LISTEN UP PHILIP written and directed by Alex Ross Perry, with Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Krysten Ritter and Jonathan Pryce. A Tribeca Films release. 109 minutes. Opens Friday (October 24). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNNNN
Alex Ross Perry follows his impressive The Color Wheel with this magnificently observed study of people trapped in uncomfortable spaces with one another.
In Listen Up Philip, it’s the audience who’s trapped with an unbearable character: Philip Lewis Friedman, a New York City novelist whose self-regard outweighs pretty much everything in his life, pushing him away from the people he should care about most.
Jason Schwartzman is pitch-perfect as Philip, letting loose his inner shitheel as he alienates his long-suffering girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss) and forms a parasitic relationship with an aging legend (Jonathan Pryce, who’s quietly as good as Schwartzman).
Perry’s film is literary in structure – with omniscient narration by Eric Bogosian – and lacerating in function, showing us precisely how Philip’s narcissism serves his art while chipping away at his soul. The real question is whether he’ll even notice or care.
