As I watched all of Wes Anderson’s films more or less in chronological order last year, I felt I had to watch his latest—in theaters this time! I went with my wife to see it. The only Wes Anderson she’d seen before was his short film “Poison,” so we knew this would be an abrupt entry into his filmography.

In brief—I enjoyed it. It’s very much an extension of the aesthetic he’s refined in The French Dispatch and Asteroid City. This is no brain all aesthetic. Yes, there is an overly complex plot, but it is mostly in service of incredibly twee sets and props and incredibly dry humor. But unlike some of his other films, The Phoenician Scheme has no heart at all. So if you want to spend two hours inside his doll’s house with quirky characters doing improbable things for inscrutable reasons, it’s a diversion.

( There are...some issues with the setting )