We're at that stage where people either love Wes Anderson films or are really irritated by them.
Few contemporary directors sharply divide audiences and critics like the Texan.
Then again, few filmmakers regularly attract the calibre of cast that Anderson assembles for his movies.
True to form, Anderson's latest quirky black comedy 'The Phoenician Scheme' boasts a cast most directors and producers would die for.
Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Riz Ahmed, Alex Jennings, Hope Davis, Matthieu Amalric, Jason Watkins, Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Charlotte Gainsbourg, F Murray Abraham and Bill Murray all feature.
But in the biggest role of her relatively short career, it is Kate Winslet's daughter Mia Threapleton who steals the show with a deadpan performance as a novice nun.
'The Phoenician Scheme' begins in unlikely Anderson fashion like an action adventure movie with a bomb attack on a plane carrying del Toro's controversial businessman Zsa-zsa Korda.
Taking control of the cockpit, Korda manages to steer the stricken plane into a cornfield while firing his pilot from his job, using an ejector seat.
While the media speculates about his death, del Toro's concussed businessman glimpses briefly into the afterlife, depicted in Ingmar Bergman style black and white sequences, and wakes up, focusing on what he wants to do for the remainder of his life and how he wants to allocate his inheritance.
The father of nine boys, he decides to put his one daughter (who may not be his daughter) Threapleton's Sister Liesl in charge of his affairs, promising her his entire inheritance if she disavows her religious life.
He also offers to school her in the ways of international business as he puts together a deal for an ambitious dam in the fictional Middle Eastern nation of Phoenicia.
Liesl is suspicious of his motives and is reluctant to commit but goes along with the plam when he promises to help her expose the man who murdered her mother.
Cera's entomologist Bjorn Lund, who sports an outrageous Norwegian accent, is appointed as Korda's personal assistant after initially being hired as a tutor to teach the businessman's family about insects.
Korda, though, has powerful enemies led by Rupert Friend's US Government official Mr Excalibur who are determined to undermine his construction project.
Nevertheless Korda, Liesl and Bjorn trot across the globe putting together investors for the project and dodging several assassination attempts.
Their journey takes them to the desert to win over Ahmed's Middle Eastern Prince Farouk who subsequently joins them in a basketball game to secure the backing of Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston's American investors Leland and Reagan.
They go to a 'Casablanca' style club to persuade Amalric's Marseille Bob to put up a stake, only to be interrupted by an armed raid carried out by a gang of Marxist revolutionaries led by Ayoade's Sergio.
Another business associate Wright's Newark businessman Marty is called upon to give money as well as blood and Korda even woos his second cousin, Johansson's Hilda with the promise of marriage.
However the biggest obstacle to getting the required backing is his half brother, Benedict Cumberbatch's Rasputin lookalike, Uncle Noor who fell in love with Liesl's mother and who Korda alleges murdered her.
As you can tell, 'The Phoenician Scheme' feels like peak Wes Anderson.
The story by the director and his longtime collaborator Roman Coppola has all the elements you'd expect in an Anderson film - a dodgy ruse, loads of characters with ridiculous names shuttling about various locations, clipped, rapid fire dialogue, dollops of absurdist visual gags and film references.
The film is superbly shot by cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel in the usual Anderson style - boxy, impeccably framed and occasionally deploying the director's signature shot of a still shot that suddenly pans rapidly to the left or right to reveal other details offscreen.
Anderson and his film editor Barney Pilling keep a tight rein on proceedings - moving the action along at pace in a movie that unfolds over 105 minutes.
Adam Stockhausen's production design, Esther Schreiner's art direction, Anna Pinnock's set decoration and Milena Canonero's costumes conform to the Anderson playbook of vibrant pastel colours and quirky props.
'The Phoenician Scheme' is certainly one for Anderson's most diehard devotees.
Some of those fans will adore it. Others will be driven mad by it.
In our view, the film's a hoot and is a significant improvement on the rather disappointing 'Asteroid City'.
It is certainly more accessible than the rather decent 'The French Dispatch'.
Much of its success is down to del Toro, Cera, Cumberbatch, Hanks, Cranston, Johansson, Ahmed and Ayoade's tongue in cheek performances.
But it is mostly down to Threapelton who comfortably fits into Anderson's world like a seasoned pro as Liesl discovers a world of dangerous possibilities outside the closeted confines of her convent.
