Review of Listen Up Philip (2014) by Manny C — 09 Nov 2014

Some folks just can't get into a film with characters that are really hard to like. Screw them. That's what swill like The Best of Me is for. Tougher-minded folks should line up for Listen Up Philip, an acid-tinged love letter to the New York literary scene from writer-director Alex Ross Perry. In only his third feature, following 2009's Impolex and 2011's The Color Wheel, Perry, 30, crafts a biting portrait of writing as one of the most brutal of arts. And he's also wickedly funny about it to boot.

Jason Schwartzman is dynamite as Philip Lewis Friedman, the author of a hit first novel called Join The Street Parade. Philip is on the cusp of publishing his long-awaited second novel, with the even more pretentious title of Obidant, but he seems more determined than ever to sabotage himself royally. An unseen narrator, voiced by Eric Bogosian, offers a bitterly detached view of Philip as he spirals into self-destructon. One unfortunate victim of Philip's toxic mix of ego and self-loathing is his girlfriend Ashley (Elisabeth Moss, superb), a photographer whose profession and personal future may lie in Philip not being a part of it. The biggest enabler of Philip's ego is Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce), a pompous blend of art and arrogance a la author Philip Roth (his very name, Zimmerman, is a dig at Roth literary surrogate Nathan Zuckerman). Pryce digs into the role with biting relish, one of his finest screen hours. It's Ike who mentors Philip and secures him a teaching job at an upstate liberal-arts college where he can tower over those he deems lower than himself.

In a bold move, Perry splits the focus among Philip, Ashley and Ike, allowing us to see their lives play out individually as well as with one another. I couldn't have loved the device more, coupled with evocative handheld Super 16 millimeter camerawork from Sean Price Williams. As the film takes Philip, Ike and Ashley right up to our faces, each actor deftly nails their role. Schwartzman, no stranger to playing smarmy bastards (see Rushmore and HBO's Bored To Death), fires on all cylinders as a rat who can't win against his greatest challenge: narcissism. Listen Up Philip will have you laughing and cringing in equal amounts, laughing till it hurts, and that's the point. If you can't take the joke, well, that's on you.