A Wes Anderson film is always an uphill battle for me. I put that out in front here so you can understand where I’m coming from in this review. While I think his sensibilities lend quite nicely to animation, and I’ve really enjoyed both Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs, Anderson in live action is very much a mixed bag. I always keep an open mind, but his batting average with me is quite low. For every movie that works on me, like The Royal Tenenbaums or The Grand Budapest Hotel, there’s the rest, which leave me just shrugging my shoulders. Recently, Anderson made one film I didn’t care for at all in The French Dispatch (reviewed here), as well as one that nearly won me over in Asteroid City (reviewed here). Now, with The Phoenician Scheme, I was wondering whether he’d get me over the edge and back on his side, or fall back on the things that annoy me. Unfortunately, while there’s some solid humor on display, as well as the normal pristine visuals, it once again feels like watching him play with a diorama. I felt nothing, which means the flick has failed.

The Phoenician Scheme starts with a little bit of novelty from Anderson, which I appreciated, but before long, it’s the same old story. By the end, there’s a little diorama on the screen, which I don’t think is meant as a joke. As always, I can appreciate the singularity of his vision, as well as understand why it works on some folks, while getting absolutely zilch out of the experience. Aside from a few laughs and appreciation of craft, I sit stone-faced, which is a real shame.

Ruthless and wealthy international businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) seems to be pulling the world’s strings however he pleases. He also repeated survives assassination attempts, suggesting that not everyone is thrilled with how he’s in such control. After one such attempt, he decides that he wants an heir, not just to his company, but to his power as well. While he was married three times and has nine young sons living in a dorm near his estate, he opts for his daughter  Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who he sent to a convent as a young girl. Liesl is about to become a nun and has no use for any of this, least of all her father, suspecting him of murdering her mother, but the prospect of solving that mystery, perhaps gaining vengeance in the process, is too good to pass up. So, father and daughter are reunited, with the children’s tutor Bjorn (Michael Cera), who immediately has fallen in love with Liesl, along for the ride.

Zsa-zsa’s competitors have conspired against him, raising the price of an item that’s created a massive financial gap, so the trio must travel to each party in order to negotiate better terms, as well as other methods for filling in the gap. While that’s going on, some mild father and daughter bonding results. Of course, the world is filled with others, from the competition (played by Bryan Cranston and Tom Hanks, to name two), to family (Benedict Cumberbatch), to the leader of a band of radicals in Sergio (Richard Ayoade) who want a revolution. It all builds and builds, but where it ends up will potentially leave you simply shrugging, like I did.

Benicio del Toro does some very nice work here, as does Michael Cera and Mia Threapleton. They’re best in show, which is helpful considering they’re the three characters we spend the most time with. Watching del Toro get a showcase is admittedly a pleasure, while Threapleton has some definite acting chops. As for Cera, it’s wild that he and Anderson have not worked together yet, as he’s a strong fit for that style. In terms of the smaller roles/cameos, Jeffrey Wright steals his scene, cementing my theory that he should be the lead of an Anderson project one day. The aforementioned Richard Ayoade, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Tom Hanks are all fine, though more or less just here because they enjoy Anderson. Supporting players here include stars like F. Murray Abraham, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Willem Dafoe, Hope Davis, Rupert Friend, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Scarlett Johansson, and Bill Murray, plus many more.

Wes Anderson directs a screenplay he wrote with frequent collaborator Roman Coppola, and while some of the surprising violence is pretty funny, the whole thing does feel a bit stale. The visuals from Bruno Delbonnel and the score by Alexandre Desplat are Anderson approved, so if you appreciate his work, you’ll like what they’re up to even more. The failing here, besides the general twee feeling that I get from Anderson, is that Anderson and Coppola clearly want you invested in the family story. Especially considering where it leaves off, the intent is undeniable. The thing is, it just never sucks you in. You’re kept at a distance, admiring the pretty images, but never really caring much about the machinations of the plot, which is wildly obtuse and overcomplicated, let alone the characters within.

The Phoenician Scheme left me cold, which is a shame considering its hopes to have an emotional core on display. All in all, this is Wes Anderson up to his old tricks. Whether that’s a promise or a threat is a matter of perspective. It’s clear where I fall on this, but your mileage may vary. If you’re a fan, prepare to enjoy some more of Anderson’s antics. If not, well…at least you know what to expect.

