Parsing the merits and demerits of this Wes Anderson film or that one, especially amid the hustle and bustle of a film festival, no longer seems a particularly useful exercise. His movies, nothing if not all of a piece, are expressions of a grandly overarching vision that is known, loved, and loathed for its obsessive invention and tireless consistency. A typically whirligig contraption, “The Phoenician Scheme” follows a reckless, wealthy nineteen-fifties industrialist, Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro), who, in seeking to launch a huge overseas infrastructure project, must fend off assassination attempts, persuade combative associates to invest, and reconcile with his long-estranged daughter, a nun named Liesl (Mia Threapleton). The result is more digestible, though also less moving, than Anderson’s recent “Asteroid City” (2023), but it does have a stealth emotional weapon in Threapleton’s Liesl, who exudes the intelligence and self-possession of a young Anna Karina. Her sensible, non-dogmatic applications of spiritual insight are an illuminating delight. – The New Yorker

“The raw emotion underlying The Phoenician Scheme peeks out at unexpected times.” Slant Magazine