Wes Anderson doesn't direct films so much as he curates living dioramas—immaculately arranged, tonally wry, symmetrical tableaus of whimsy and rot. The Phoenician Scheme, his latest, currently in theaters, is no exception. It’s a velvet-covered dagger, a pastel riot of familial betrayal, capitalism's gloss, and the soft revolution of choosing kindness over empire. If you've ever cracked open a dol

This is how I imagine the Mickey 17 pitch meeting went down: Producer: It's a sci-fi movie about cloning—when the main character dies, he's regenerated with his memories intact. But then, he accidentally gets cloned while he's still alive, and now there are two of him. Studio: So, The Sixth Day? And also- Producer: No, no, it's different! It tackles all the themes Hollywood pretends to care about—

It's the Tuesday after the Oscars and I'm in line at the Rio Theatre. The night is cold and the air smells like weed. My Oscar ballot picks were a complete bust; I selected only five correct winners out of a potential 23. It turns out, analyzing movies does not directly correlate to knowing what the Academy is thinking. I'd made the journey to the east side of the city for one movie and one movie