This is the closest Anderson has come to making a spy thriller

Wes Anderson's new film, The Phoenician Scheme , is based in part on Anderson ’s late father-in-law, Fouad Malouf .

The film is the closest to making a spy thriller, following Benicio del Toro's wealthy industrialist Zsa-zsa Korda in a fictionalized version of the Middle East .

The Phoenician Scheme is like one of those boxes, filled with objects whose significance we can only guess at.

The movie’s opening credits roll over an overhead shot of Zsa-zsa in an opulent bathroom, soaking in the tub as servants bring him food and chilled Champagne .

The film is shot in an aspect ratio of 1.5:1 that's almost never used for moving pictures.

Zsa-zsa visits a dam inscribed with a verse from Exodus about holding back the waters, a citation that would make the builder of the dam, i.e., him, the equivalent of God.

But the story contrives to remind him that he is only a man, and his life is more fulfilling the more he realizes it.