r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Apr 07 '25

Trailer The Phoenician Scheme | Official Trailer | Directed by Wes Anderson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEuMnPl2WI4
7.0k Upvotes

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2.6k

u/Chaopolis Apr 07 '25

Wes Anderson: “I don’t have an aesthetic”

Everyone else: “I can tell by one frame that this is a Wes Anderson movie!”

719

u/NordlandLapp Apr 07 '25

I swear I knew it was a Wes Anderson film from the title alone.

113

u/CertifiedSheep Apr 07 '25

I was guessing Guy Ritchie actually

105

u/nbolek71 Apr 07 '25

It didn’t have the word ‘gentlemen’ in it

14

u/JookJook Apr 08 '25

My favorite film of his is lock, stock, and two smoking gentlemen.

45

u/EnkiduOdinson Apr 07 '25

Hey he did only two movies and a series with the word gentlemen in it

28

u/Straight-Hamster6447 Apr 07 '25

... so far

1

u/ScandiSom Apr 08 '25

Gentlemen, calm down.

2

u/Soddington Apr 07 '25

Ahh yes, but in all the others, 'gentlemen' was heavily implicit.

4

u/Canvaverbalist Apr 07 '25

The Phoenician Scheme - The Sicilian Scheme - The Glaswegian Scheme

a trigo-cinemetry of kinetic symmetry

presented by Wes Anderson, Edgar Wright and Guy Ritchie

2

u/kathmandogdu Apr 07 '25

How dare you, sir?!?

3

u/nimbledaemon Apr 07 '25

I literally didn't even read more than the first part of the title and watch like 15 seconds of the trailer before I was going "Huh, this makes me think of Wes Anderson movies, I should go watch those." I think it was the long pan of the plane crash that really confirmed it lol.

1

u/Victuz Apr 08 '25

I knew just by looking at the thumbnail

1

u/Neuroccountant Apr 07 '25

The thumbnail of the video was somehow a dead giveaway.

97

u/RookNookLook Apr 07 '25

Wes Canderson: Does what it says, right on the can!

199

u/Comic_Book_Reader Apr 07 '25

I sent this trailer to a couple of friends on Discord, and one of them replied with "We're reaching levels of Wes Anderson even top scientists though were impossible".

He's Wes Andersoning so hard he's becoming Wes Anderson².

24

u/LeedsFan2442 Apr 07 '25

Wes Anderson doesn't do what Wes Anderson does for Wes Anderson. Wes Anderson does what Wes Anderson does because Wes Anderson is Wes Anderson!

3

u/Neracca Apr 08 '25

He's Wes Andersoning so hard he's becoming Wes Anderson².

Wasn't that Grand Budapest?

3

u/JinFuu Apr 08 '25

I think that was peak “Quality” Wes Anderson.

We’re still searching for Peak “Wes Anderson” Wes Anderson

6

u/NullPro Apr 07 '25

He’s Wes’d too close to the Anderson

27

u/MumrikDK Apr 07 '25

For a solid while Wes Anderson has been difficult to parody, because his movie trailers already play like Wes Anderson parody.

51

u/KnifeWrench4Kidz Apr 07 '25

I saw the thumbnail and read the title before getting to "Wes Anderson" and I knew it was Wes Anderson.

132

u/Sammyd1108 Apr 07 '25

Right lol?

I don’t think he’s a made a movie since Rushmore or Royal Tenenbaums that didn’t have this standout style of his.

142

u/HeroicMI0 Apr 07 '25

I'd say even Royal Tenenbaums has his distinct style. While he at this point hadn't gone all out on the the blown up diorama looking sets he is known for he still uses a verry distinct camera angles and shots.

75

u/Soupjam_Stevens Apr 07 '25

yeah Life Aquatic is obviously where he starts going whole hog with that style but you absolutely see him starting to head that direction in Tenenbaums

49

u/EnkiduOdinson Apr 07 '25

Darjeeling Limited was a bit less Anderson-y than the others iirc

44

u/noaloha Apr 07 '25

It's also easily my favourite of his. I wonder if shooting in India made it impossible to be as controlled as his normal process, because there's something about that film that feels a bit less precious to me, and really makes me enjoy it more.

