The Phoenician Scheme (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)
Benicio del Toro in a Wes Anderson movie is already something to see. Now picture him as a ruthless billionaire named “Zsa-zsa,” dodging assassins in silk pajamas and barking orders from a bulletproof gondola. The Phoenician Scheme is Anderson at his most playful and most precise, layered, colorful, and just a little unhinged. It’s a story about legacy, faith, and strange family reunions, wrapped in beautiful sets, dry humor, and the kind of handcrafted detail only Anderson can pull off.
Film 
Note: Film review written in collaboration with Gerard Iribe.
Anatole Korda isn’t your usual Anderson lead. He’s older, colder, and way more dangerous. Played with a perfect mix of charm and menace by Benicio del Toro, Korda is a tycoon with a mysterious global empire, part phosphate mining, part wind energy, part who-knows-what. After surviving his sixth assassination attempt, he decides to name a successor: his estranged daughter Liesl, who also happens to be a nun. Mia Threapleton gives the role a quiet, magnetic presence, saying more with a glance than with words.
Joining them is Michael Cera as Bjorn, a mild-mannered academic hired to help Liesl understand the empire she’s inheriting. He’s the middleman between two people who barely speak the same emotional language, and his awkward charm brings a welcome softness to the film. From Prague to Marrakesh to the edge of the Mediterranean, the trio travels through Anderson’s signature world of miniatures, murals, and typewritten secrets.
But The Phoenician Scheme isn’t just about style, it’s about what happens when control slips away. Korda wants his legacy to be perfect. Liesl wants none of it. And Bjorn? He just wants to keep everyone from imploding. The story stays light on its feet, but you can feel the weight underneath, regret, time lost, and the strange hope of starting over.
Del Toro anchors it all. He plays Korda like a man who built everything except a way out. It’s one of the most human performances in a film that could have easily leaned into parody. Instead, it finds real feeling in between the pastel color palettes and sharp suits. It’s funny, weird, and quietly emotional, classic Wes, but with a little more bite.
Video
Encoding: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: 2160p
Aspect Ratio: 1.48:1
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR 10
Layers: BD-66
Clarity/Detail: The Phoenician Scheme comes to 4K UHD Blu-ray framed in Academy specific aspect ratio for the time frame within the film. The stunning cinematography is captured with great detail and sumptuous color grading thanks to being captured on film, finished in 4K and graded in Dolby Vision HDR. Camera panning and depth of field makes every detail sharp as a tack, with a filmic look that doesn’t take away from the modern advances of a film made in 2025.
Depth: Cinematography is nuanced and gives equal treatment to long shots and slow camera pans. Foreground shots and shots out of focus look wonderful despite not being the main image in shot. Textures show up in frame looking well worn and full of detail, while set decoration is given a great deal of detail even as the camera is panning.
Black Levels: Black levels are deep without going to the depths that lead to crush.
Color Reproduction: The Phoenician Scheme takes place in the 50’s. A great deal of the film’s color palette therefore dictates the look of the era, with clothing, interiors of homes, aircrafts, train cars and even tunnels take on those came colors. Reds and oranges are dominant hues, with blue skies, beige sands and the stark white of Liesl’s nun habit all coming to life on screen.
Skin Tones: Flesh tones are great overall, with nothing looking cartoonish or overcooked on screen.
Noise/Artifacts: None
Audio
Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Dynamics: Dolby Atmos is employed for the UHD and Blu-ray and the mix is one that carries great subtle usage of atmospheric effects. The subtleties are what make the mix a fun listen. When bombastic moments do come into play, they’re welcome too. Music, ambience and light action make for a lot of nuanced playfulness that bring the listener new ways to enjoy Dolby Atmos than just bombastic bass and height activity.
Height: Desolate desert winds, air rustling, echoing great halls and tunnels… claustrophobic train cars and plane fuselages… you name it, and this mix uses the height speakers to expand or retract the space the listener should be immersed in. The sound design here is basic in plan, but the execution is something kind of amazing, when you think of the many ways the technology is used to move the sounds through the listening space no matter how big or small it’s meant to be.
Low Frequency Extension: Bass can be subtle for some moments, like light conversation with music in the background, or heavy for moments where action beats call for it. This is the rare Wes Anderson film where there are action beats, so there are some moments where deep bass does come to play, and it’s a welcome addition.
Surround Sound Presentation: Surround channels are useful in handling score, helping with some dialogue movement, and for some more subtle ambient usages also.
Dialogue: Dialogue is excellently intelligible throughout.
Extras 
Bonus features were not at the forefront of this release. Tacked onto the 66GB 4K disc, the extras are short EPK pieces that aren’t anything special. The film comes to 4K with a glossy slipcover, a bundled Blu-ray and a digital code.
EXCLUSIVE BONUS FEATURES:
- Behind THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME
- The Cast
- The Airplane
- Marseille Bob’s
- Zsa-zsa’s World
Summary
The Phoenician Scheme may not thrill everyone. For me, and for Gerard, it was a find. The film mixes elements of espionage, comedy, drama, and just enough Wes Anderson weirdness to be a warm tonic of a film. Something different to remind us that cinema remains something that can be different and charming still without being a big noisy nothing. Besides being a parade of big name stars, The Phoenician Scheme is a showcase for Benicio Del Toro, Michael Cera and Wes Anderson, for acting and directing respectively. Their work here is fantastic. If no one takes anything else from it, we can all agree that the basketball scene with Bryan Cranston and Tom Hanks is a riot, and worth watching the whole movie for. If you take nothing else from this funny, surprisingly sweet film, at least grab that tidbit and run with it!
Buy a copy of The Phoenician Scheme HERE
Adam Toroni-Byrne
Adam is a lifelong physical media collector. His love of collecting began with a My First Sony radio and his parent's cassette collection. Since the age of 3, Adam has collected music on vinyl, tape and CD and films on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray. Adam likes to think of himself as the queer voice of Whysoblu. Outside of his work as a writer at Whysoblu, Adam teaches preschool and trains to be a boxer although admittedly, he's not very good.
