Listen Up Philip

Listen Up Philip is a messy character-driven piece in which, oddly enough, the narration is the best part of the film. This is not a film for everyone. The two male leads are pretentious fools that, despite all of their knowledge, lack any true wisdom and consistently make terrible choices. By the end, it's difficult to even feel any pity for them. The female characters, on the other hand, are the saving grace of the story and the actresses are terrific in their roles.

It's far from a typical storyline. Even with the narration, it's hard to say what the plot is, if there is one at all. The film has us enter and exit these characters lives at their most sad, desperate and difficult. Some will find it to be an insightful dark comedy while others will find it to be a pointless, drab drama that is frustrating to watch. The most bothersome aspect is the unsteady hand-held camera work, which comes and goes needlessly.

Listen Up Philip is like only reading the middle chapters of a novel. Fans of Noah Baumbach, Wes Anderson and Woody Allen's films may find a lot to enjoy here but if you're not a fan of character studies, this won't be for you.

I should be a perfect viewer for this movie. I know and care about the literary world and the characters portrayed in this film. Yet, I found it boring and pretentious.

The story telling style, the focus moving from one character to the other, the narration not quite connected to the screen image, the abrupt behaviors, the dizzying camera work and cutting all pointed to a director who wanted to make a showy splash; the jittery techniques of moving the story along overwhelmed the story itself. The tricks are not only not compelling, but they eventually become silly and boring.

Since the Philip character is intrinsically unlikeable, you would either have to hate him so much that you watch the movie to see him get his comeuppance or to laugh at him. But Philip is not that hateful and, while his ferocious self-centeredness might have been quite funny, the Philip character is just NOT funny. All the other characters are inadequately developed, so their self defeating behavior seems mysteriously motivated.

The performances are all superior. This actually makes thing worse, as the actors are all saying "something of importance is taking place here". This sense of importance is then sabotaged by gratuitous directorial razzle-dazzle and characters that will never change.

Thus, this film is not enlightening, not very funny, and not very interesting.

"I'm not 'successful,' I'm notable. And I'm not even notable—noteworthy, at best." Phillip (Jason Schwartzman)

Such is the direct, diffident, and off-putting novelist Phillip (Jason Schwartzman) in the smartly-written Listen Up Phillip. As the quote suggests, he is so solipsistic as to think only of himself anyway. But unlike the case of cranky Ben Stiller's Greenberg, I am fascinated by this misanthrope who keeps getting lovely girlfriends and interesting acquaintances. Such is the lot of an emerging artist.

Ashley Kane (Elisabeth Moss), a successful young photographer, lives with this sourpuss or rather endures his withering criticism of her and himself. Indeed, he brings self loathing to a new level. I like that honest but unkind attitude because I often have those thoughts but would never be as incorrect as to announce them (Ibsen's Wild Duck warns against total honesty—we all need a basic lie about ourselves). When my friends and I have a rollicking good time, it's mostly over sardonic assessments of ourselves, so I identify.

Jonathan Pryce is priceless as the once great Jewish author, Ike Zimmerman (both authors remind me of the anarchic, brilliant Phillip Roth; think of Ghost Writer). He takes Phillip under his wing, but he also has resentments masked by his equally blunt mien (the two are a great match, word for bitter word).

As in Roth's and Woody Allen's world, NYC is an ever present character. The authors try to avoid its magnetic influence by vacating to write. For sure, the city is a boon for creativity but a failure at production. I surely can understand how the city's cultural overload could compromise the best of literary intentions.

Witty writer/director Alex Ross Perry's Listen Up Phillip is as much about fulfilling one's artistry and making friends as it is about publishing. Nothing in NYC is easy, and if you're a narcissistic author, its downright brutal. Yet, as Ashley tells Phillip, "It's hot, you being mean." Only in NYC could being mean get girls.

Philip (Jason Schwartzman) is a mean-spirited, pompous writer, waiting the publication of his second novel so he can rub it in the faces of those like his ex-girlfriend, who either allegedly held him back or doubted his abilities. He is a miserable soul, with a quick ability to insult or belittle someone and never taking anyone's advice or ideas seriously. His relationship with his current girlfriend Ashley (Elisabeth Moss) is a shaky one, at that, with Ashley growing tired of Philip's morose qualities and his selfish ability to drop everything in his life, putting her life on hold, and taking different opportunities without even so much as mentioning them to her before his mind is made up. One day, one of Philip's greatest influences, Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce), one of the most prolific American authors of the 1970's, invites him to stay at his summer home with his daughter Melanie (Krysten Ritter), where he can hopefully find some tranquility in his life outside of all the mean-spiritedness that has long plagued him. But of course, Ike is just as bitter and cynical as Philip, so the two have their own kind of funny being bitter and cynical together, as Philip takes a low-rent job at a local liberal arts college teaching a creative writing seminar.