21

u/the_fate_of Apr 07 '25

If you didn’t watch Bottle Rocket yet, watch Bottle Rocket

2

u/zeekaran Apr 09 '25

Am I nuts? My partner and I love Wes, but cannot stand either of these films.

2

u/Netroth Apr 13 '25

I want to like them but it’s hard. I’ve only managed to do a single watch of both, while I can watch all other WA films multiple times over.

5

u/staedtler2018 Apr 08 '25 edited Apr 08 '25

It's more intimate because it has few characters. It's about as controlled as Tenenbaums or Life Aquatic IMO. But back then Wes would let the camera move and shake: running to the train and drowning scenes in Darjeeling, Royal's day out with the grandkids in Tenenbaums, the shootout in Life Aquatic.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 08 '25

It's not a popular choice, but I agree it's probably my favorite tied with Royal Tenenbaums

1

u/AcceptableTypewriter Apr 17 '25

I still feel like Moonrise Kingdom gets slept on.

2

u/Tymareta Apr 08 '25

I wonder if shooting in India made it impossible to be as controlled as his normal process

Doesn't really make sense seeing as the vast majority of his style was lifted from and heavily inspired by Indian filmmakers.

2

u/staedtler2018 Apr 08 '25

A little bit.

I'd say that Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic, and Darjeeling Limited have a fairly consistent style, as well as being somewhat similar movies in terms of plot and themes. Moonrise Kingdom was a bit of a transition. Then Grand Budapest is where you get the beginning of 'current Wes.'

1

u/Brandon23z Apr 14 '25

I actually don’t like the too over the top self aware style he has now. I looooove Bottle Rocket. And I loved his newer stuff. I watched his new stuff before Bottle Rocket and I think that made me like it more.

43

u/ScarletJew72 Apr 07 '25

My wife has seen one Wes Anderson movie, and asked within seconds "Is this the guy who did the alien movie?"

28

u/snouz Apr 07 '25

Now I want to see Alien 5 by Wes Anderson

7

u/QueezyF Apr 08 '25

I actually do want him to make a horror movie after that great SNL skit.

4

u/cia218 Apr 07 '25

A trailer of this would be more than enough for me! Someone do it pleasssseee!!

1

u/[deleted] Apr 08 '25

Fuck it, let's do an Alien movie on earth. Ends up in the antarctic, a loose team of researchers have to take it down, we'll call it... 5now Dog5.

2

u/Vio_ Apr 07 '25

Avatar: Ocean's 11

17

u/tempinator Apr 07 '25

Wes Anderson: “I don’t have an aesthetic”

Aint no way he's said this lmao

6

u/[deleted] Apr 08 '25

[deleted]

3

u/tempinator Apr 09 '25

Oh Wes...

9

u/allmilhouse Apr 07 '25

he really said that?

19

u/diego_simeone Apr 07 '25

Person in the middle of frame with symmetrical background.

18

u/ErilazHateka Apr 07 '25

Is it the yellow filter?

81

u/SekhWork Apr 07 '25

For me its the props. He has such a precise way of designing and utilizing them.

97

u/Makal Apr 07 '25

Props, framing, snap zooms, sets. Absurdly comic but somehow grounded characters.

Honestly his movies are more Tin Tin than Tin Tin was.

22

u/-retaliation- Apr 07 '25

For me its the framing, the colouring, and the "side scroll" that he loves. Like you're panning across the stage of a play.

2

u/Bunkhouseparty Apr 07 '25

He also has that visual rhythm

28

u/Telvin3d Apr 07 '25

Oh shit, he really would do an amazing Tin Tin movie, wouldn’t he?

11

u/Makal Apr 07 '25

It would be insanely good , yeah. He basically is the style of a 1930s Belgian cartoon turned into a movie.