SCORE: ★★1/2

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Mess with 50 Cent and he might come for your house — even if it takes him a few years to do it.

The rapper’s company Sire Spirits got the OK last week from a federal judge to seize the Connecticut home of former Sire executive Mitchell Green as partial payment toward a $7-million debt after a federal bankruptcy judge lifted an automatic stay that had prevented transfer of the property.

That took 50 Cent — real name Curtis Jackson III — and his legal team a little more than four years to accomplish, from when Green confessed to embezzling from his employer via a kickback scheme involving wholesalers until last week when the stay came off the house.

Branson Cognac and Chemin du Roi Champagne, both owned by Jackson, are managed through Sire Spirits. Green admitted in February 2020 that he had been raising prices and getting kickbacks from wholesalers that were labeled “agency fees,” the New York Post reported in 2022 and 2023.

Sire Spirits filed a request with the U.S. District Court, New York Southern, on Sept. 1, 2021, for confirmation of an arbitration agreement of a little less than $3.5 million in damages, according to court documents reviewed by The Times.

Green had been embezzling from 2018 into 2020, when someone attempted to blackmail him over the $2.2 million in kickbacks, according to AllHipHop. At that point, Green told his employer what he’d done. Sire Spirits fired him and went into arbitration, which was settled in Sire’s favor. With attorney fees and legal costs rolled in, the November 2022 final judgment totaled around $6.3 million.

In March 2023, the disgraced businessman filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, which was still going on when Sire Spirits’ legal team secured a judgment lien against Green’s home in Westport, Conn., according to the court documents.

Green’s legal team had been providing court-ordered updates on the status of the property, always stating that Green was still in bankruptcy proceedings and therefore still had that automatic stay protecting his home. But last week, Sire’s attorneys asked the bankruptcy judge to get rid of the stay, saying that Green had no equity in the home due to the size of the judgment against him and therefore the property didn’t need to be part of his liquidation.

The judge agreed and lifted the stay.

The Connecticut home was appraised in late April at $1 million. That value will ultimately be credited against the judgment plus pre- and post-judgment interest, which now totals around $7 million.

Although Jackson has mentioned Branson Cognac recently on social media, he hasn’t said anything about the legal victory. In the last week, the rapper has been enjoying himself by poking fun at Sean “Diddy” Combs, a.k.a. “Puffy,” who is mired in a federal sex trafficking and conspiracy trial, where prosecution witnesses have been testifying.

“Cut, CUT … Wait a minute PUFFY’s got a gun, I can’t believe this I don’t feel safe … LOL,” Jackson wrote Tuesday on social media, posting screen shots of new testimony from Combs’ former assistant Capricorn Clark. Clark told the court that Combs said something about guns that she took as him making a threat against Jackson.

“Oh my goodness itty bitty Diddy wants me Dead,” the entrepreneur and provocateur said in a follow-up post. “I have to lay low, I think I’m gonna hide out at the playoff game tonight LOL.” He posted a comical picture of himself looking completely freaked out.

The New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers should be tipping off right about now.

CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD is a horror comedy. Quinn, a female teenager, and her father, a doctor, move into Kettle Springs, a small town in the American heartland, far from their old Philadelphia home. They’re seeking a new start after Quinn’s mom died. The dying town once had a thriving factory with a giant sinister-looking clown as its mascot. Quinn quickly makes friends. After the annual Founders Day celebration, she sneaks out to attend a teenage party, where a horde of killer clowns emerge from the surrounding cornfield to kill everyone.

CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD features a smart script with surprising character depth, plenty of twists, darkly funny lines, and a positive father-daughter relationship. The filmmakers assemble an appealing young cast with Katie Douglas as the lead, and a terrific Aaron Abrams as her father. The story moves like a freight train. However, it’s marred by a strong Romantic, politically correct, abhorrent worldview with a negative, politically correct view of Small Town America. CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD also has frequent foul language, graphic violence, and two teenage boys who resume a homosexual relationship.

