur, with all his future films retaining this format. The most distinct feature of Anderson’s films is the strict vertical and lateral camera movements, with a unique focus on actors’ expressions that gives viewers a better feel of the room in every scene.

Photo: The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), starring Gene Hackman, Owen Wilson/Buena Vista Pictures – Filmdb.co.uk

Pop soundtracks perfectly matched to action sequences in every scene are another highlight of this film, which appears in all of Anderson’s films. According to his long-time photographer, Robert Yeoman, Anderson chooses the music long before the filming and plays it on set to get everyone in the mood.

Photo: The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), starring Gene Hackman, Owen Wilson/Buena Vista Pictures – Filmdb.co.uk

Anderson also continued to deploy morally flawed characters at the center of the story, with the redemptive theme running throughout most of the film. It is the same style he has deploys for most of his films, including The Phoenician Scheme, in which Zsa Zsa Korda is the corrupted father at the center of another dysfunctional family storyline on a redemption mission.

Mid-Career Slump

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

Photo: The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004) starring Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett/Buena Vista Pictures – Filmdb.co.uk

After the early success with The Royal Tenenbaums, Anderson struggled with a series of flops but didn’t let go of his unique style. His next film was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), which starred Bill Murray as Steve Zissou, an oceanographer who leads a team of misfits to exert revenge on a shark that killed his friend. The film wasn’t an instant success, but Anderson’s creativity in the film has still received recognition over the years as the film became another cult classic.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Photo: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) starring George Clooney, Meryl Streep/20th Century Fox – Filmdb.co.uk

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) marked Anderson’s animation debut, and it was truly created in Anderson’s image. He had the actors record voices outdoors in the typical settings of the animals’ habitats rather than inside the studios. He also used the Orange color in each frame to give the film an autumn feel. The majority of the film’s set was influenced by the actual residence of the British author Roald Dahl, on whose novel the film is based. Unfortunately, the film only grossed $46 million on a $40 million budget, making it another flop.

Anderson’s Rise to Legendary Status

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

Photo: The Darjeeling Limited (2007) starring Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman/Searchlight Pictures – Filmdb.co.uk

Anderson and Roman Coppola then had a major collaboration on The Darjeeling Limited (2007), which has a lot in common with The Phoenician Scheme. The film features Anderson’s favorites Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, and Adrien Brody as three brothers (Jack, Francis, and Peter), who meet up on the titular train in India to go on a spiritual journey as they commemorate their father, who died a year earlier.

The film is a fast-paced comedy created in collaboration with Roman Coppola, who also partners with Wilson in The Phoenician Scheme. Its dark tone is almost similar to what the director deploys in The Phoenician Scheme. The film was a commercial success, although it wasn’t the biggest of hits. However, its storyline embraces more realism, which is the direction that most of Anderson’s recent films have taken.

Moonrise Kingdom

Photo: Moonrise Kingdom (2012) starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray/Indian Paintbrush – Filmdb.co.uk

Anderson’s next collaboration with Coppola created one of his most profitable films. Set in the 1960s, Moonrise Kingdom is Wes Anderson’s perfection of a coming-of-age comedy presented in the most colorful fashion ever.

The film, which stars Bruce Willis and Bill Murray alongside Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, and Jason Schwartzman, follows two teenagers, Sam Shakusky (Jared Gilman) and Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward), whose decision to elope after a summer camp disrupts the calm of a small town. Besides an Academy nomination for Best Original Picture, the film grossed $68.8 million at the box office on a $16 million budget, putting Anderson back into the limelight.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Photo: Moonrise Kingdom (2012) starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray/Indian Paintbrush – Filmdb.co.uk

Anderson’s career then hit new heights at the box office in 2014 with The Grand Budapest Hotel, which grossed over $173 million globally on a $25 million budget. Anderson embraced the storybook structure on this one, but with a heightened sense of unreality. Framed as a tale by an unknown author, the film is set in the 1930s in the fictional European nation of Zubrowka, where Monsieur Gustave H., a concierge at the titular hotel, is framed for the murder of the hotel’s owner, with whom he had an affair. The Grand Budapest Hotel perfectly marries the solemn subjects of war, loss, and grief with comedy, bringing about what is essentially Anderson’s true masterpiece.