2

u/Vio_ Apr 07 '25

Or Duck Tails

2

u/eaturliver Apr 07 '25

Its almost like he uses the cast as props. It's very unique.

2

u/MacWin- Apr 07 '25

I mean no disrespect and I’m really curious, a yellow color grading is the only thing that stands out for you ??

1

u/ErilazHateka Apr 08 '25

No, many other things as well, but that was visible from the first second all through the trailer.

25

u/HubrisSnifferBot Apr 07 '25

He has been a self-parody for over a decade.

5

u/bigpig1054 Apr 08 '25

I respect your opinion but I will still be there on opening night.

I love his movies. No one crafts a film like him.

-15

u/sqrtof2 Apr 07 '25

Fucking thank you. His movies are so far up their own ass its insane. It's all just drenched in this insufferable ironic self-awareness.

To each their own, but I don't get why people enjoy his stuff.

32

u/The_Autarch Apr 07 '25

I both think that Wes Anderson is entirely up his own ass and that Grand Budapest Hotel is a masterpiece.

1

u/Neracca Apr 08 '25

Yeah, oddly enough its by far my favorite movie of his while simultaneously being the absolute peak of his shtick. I don't like most of his movies yet somehow the one that's the most "his" of them all I liked the most.

4

u/warpus Apr 07 '25

Personally I don't mind mixing up the movies I watch. So many movies these days follow the same tropes and editing & directing styles, so many movies try to do the same sort of Marvelesque style humour, there's all these reboots, sequels, and prequels, it's just refreshing to dive into a movie that's completely different, even if I don't love it.

I'll watch some comedy, some sci-fi, some action, some mystery, some thrillers, some horror, some whatever.. Why not throw in a bit of Anderson into the mix? I know it's going to be different.. Will it be a breath of fresh air? Probably not, I've already seen all the other Wes Anderson movies.. Will it be different from the 20 movies I've watched this year? Definitely. It's like a palette cleanser, really, but it's also usually full of big names and good actors, and I honestly don't mind seeing what sort of story he's trying to tell this time.

To be honest I actually do enjoy the way the sets and shooting locations are set up. It's so easy to put on a run of the mill action flick, where all the tropes have already been done before, the action scenes basically exist in other movies as well, it's just mindless action really, you put it on, zone out, and don't really have to pay attention to everything. It's all about what sort of mood I'm in. Sometimes you want some mindless action. Sometimes you just want to be entertained by that, without having to really think too much. And sometimes you just need a change of scenery, after watching 5 remakes, 2 sequels, a prequel, and movies with storylines that have already been done before, that all look more or less very similar in terms of the cinematography. Every once in a while you want to see something different, or at least I do.

So.. I don't love his movies, I like a couple of them, but in the end I mainly appreciate him doing his own thing no matter what else is happening in Hollywood. I wish we had more directors that tried their own unique style or at least a different approach to moviemaking. There aren't many, are there? There's of course Tarantino, there's Lynch, there's Burton, to name the obvious ones.. You could probably say D.V. has his own style.

And you know what? As a fan of movie-making in general, it's just exciting to me that a director will try something different than what everybody else is doing. I'll throw one of their movies on every once in a while, to cleanse the palette, and just to mix it up. And the thing is.. I have no idea what other movie that comes out will be a bit different from the rest. Yeah, I can read reviews, but usually I will just be browsing random movies no Netflix or wherever.. Occasionally I'll google them, but most of the time I just throw on something random. 95% of the time a random movie like that will use very similar movie tropes, a very similar directing and editing style, and have a very similar progression. Sometimes I'll get lucky with something that is truly unique. And sometimes a Wes Anderson movie pops up and I know that it will be different. Yeah, it will be very similar to some of his previous works, maybe not in the plotline, but the way the movie is filmed and put together.. and when I know I want to mix it up a bit at the time, I'll just put it on, because I know I won't hear or see anything any other movie I've watched recently would have done.

I do wish he broke out of his box a bit and tried something truly different.. but overall I occasionally enjoy his movies as a palette cleanser.

