The Phoenician Scheme

It's not surprising that after making one of his best and most exquisitely layered offerings, Asteroid City, Wes Anderson would revert to his more typical style-over-substance dollhouse approach to cinema. Still, it's a nice change of pace for Anderson to have a story with only three principal characters, while his usual "night of 1000 stars" ensemble exists on the movie's periphery rather than taking over, as they do in a picture like Moonrise Kingdom. The three leads deliver some unexpected delights, as they aren't part of Anderson's usual stock company. Benicio del Toro, as a cold industrialist and arms dealer who seems to have nine lives; Mia Threapleton as his estranged daughter, a Catholic novice whom he asks to leave the church so she can take over his business; and Michael Cera, as a Norwegian entomologist he hires as his administrative assistant, all bring a lot of color and detail to an otherwise uninspired canvas.