(RoRo, PCPC, APAP, HoHo, B, LLL, VVV, SS, N, AA, DD, MMM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong Romantic, politically correct worldview with an Anti-American, politically correct view of small-town America (the villains turn out to be “strict” adults) and a developing homosexual relationship between two male teenagers (they kiss romantically near the end of the movie), but there’s a strong and positive father-daughter relationship;

Foul Language:

At least 52 obscenities (including at least 35 “f” words), and one “I swear to G*d” profanity;

Violence:

Numerous graphic killings in extremely unique ways, with lots of blood showing and splattering, most kills cut away from the actual murderous act and leave it to the imagination, many are portrayed comically because they’re so outlandish, two people get impaled on pitchforks, two are decapitated, a girl is electro-shocked but not killed, a villain is smashed by a car, and his blood drenches the windshield, one teenage boy gets eviscerated with his intestines pulled out, a villain is stabbed in the neck by a person acting in self-defense, a father tries to kill his teenage son by hanging him;

Sex:

A clothed teenage girl jumps on her teenage neighbor to his surprise and starts passionately kissing him and making it clear she wants intimate sex, but the guy stops her by admitting he’s actually a closeted homosexual, and he and another teenage male kiss romantically, and their relationship is affirmed by other people;

Nudity:

A teenage male is shirtless while doing bodybuildng exercises;

Alcohol Use:

Lots of teenagers drink alcohol at parties;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Some teenagers are shown smoking marijuana; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Two adult authority figures are revealed to be part of a group of murderous adults, and teenage girl sneaks out of her house to attend a teenage party.

CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD is a fast-moving, comical horror movie in the vein of the SCREAM movies, in which teenagers and a new doctor in a small rural town must fight a small group of people dressing up as clowns and brutally murdering the town’s most rebellious high school students. CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD features a smart script with some surprising character depth and a positive father-daughter relationship, but it’s marred by a strong Romantic, politically correct, abhorrent worldview with a negative portrayal of Small Town America, frequent foul language, graphic violence, and two major teenage male characters who begin to develop a homosexual relationship during the movie’s story.

Teenager Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) and her father Dr. Glen Maybrook (Aaron Abrams) move into the small town of Kettle Springs in the American heartland, far from their old home in Philadelphia. They’re seeking a new start after Quinn’s mom died from a drug overdose. Quinn hates the small town, but she’s trying to help her father and is soon to graduate high school and go away to attend college anyway.

Quinn quickly meets her neighbor, Rust, a muscular guy with extremely awkward social skills, who warns her to steer clear of their school’s most popular clique. However, through a comical misunderstanding with a harsh teacher, Quinn winds up sharing detention with Cole, a good-looking guy who’s also the son of the town’s richest man. They have an instant attraction, and Quinn finds herself hanging out with his popular crowd after all, while learning that the dying town used to have a thriving factory called Baypen that had a sinister-looking giant clown as its mascot.

The factory burned down years ago, but the clown still is a menacing presence in the town. In fact, as shown in the movie’s opening sequence, the clown has been killing teenagers for decades. When Cole throws a big overnight teenage party after the town’s Founders Day celebration, Quinn sneaks out of her home and into the party – only to find a horde of killer clowns coming out of the surrounding cornfield and her friends fighting for their lives.

With her father also battling the killer clowns in order to save her, will the teenagers survive the night? Will she find new love with Cole? Can she and her father find a new start?

CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD has an amazingly positive portrayal of Quinn’s father, and the other entertaining filmmaking qualities mentioned above. Co-writer/director Eli Craig rose to cult popularity with his movie TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL, which had a similar mix of outrageous mirth and murder back in 2010. Here, he assembles an appealing young cast led by Katie Douglas as teenage lead Quinn, and a terrific Aaron Abrams performance as her dad. The script has plenty of twists and darkly funny lines, and the direction moves this movie forward like a freight train.

Of course, a major problem with a slasher comedy like this is all the graphic, bloody violence. For example, people are impaled on pitchforks or lose their heads literally. That’s par for the course for this genre, and the regrettably frequent foul language is another concern.

The biggest problem with CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, however, lies in its Romantic, politically correct worldview. For example, the movie has a Romantic worldview with a strongly negative view of small town American life. The killers are adults who hate the fact that some of the town’s teenagers don’t appreciate the town where they live. Also, two of the town’s best-known teenage guys “come out” and admit they’ve been homosexual lovers in the past. At the end of the movie, they restart their relationship with a passionate romantic kiss in front of other teenagers. This scene is unnecessarily pushing the homosexual agenda on impressionable teenage viewers.

Thus, media-wise viewers will avoid CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD. The movie is to be viewed only, if at all, by adult and older teenager with extreme caution.