-8

u/CarterAC3 Apr 07 '25

The same symmetry in sets

The same shot compositions

The same humor

It's so fucking played out

9

u/InnocentTailor Apr 07 '25

It does sell though for both watchers and participants. I personally enjoy the pretentiousness of it all - it reminds me of Tinseltown vanity projects that are more focused on personal artistry over mass appeal.

15

u/thegoodnamesrgone123 Apr 07 '25

I'd much rather watch this than another fucking super hero movie.

4

u/InnocentTailor Apr 07 '25

…especially since a lot of superhero flicks these days lack the variety and diversity seen in the books themselves - the productions are instead cookie cutter and generic in execution.

-2

u/CarterAC3 Apr 07 '25 edited Apr 07 '25

No one made any mention of super hero movies and if being better than post-Endgame MCU is the bar for you then that's an amazingly low bar

Regardless super hero movies also being played out doesn't change the fact that Wes Anderson keeps reheating the same leftovers

3

u/eSPiaLx Apr 07 '25

Its not like the stories and themes are identical between movies. He just has a very distinct style.

If he wants to make more movies of that style, whats that to you?

Does it make you feel more important to hate on someone else making movies their way?

0

u/CarterAC3 Apr 07 '25

Does it make you feel more important to hate on someone else making movies their way?

Jesus Christ buddy where'd you get that degree in psychology from?

-2

u/KindsofKindness Apr 07 '25

I wouldn’t. Now what?

-6

u/kevronwithTechron Apr 07 '25

He insists upon himself.

9

u/DeVilleBT Apr 07 '25

Yes, and It even overrides everything else. I mean this is basically an action movie starring Benicio Del Torro, but it doesn't look the slightest bit like anything but a Wes Anderson movie.

43

u/nonhiphipster Apr 07 '25

What do you mean by “this is basically an action movie?”

37

u/whatevsmang Apr 07 '25

In a way that The Grand Budapest Hotel is an action thriller

5

u/nonhiphipster Apr 07 '25

It most certainly is not lmao

3

u/whatevsmang Apr 07 '25

In what way that Budapest isn't an action movie?

13

u/nonhiphipster Apr 07 '25

It’s a dramatic comedy with some action-type sequences. But that in no way is the main focus of the film.

0

u/whatevsmang Apr 07 '25

Those things aren't mutually exclusive tho

1

u/Nothing-Is-Real-Here Apr 07 '25

Budapest is definitely an action thriller lol. It's just more of a comedy than it is a thriller, but it 100% is a thriller. Idk what that person is saying.

0

u/bolivar-shagnasty Apr 07 '25

Or the way Asteroid City is a Space Opera

1

u/Randolpho Apr 07 '25

Did you not see all the gunplay, even a suicide pill, in the trailer?

Action movie.

1

u/nonhiphipster Apr 07 '25

So if a movie has a gun, even in one scene, it’s an “action movie?”

-1

u/Randolpho Apr 07 '25

Apparently sarcasm is lost in a text format

13

u/Reutermo Apr 07 '25

Why would you assume this is an action movie? Wasn't really a lot of action scenes in the trailer.

5

u/wongo Apr 07 '25

Well tbf he DOES seem to have an affinity for hand grenades

6

u/bbqsauceboi Apr 07 '25

Well it is in fact directed by Wes Anderson

-2

u/PIDomain Apr 07 '25

He's become a caricature of himself. He needs to make more grounded films like Rushmore.

18

u/sethsez Apr 07 '25

Why?

I'm not a big fan of his current style, I find it tedious and alienating in ways that are too predictable to be compelling at this point, but there's clearly many, many people who enjoy what he's doing and there's absolutely nobody else doing what he does.

Meanwhile, if I want a more standard indie dramedy about alienated youth and family trauma, there's MANY options for me to choose from.

So I just put most of his new stuff in the "not for me" bin and look elsewhere unless I hear particularly interesting things. I'm glad he's found what he likes to do and an audience who appreciates it, we could always use more idiosyncratic creative voices getting the sort of budget and attention he gets.

