MOscarbradley
Joined Apr 2002
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You know exactly what you're going to get from a Wes Anderson film. A totally idiosyncratic world, one indeed unique to its director. Wes Anderson's films look and sound like no others and his admirers are many but, as the old saying goes, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing and I've been finding the Anderson formula wearing rather thin of late.
"The French Dispatch" and "Asteroid City" both looked typically terrific and while they had flashes of Anderson's earlier brilliance I felt they relied too heavily on Anderson's waywardness, being mostly surface with little substance so it was with a degree of caution I approached "The Phoenician Scheme" but I'm happy to report that this not only has substance, (admittedly of the kind only Wes Anderson can supply), but style to spare and is certainly his best film since "The Grand Budapest Hotel". It may also be his funniest film to date.
The title sums it up as this film is all about The Phoenician Scheme though if you can actually figure what that is you're a better man than I. All I can say with certainty is that Benicio Del Toro plays a kind of magnate called Zsa-zsa Korda, (a bit of Trump perhaps by way of Charles Foster Kane), who wants to leave a legacy behind but needs the help of various backers to do so and so it goes with each one given a chapter of their own all the way to the daft but strangely moving denouement.
Of course, Anderson's films seldom make sense and this one makes less sense than most and yet it feels as fully formed as anything he's done with every piece fitting perfectly into place and every performer entering Anderson's world as if born to it.
Del Toro is only the linchpin of a faultless cast that also includes Micheal Cera, Alex Jennings, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Hope Davis and a delightful Mia Threapleton as Del Toro's only daughter and a very unconventional nun. Of course, if you don't 'get' Anderson you won't get this. I laughed all the way through but there were few chuckles elsewhere. This, like all his films, is one for the fan-base but it marks a real return to form and may even draw in a few converts. It shouldn't be missed.
"The French Dispatch" and "Asteroid City" both looked typically terrific and while they had flashes of Anderson's earlier brilliance I felt they relied too heavily on Anderson's waywardness, being mostly surface with little substance so it was with a degree of caution I approached "The Phoenician Scheme" but I'm happy to report that this not only has substance, (admittedly of the kind only Wes Anderson can supply), but style to spare and is certainly his best film since "The Grand Budapest Hotel". It may also be his funniest film to date.
The title sums it up as this film is all about The Phoenician Scheme though if you can actually figure what that is you're a better man than I. All I can say with certainty is that Benicio Del Toro plays a kind of magnate called Zsa-zsa Korda, (a bit of Trump perhaps by way of Charles Foster Kane), who wants to leave a legacy behind but needs the help of various backers to do so and so it goes with each one given a chapter of their own all the way to the daft but strangely moving denouement.
Of course, Anderson's films seldom make sense and this one makes less sense than most and yet it feels as fully formed as anything he's done with every piece fitting perfectly into place and every performer entering Anderson's world as if born to it.
Del Toro is only the linchpin of a faultless cast that also includes Micheal Cera, Alex Jennings, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Hope Davis and a delightful Mia Threapleton as Del Toro's only daughter and a very unconventional nun. Of course, if you don't 'get' Anderson you won't get this. I laughed all the way through but there were few chuckles elsewhere. This, like all his films, is one for the fan-base but it marks a real return to form and may even draw in a few converts. It shouldn't be missed.
As murder-comedies go "Lady on a Train" is certainly one of the best, if also one of the least known. It's a Deanna Durbin vehicle, (yes, she sings and charmingly), and a screwball comedy of the first rank, (the supporting cast includes Edward Everett Horton, Elizabeth Patterson and, although he gets star billing, Ralph Bellamy in a relatively small role, at least for him).
Deanna is the lady on the train who, like Miss Marple, sees a murder from the train window and sets out, like the scatterbrain amateur detective she is, to solve the case aided and abetted by crime novelist David Bruce (excellent). Throw in the likes of Dan Duryea, George Coulouris and Allen Jenkins as suitably shady characters and it's anybody's guess who the killer might be. More than just a guilty pleasure this Charles David directed movie is a little gem that is well worth seeking out.
Deanna is the lady on the train who, like Miss Marple, sees a murder from the train window and sets out, like the scatterbrain amateur detective she is, to solve the case aided and abetted by crime novelist David Bruce (excellent). Throw in the likes of Dan Duryea, George Coulouris and Allen Jenkins as suitably shady characters and it's anybody's guess who the killer might be. More than just a guilty pleasure this Charles David directed movie is a little gem that is well worth seeking out.
Another Marmite movie in that you will either love it or hate it but if, in the initial scenes, you're a detractor don't rush to judgement because "Janet Planet" is finally hypnotic and in a good way. It's another movie in which 'nothing happens'; there's no plot just an observation of life passing slowly for a young girl, her mother and the people who 'intrude' in their lives one summer in rural Massachusetts. Since it's set in the past, 1991, you might see it as autobiographical and it marks the directorial debut of writer Annie Baker.
Janet is Julianne Nicholson, a forty or fifty something acupuncturist who lives near the woods and who is unhappy. A superb Zoe Ziegler is Lacy, her friendless young daughter, mature beyond her years and the very centre of her own universe. People played by Will Patton, Elias Koteas and a terrific Sophie Okonedo drift in and out of their lives leaving no mark.
It's a slow, you might even say, pretentiously 'arty' picture which makes no concessions to its audience or their expectations. Dialogue is sparse and literate and it's gorgeously photographed by Maria von Hausswolff. I began by being a little bored by the lack of anything resembling 'action' but gradually I became enchanted by the imagery, the music and the performances. Yes, like Marmite it's an acquired taste but if you stick with it you will be amply rewarded.
Janet is Julianne Nicholson, a forty or fifty something acupuncturist who lives near the woods and who is unhappy. A superb Zoe Ziegler is Lacy, her friendless young daughter, mature beyond her years and the very centre of her own universe. People played by Will Patton, Elias Koteas and a terrific Sophie Okonedo drift in and out of their lives leaving no mark.
It's a slow, you might even say, pretentiously 'arty' picture which makes no concessions to its audience or their expectations. Dialogue is sparse and literate and it's gorgeously photographed by Maria von Hausswolff. I began by being a little bored by the lack of anything resembling 'action' but gradually I became enchanted by the imagery, the music and the performances. Yes, like Marmite it's an acquired taste but if you stick with it you will be amply rewarded.