Alex Ross Perry's Listen Up Philip is a special film because it profiles a disgustingly mean character in such a way that doesn't derail the quality of the film nor make it an insufferable idea. To make a film centered around a soul who is simultaneously unhappy and absolutely contemptible is one of the hardest things in a dramatic film, in my opinion, because while you're depicting such an angry character you need to give audiences reasons to care or intriguing insights to appreciate. Perry does both, offering a look at a soul who has adopted a morose attitude by choice, and someone who wants to be known solely for his writing and not the kind of person he is in real life.

Jason Schwartzman is the ideal actor for Philip, as Schwartzman occupies a great sense of self-awareness as a performer. He can play a character who knows damn well he's being a smug, narcissistic snob yet almost leads you to believe he doesn't know he's being offensive or manipulative. Schwartzman's charm also lies in his ability to deadpan perfectly, capturing Perry's dry humor quite effectively. Perry also recognizes his supporting characters in a pleasantly different manner, as well, giving them several minutes at a time to grow from empty supporting characters to detailed ones, profiling both Ashley and Ike in their own separate sections of the film. During these sections, Perry shows how both characters are affected by Philip before and after he enters his life, and all of the emotions and feelings are handled nicely through the use of narration by Eric Bogosian, who does a nice job at adding the intellectual layer of thought to the film's premise.

As a writer, a lot of Philip's bitterness, for me, serves as the unconscious part of me that I won't allow be seen by others. The frustration, aggravation, and the heartbreak that brews as a result of exhaustion and dissatisfaction with the way you see other people either completely clueless or disinterested in general. Philip's unnerving attitude is by choice, however, and his active ostracizing of anyone who dare attempts to get close to him shows an insecurity of his own that makes for an interesting profile of a writer. Perry dares show that writers, while often provocative individuals who get us to contemplate a deeper side of life, can also be thoroughly incorrigible souls that can hurt those who try to get close to them or even are forced into having some sort of close relationship with them.

Some of the funniest and truest insights of the film come during the discussions Philip and Ike have, particularly when conversations drift and rift towards the idea of women. In one scene, the two men are walking along a college campus, with Philip admiring the beautiful, young women that litter the quad; "don't pay any mind to the attractive women over there; they want more than you're willing to give," Ike says in a statement of other truth. In another scene, when Philip is actively engaging in a bout of self-deprecation, as all good writers should, Ike calmly surmises, "Don't make yourself more miserable than you already are, that's what the women we love are for," in another statement of complete honesty. These kinds of insights make Listen Up Philip a film to recommend, as they offer the itemized thoughts and musings or writers in a way that allows viewers to penetrate the minds of one of the most perplexing subcultures.

Alex Ross Perry functions in the mumblecore subgenre of films, not necessarily in look, budget, and aesthetic practice, but in tone and focus, centering on troubled characters who can't stop talking and dialog heavily bent on naturalism. Listen Up Philip, for being a film about a vicious, mean-spirited character, manages to be a thoughtful exercise in profiling the conscious and mentality of writers.

Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, and Krysten Ritter. Directed by: Alex Ross Perry. Site Notes:

Philip Lewis Friedman (Jason Schwartzman) is a self-obsessed writer angry at everyone and everything. His new book is getting bad reviews. His girlfriend Ashley Kane (Elisabeth Moss) is tired of his antics. She finds companionship with her sister Holly (Jess Weixler) and a cat. Philip finds a new mentor in writer Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce) and he has a vacation home away from the city. Ike's daughter Melanie (Krysten Ritter) sees right through him.

Philip is a horribly tiresome character. It becomes a matter of how much of this annoying character one can truly take. I wouldn't call him an interesting ugly character either. He's simply an angry little selfish man. The Zimmermans aren't much better. Ashley is a much more compelling character. I'm really glad when the movie switches over to her story. Elisabeth Moss really hits it out of the park. If only this movie is about Ashley but it is not. It is sadly about Philip.