The Phoenician Scheme

It almost seems like a waste considering how much work must have gone into each shot, let alone each set of this movie. And I only say waste, because...Anderson does not necessarily tend to make the most memorable movies these days. At least not for me. I felt similarly about The French Dispatch, which is definitely one of my favorites of his more recent ones. Maybe because of it. Not because of the sets being a waste, I mean, but because of how gorgeous they are.
No surprise this was filmed in Babelsberg...

But yeah, his stories seldom have a lot of story to it. They're too buried in plot. Or suffocated by it. It feels mostly random, only for you to get a sense of an overall story at the end. But not much more than you'd get from a children's book. Maybe even less.
Maybe it's not even fair to make this sort of assessment of all of his movies. But it's not only this one. It was worse in Grand Budapest and also in Moonrise Kingdom, in my opinion. And even more so in Mr Fox. But starting with Isle of Dogs I thought some substance started creeping back into his work. This one doesn't necessarily follow the upward trend of the last ten or so years, but it's just so satisfying to see him work his magic.

It's just so fun to watch him do his thing, which you can't get anywhere else, because it's so unique, and also not give a shit who likes it or not. He makes these movies for himself to indulge in (mostly, it seems like), and it would be sad if he didn't get to anymore.

Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera and Mia Threapleton (who I have never heard of before) are all really great in this one.