Photo: Moonrise Kingdom (2012) starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray/Indian Paintbrush – Filmdb.co.uk

The film was in the works since 2007, although Anderson put it in motion in 2012 after the release of Moonrise Kingdom. He made a tour of Europe to get a feel of what a true prestigious 1930s European hotel would look and feel like, including doing extensive research on the work of a real-life concierge.

The research eventually paid off as the film, presented in his unique style with symmetrical compositions and vibrant colors that change from scene to scene to express the theme of the film’s nonlinear storyline, became one of the best films of the 21st century.

Isle of Dogs (2018)

Photo: Isle of Gogs (2018) starring Bryan Craston, Koyu Rankin/Searchlight Pictures – Filmdb.co.uk

Anderson then went for his second animation, Isle of Dogs, in 2018, another stop motion that was a commercial hit, earning $68 million at the box office on a $32 million budget. The film is set in the fictional Japanese city of Megasaki, where the mayor’s nephew, Atari Kobayashi (Koyu Rankin), goes on a rescue mission for his dog on Trash Island, renamed Isle of Dogs, where his uncle, the mayor, Kenji Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura), deported all the city’s dogs after the outbreak of a canine flu.

Photo: Isle of Gogs (2018) starring Bryan Craston, Koyu Rankin/Searchlight Pictures – Filmdb.co.uk

It is another colorful tragicomedy presented in Andersonian-style stop motion and a multilayered narrative. Using the same team that created Fantastic Mr. Fox, Anderson deployed an extensive range of handcrafted animated props, with the team sculpting more than 20,000 faces. Relying on minimal CGI, Isle of Dogs is an authentic stop-motion with a shouting sense of nostalgia and awkwardly funny humor.

The French Dispatch (2021)

Photo: The French Dispatch (2021) starring Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson/Searchlight Pictures – Filmdb.co.uk

In 2021, Anderson released a three-segment anthology comedy drama, which he dubbed his love letter to journalists. It covers three different stories that are published by the fictional magazine, The French Dispatch, in the wake of the death of their editor-in-chief, who wished for the magazine to shut down after his death. The film was largely inspired by Anderson’s love for The New Yorker, with his lead character, the chief editor of the fictional magazine, Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray), being based on The New Yorker’s founding editor, Harold Ross.

Photo: The French Dispatch (2021) starring Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson/Searchlight Pictures – Filmdb.co.uk

Anderson maintains his formality and authenticity in the film, which still features his colorful stylization and strict lateral and vertical camera angles. Despite being a whole new field for Anderson, the film was another resounding success, grossing $46.3 million at the box office on a $25 million budget. It was also created in cooperation with Roman Coppola, and while it doesn’t have much in common with The Phoenician Scheme, it displays the improvement in storyline depth as the two have continued to cooperate over the years, a feature that becomes clearer in The Phoenician Scheme.

Asteroid City (2003)

Photo: Asteroid City (2023) starring Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson/Universal Pictures-Filmdb.co.uk

Wes Anderson returned to his meticulously arranged frames in 2023 with Asteroid City, which is his real predecessor of The Phoenician Scheme. The film wasn’t the biggest commercial success, grossing $54 million on a $25 million budget, but it has the clearest presentation of the next stage of Anderson’s stylization. Presented in his signature Rock ‘n’ roll colors, Asteroid City is a real masterpiece of visualization, with every scene appearing to have been aged and bleached. The hued desert colors do most of the storytelling in the film, with impressive wide-angle desert backgrounds with an infinite view of the horizon.

