I’m currently in the midst of some big international travel, and the second leg of the trip was long enough to fit in three movies, two of which I quite enjoyed, and one that I did not.

The Phoenician Scheme

The latest cinematic offering from Wes Anderson (time of writing) is in many ways exactly what you’d expect–a weirdly stylized comedy-adventure with a distinct but muted color palette, extremely precise compositions and camera movement, and a lot of small supporting roles being played a familiar troupe of actors (ie Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston and the like). I can’t think of a modern popular filmmaker with a more distinct look than Wes Anderson, but generally speaking I’m down for it. I wasn’t a big fan of Asteroid City (the last of his films that I was introduced to), but The Phoenician Scheme I pretty much enjoyed through and through.

The story is about Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicia del Toro), an industrialist and arms dealer who in 1950 attempts to pull off a massive deal between various parties to overhaul the infrastructure of Phoenicia, something that’s going to make him a whole lot of money. But Korda’s business practices and skills have made him the target for would-be assassins and government plots from all sides, so he uses the situation to also attempt to connect with his only daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), a Catholic novice from whom he is estranged. All this culminates in a hand-to-hand fight with the guy trying to kill him, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, which is hilarious.

I think the reason I liked The Phoenician Scheme so much better than Asteroid City is that in the midst of all the quirk-filled wackiness, the emotional stakes of the movie are clear and easy to care about. Korda and Liesl are both interesting characters and their relationship is meaningful to both. And both, in their own personal ways, are asking big questions about God, mortality and purpose. So it’s a funny movie, but still feels like it’s talking about real things.

Omni Loop

Zoya Lowe is a physicist with an unusual problem: there’s a black hole growing inside her body. This means she only has days to live. But Zoya Lowe also has an unusual resource: a bottle of pills that allow her to go back in time and relive the last five days. She can’t compound the pills’ effects (ie she cannot use multiple ones to go back further than five days) so that means she basically is stuck in a self-imposed time loop, reliving repeatedly the last days of her life.

Those days become a tedious repetition of ordinary moments, spent mostly with her well-meaning family. But only after resetting the loop countless times does she do something new, which leads her to meeting Paula, a research assistant at a local lab. She takes Paula into her confidence, and partners with her to use her remaining time to delve into her incomplete research into her pills (which she mysteriously received when she was a child). Of course, this means abandoning her family, but it’s worth it if she can unlock the potential of time travel and go back further, in order to make more significant changes to her past life.

This movie did not work for me at all. It’s tedious and slow, and some basic explanations as to why Zoya is doing what she is doing come unnecessarily late in the story. Also, the movie is aiming for thoughtful human drama, and that movie is in there someplace, but the flippant way you get things like “Your mother has a black hole growing in her body,” as if that’s supposed to make some sort of sense, and aren’t the new story of the century, detracts from that. There’s also a minor plot point that involves a man who took part in a shrinking experiment and is now shrinking forever but is really chill about it–it’s something that would fit in a quirky movie like Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox (which I watched on my last flight) but here is distracting.

Omni Loop has got quite good reviews. I’ve seen the dynamic between lead actors Mary-Louise Parker and Ayo Edebiri particularly praised, but for me there is just nothing special there. Both actors are fine, but their relationship isn’t interesting, and their interactions directed without any notable energy or nuance.

West Side Story (2021)

I finally got around to watching Steven Spielberg’s remake of the popular musical, and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. I don’t remember the original very well but in general I felt like I enjoyed this one more. The music is of course catchy and memorable, and it marries well with good staging and a bunch of solid performances. Rachel Zegler, who I unfortunately know mainly from various controversies surrounding Snow White, is outstanding as Maria, and the rest of the cast is solid as well. Ariana DeBose won an Oscar for Anita, which feels justified, and many have complained that Mike Faist should have been similarly recognised for his performance of Riff, which is a sentiment I can understand as well. And it’s nice to see Rita Moreno back in the new role of Valentina. Moreno was in her late 80s when she played the part, which is just kind of awesome.

Maybe my favorite number in this film was Cool, which has got some inventive staging going for it. But it was also nice to hear Moreno sing Somewhere. And lately I’ve had America running through my head almost every day.

All in all, it was a pretty successful set of choices for this flight. I didn’t like Omni Loop of course, but it’s an even bet between The Phoenician Scheme and West Side Story as to which I enjoyed more.