Having cornered the market in eccentric, highly stylised, deadpan comedies, it would be nice to see Anderson take a break from this schtick and return to the looser spirit of 'Rushmore' or 'The Darjeeling Limited'.
However this will do because who could resist, after all, a movie that casts Bill Murray as God?
('The Phoenician Scheme' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on May 23, 2025)
Take the writer of 'Good Fellas' and get him to collaborate with the director of 'Bugsy'.
Cast one of the greatest American actors of all time - the Oscar winning star of 'The Godfather Part II,' 'Once Upon A Time In America,' 'Good Fellas' and 'The Irishman' - in not one but both lead roles.
Sounds like a gangster movie fan's dream, right?
Maybe.. if it was made 30 years ago.
Unfortunately Barry Levinson's 'The Alto Knights' feels like a movie that has come far too late in the careers of its collaborators.
Scripted by Nicholas Pileggi, it's a Mafia film that has been in gestation since the 1970s but the idea was rejected over the decades by every major studio until Warner Bros eventually said yes in 2022.
You can see why the story of how real life New York crime boss Frank Costello fell out with fellow Mobster Vito Genovese would attract talent like Pileggi, Levinson and Robert de Niro.
It has all the hallmarks of a great gangster film.
But while 'The Alto Knights' is a handsome looking film, it just lacks bite.
Its big innovation is the casting of de Niro as Genovese and Costello.
While he turns in decent performances as both Mobsters, he can't rescue the movie from Pileggi's cumbersome script which isn't helped by a laboured narrative from Costello's perspective.
Initially Levinson's film rattles through the story of how both friends rose to prominence in the Mafia via Lucky Luciano's gang, with the more ruthless Genovese initially cruising to the very top.
Fearing arrest for the murder of a rival boss, Genovese is forced to leave New York for Naples with the more understated and strategic Costello assuming the role of capo in his place.
In Genovese's absence, the mob flourishes under Costello's leadership making a lot of cash while buying influence in policing and politics.
However the film quickly gets bogged down when Genovese returns.
Focusing on Genovese's resentment of Costello's leadership because of his reluctance to peddle drugs, the film starts to plod even when Genovese's frustration boils over into violence, pitting both protagonists against each other and splitting the Mob.
Instead of attacking its subject with gusto, the movie descends into typical gangster fare - although it is elevated by Italian cinematographer Dante Spilotti's handsomely lit cinematography.
De Niro is spirited enough in both roles - enjoying the chance to play characters that resemble his cautious character Sam 'Ace' Rothstein in Martin Scorsese's 'Casino' and Joe Pesci's hotheaded Nicky Santoro in that same film.
Both performances, though, are slightly spoiled by the actor's use of prosthetics which at times proves a little distracting.
Debra Messing and Kathrine Narducci give decent accounts of themselves as Costello's loyal wife Bobbie and Genovese's hotheaded spouse Anna.
However Cosmo Jarvis is surprisingly leaden as Vincent Gigante, a rising star in the Genovese faction - thanks to an underwritten part that does little to explain why someone who is held in so low regard by his boss was able to rise through the ranks.
Matt Servitto trots out a predictable performance as Costello's attorney George Wolf and the same is true of Frank Picirillo, Joe Bacino, James Ciccone, Anthony J Gallo and Louis Mustillo as various Mob enforcers and crime bosses.
The one actor who stands out, though, from the pack is 'Sopranos' alum Michael Rispoli who turns in a striking performance as Albert Anastasia, one of the bosses in "the five families" who is a close ally of Costello.
Rispoli does an especially good job portraying Anastasia's outrage at his fellow capos' willingness to turn a blind eye to Genovese's increasingly erratic and disrespectful behaviour.
Any positives in the movie are negated by the sense that 'The Alto Knights' is a dot to dot gangster film slavishly following a very defined formula.
As the movie charts it's very predictable path, the whole venture feels tired and uninspiring.
It's as if Levinson and Pileggi are simply glad their story eventually made it onto the scree.
Unfortunately they have neither the energy nor the fizz to make the film stand out in a genre that has given us some real classics.
The story of Costello and Genovese's feud is compelling and could easily be revisited.
However it will need filmmakers with a lot more vitality to ensure it is told properly.
('The Alto Knights' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on March 21, 2025)
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