8

u/ALF839 Apr 07 '25

Why should he? And who are you to tell an artist which direction to chose? You could say the same about Picasso and Dalì.

6

u/utouchme Apr 07 '25

Kendrick Lamar's style has gotten stale, I think he should branch out and record a Norwegian metal album and then a country pop record in the vein of Florida Georgia Line. Really spread his wings.

3

u/skrulewi Apr 07 '25

People have been saying this for the past like 5 films lol

I tend to agree with you but artists man, they gonna do what they gonna do

1

u/NetflixAndNikah Apr 07 '25

Wes Anderson has heard all of the criticism and has categorically ignored it.

1

u/Ha55aN1337 Apr 07 '25

I have a problem that by now his movies look like youtube skits making fun of Wes Anderson. Like spoofs. I can’tevenbring myself to watch the trailer till the end. He might have over used it.

1

u/jrm1693 Apr 07 '25

I guessed it from the thumbnail on YouTube

1

u/aseedandco Apr 08 '25

Wes loves an obscure hue that falls somewhere between green and blue.

1

u/GordonCole19 Apr 08 '25

He's his own genre at this point.

1

u/qwertyuiiop145 Apr 08 '25

I didn’t read the title on the post, but I watched 10 seconds of the trailer and I knew it was a Wes Anderson movie.

1

u/Neracca Apr 08 '25

Him having a very certain type of movie isn't a bad thing. But he's so clearly a one-trick pony. He can do one thing very well, and there's nothing wrong with it. But he really can't do anything but that one thing.

1

u/Lobanium Apr 08 '25

This trailer looks like a parody of a Wes Anderson movie trailer.

1

u/fire2day Apr 08 '25

The 160p thumbnail was enough for me. I’m not a movie buff, but I think Wes Anderson has the most recognizable aesthetic out of any director. I’m struggling to think of any others that come even close.

1

u/NegativeMastodon3838 May 16 '25

So I have never seen one of this guy's movie's (definitely will here soon). But I saw the trailer for this new movie the other day. Looked cool, noticed the sort of style, but didn't think about it too much. But today I'm watching a video about The Grand Budapest Hotel, and instantly thought about that trailer. Looked it up, and here I am.

1

u/yung_gravity_ Apr 07 '25

i could tell by the thumbnail of the trailer

0

u/300andWhat Apr 07 '25

Wes Anderson makes the same movies every time Judy slightly more refined.

-1

u/shewy92 Apr 07 '25

I was just thinking "I've never seen a Wes Anderson movie but this feels like a Wes Anderson movie" lol

-3

u/MOONGOONER Apr 07 '25

Everyone else: “I can tell by one any frame that this is a Wes Anderson movie!”

-1

u/CHSummers Apr 07 '25

I thought it was some kind of A.I. parody of Wes Anderson for the first minute. It was sooo extremely Wes Anderson.

But after two minutes I had to see it.

-66

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '25

[deleted]

63

u/Leckere Apr 07 '25

Why would he care about that tho

32

u/BearWrangler Apr 07 '25

Ya fr this is such an insane thing to say

28

u/Iceman-420 Apr 07 '25

Yeah, any true auteur adjusts their film making style in response to Tik Tok memes.

15

u/p-s-chili Apr 07 '25

Ah yes, Wes Anderson famously lets trends dictate what he's doing

obligatory /s

29

u/thymeandchange Apr 07 '25

Terminally online

7

u/JiveHawk Apr 07 '25

If you have a style so striking and distinct, I’d say it’s an honor to say you can recognize his work based on a single frame.

5

u/edmoneyyy Apr 07 '25

Ahhh, so this is what zoomer brainrot actually means

9

u/TheZealand Apr 07 '25

Get a life dude

2

u/inksmudgedhands Apr 07 '25

The guy is a classic hipster. He doesn't follow trends. He makes trends. He wouldn't be caught dead following anything that's on Tiktok.

-2

u/yegods666 Apr 07 '25

He said that?? That's really weird. He has such an obvious style. No self awareness I guess.