Photo: Asteroid City (2023)

The film, which starts off as a documentary set on TV, follows the series of events following a UFO sighting in the 1950s after WWII in the fictional US city called Asteroid City. The film’s period setting is meticulously executed in both costumes and authentic sets in a typical Anderson fashion. Every character seems to contribute uniquely to the film’s themes of tragedy and trauma of war, all presented in comedic fashion.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (2024)

Photo: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (2024) starring Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch/Netflix – Filmdb.co.uk

After the acquisition of the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2021, Netflix enlisted Anderson to direct four short films from the books, which were then released as an anthology film in 2024. Dahl is one of Anderson’s favorite authors. After his success with Fantastic Mr. Fox, Anderson’s vision for the short films seemed set from the beginning, and he didn’t disappoint.

Photo: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More (2024) starring Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch/Netflix – Filmdb.co.uk

The Anthology features four films, the longest being The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. The other short films are The Swan, The Rat Catcher, and Poison. Each film is executed meticulously in Anderson’s signature style with his usual crew of favorite actors, including Bill Murray, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, and Rupert Friend, starring.

What Makes The Phoenician Scheme Unique?

Photo: The Phoenician Scheme (2025), starring Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton/TPS Productions/Focus Features – Filmdb.co.uk

The Phoenician Scheme is basically another genre experimentation by Wes Anderson, but everything about it, from the fictional setting, the returning actors, to the visual language, feels familiar. However, despite its comedic appearance, the film has the authentic depth and pacing of a real spy thriller, with Anderson’s shouting visuals shaping the mood in each scene. Here are some of the Andersonian filmmaking traits that come to life in The Phoenician Scheme:

The quirkiest of characters

Wes Anderson has his own kind of funny in a way that viewers either love him or they don’t, but The Phoenician Scheme gives fans a lot more choice. While Zsa Zsa Korda and Sister Leisl are his typical misfits on a mission, the film’s multilayered narrative brings other interesting characters. Made up of the familiar faces like Jason Schwartzman, Riz Ahmed, and Tom Hanks, every character in the film is a quirky version of themselves as seen in or more of Anderson’s films in the past. This gives fans a lot more than just a goofy spy and his daughter to pick from.

Evolved Visual Language

The Phoenician Scheme has a distinctly Andersonian appearance. Starting with his typical meticulously chosen clothes (darker black and whites), the diorama-like scenery with a Mediterranean touch on the wide-angle shots, and the symmetry in all frames are all still present. However, there is a discernible change in tone throughout the movie, with less of a hype to his deadpan presentation. The pastel shades are also more muted, featuring fading oranges, shabby blues, and grays of old stone, typical of an espionage film. Most importantly, though, the film doesn’t lack vibrancy.

Photo: The Phoenician Scheme (2025), starring Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton/TPS Productions/Focus Features – Filmdb.co.uk

Like his previous films, The Phoenician Scheme features precise cinematography with lots of overhead shots capturing the minutiae of everyday life. However, it also includes a few surprising handheld scenes, which Anderson rarely uses. The film’s underlying psychological issues are further reinforced by the protagonist’s change from academic beige to espionage trench coats, reflecting his internal transformation.

A meticulously composed score

Alexandre Desplat, who has done the score for most of Wes Anderson’s films, is also in charge of sound in The Phoenician Scheme. He combines symphonic undertones with melancholy Mediterranean folk sounds for the film that sync with its fast-paced comedy. As usual, Anderson uses the finest of natural sound to complement his outdoor shots, with the film’s background noise of distant shooting, flying birds, and crashing waves drowning out the dialogue in important sections.

Conclusion

Wes Anderson’s unique filmmaking style has been a spectacle for over two decades now, and The Phoeician Scheme is the next step in that successful journey. While it is hued in his usual pastel colors and precise cinematography, The Phoenician Scheme has the feel of the next generation of espionage comedy all over it.

Written by Billy Oduory

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