IF SOMETHING GETS IN YOUR WAY: FLATTEN IT.

After surviving multiple assassination attempts, industrialist Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) makes peace with his daughter (Mia Threapleton); together they intend to save the business empire.

You always get what you expect from Wes Anderson, but different fans of his tend to like different things about his meticulously crafted exercises.

This one I liked because it is funnier than most of his latest output and because of the evolving relationship between father and daughter; Threapleton and del Toro (whose character was inspired by Anderson’s father-in-law) are terrific. Brimming with gags and visual treats.

2025-U.S.-Germany. 105 min. Color. Written and directed by Wes Anderson. Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel. Cast: Benicio del Toro (Zsa-zsa Korda), Mia Threapleton (Liesl), Michael Cera (Bjørn Lund), Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Hope Davis, Bill Murray, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham. 

Trivia: Co-produced by Anderson. Roman Coppola contributed to the story.

Last word: “There’s another influence which we had in mind all along, which is [Luis] Buñuel, and I mentioned this to Benicio. Buñuel is like the film version of your Catholic upbringing that never leaves you. Buñuel is the most exaggerated form of that. He has this satirical look at the world, but it’s not quite satirical because it’s also surreal. Everything is infused with something to do with religion, and its iconography and its rules, and his bristling in relation to it. Somehow that was a part of our character and our story from the beginning.” (Anderson, Little White Lies)