Listen Up Philip
If you miss HBO’s short-lived comedy treasure Bored to Death and were hoping to see what Jason Schwartzman’s character would be like if he became a more self-absorbed novelist, let me point you to this terrific, bleak American comedy.
Schwartzman plays Philip Lewis Friedman, an author on the cusp of publishing his second novel. The small aura of fame he has achieved goes right to his head, making him abandon his girlfriend, Ashley (a dazzling Elisabeth Moss), to retreat to the country home of reclusive writer Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce, giving his best performance in years).
Listen Up Philip was a big word-of-mouth sensation at Sundance earlier this year, and for good reason. Its writer/director, Alex Ross Perry, designs his film to resemble a modernist novel. Every so often, the perspective shifts to a different character, giving us greater depth into their mental state. (Some of it is underlined by wry, adjective-loaded narration from playwright Eric Bogosian.) As he focuses on the three central characters, Perry pushes them into unflattering close-ups, intimate and intrusive. Just as an acclaimed novelist would, he makes us view the characters in our minds with the same detail as if we were reading about them.
The film is bound to divide audiences, although it should please fans of Noah Baumbach and early David O. Russell, with its smug, intellectual cast of characters. Philip is one of the most narcissistic protagonists to come out of an American indie in some time, although Schwartzman is so effortlessly unlikable, he turns the role into one of comic perfection. Listen Up Philip both praises and mocks the pompous literary elite. If you can stomach the dark humor and difficult-to-like characters, you may find a lot to love here.