Listen Up Philip
Directed by: Alex Ross Perry
Written by: Alex Ross Perry
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Krysten Ritter, Joséphine de La Baume, Jonathan Pryce, Jess Weixler, Dree Hemingway
Drama - 108 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 5 Nov 2014
Written by: Alex Ross Perry
Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Krysten Ritter, Joséphine de La Baume, Jonathan Pryce, Jess Weixler, Dree Hemingway
Drama - 108 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 5 Nov 2014
The eponymous Philip in Listen Up Philip is a smug novelist who becomes enamored with a legendary novelist who takes a liking to Philip’s work and makes him a protégé. Either to emphasize their literary credentials or to help establish a literary atmosphere, the characters speak in elevated prose and are also carried along by narrator Eric Bogosian who propels us forward with frequent, lengthy speeches. Listen Up Philip is an intriguing experiment testing the audience with a unlikeable main character; a guy we would never hang out with in real life because it would only take a moment or two before he would provoke an expletive. The film’s intellectual conversations are enjoyable to follow but Alex Ross Perry's experiment is not strong enough to recommend Philip.
Influenced by William Gaddis’s The Recognitions, where the main character disappears for 700 pages so the reader may read about the supporting characters’ reactions to his absence, Listen Up Philip excuses the main character for a good half hour or so, but it is nothing as drastic as 700 pages. The audience is not meant to root for Philip (Jason Schwartzman, 2014's The Grand Budapest Hotel), and you most resolutely will not, but there is a fine line here. Writer/director Alex Ross Perry does not want Philip to be unwatchable. Any and all problems he has are a direct result of his insufferability and selfish tendencies. Philip eviscerates an ex-girlfriend at a catch-up lunch rubbing her nose in his new book, he squabbles with the photographer taking his book jacket picture, and thrills his publisher by telling them he won’t do any press for the new book.
Influenced by William Gaddis’s The Recognitions, where the main character disappears for 700 pages so the reader may read about the supporting characters’ reactions to his absence, Listen Up Philip excuses the main character for a good half hour or so, but it is nothing as drastic as 700 pages. The audience is not meant to root for Philip (Jason Schwartzman, 2014's The Grand Budapest Hotel), and you most resolutely will not, but there is a fine line here. Writer/director Alex Ross Perry does not want Philip to be unwatchable. Any and all problems he has are a direct result of his insufferability and selfish tendencies. Philip eviscerates an ex-girlfriend at a catch-up lunch rubbing her nose in his new book, he squabbles with the photographer taking his book jacket picture, and thrills his publisher by telling them he won’t do any press for the new book.
Philip is not evil; he is just an asshole. His relationship with girlfriend Ashley (Elisabeth Moss, 2014’s The One I Love) is a bit more nebulous. There are hints of professional rivalry where she was the successful partner with the promising photography career and now he is usurping the role of apartment alpha dog. In Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce, 2013's G.I. Joe: The Retaliation), the aged famous novelist who takes Philip under his wing, Philip meets himself in 30-40 years. They are psychological kin complete with unrelenting casual insults.
Philip craves honesty and thinks the only real words are harsh; otherwise, they are fake. Philip doesn’t do small talk; there are too may of your failures and peccadillos to point out first. If Philip continues along this path, the film, lacking subtlety, shows us how he will turn out, like Ike. Ike pours his friend the 25 year-old scotch but blatantly, Philips gets the 10 year-old. Philip has only written two novels of course. The theme of hero worship pops up between Philip and Ike and we are supposed to wonder if Philip will absorb all of Ike’s misanthropic and bitter tendencies; however, it already looks like Philip is well on his way there without Ike’s help.
Filmed with a handheld shaky cam, supposedly to show more raw emotion between Philip and Ashley or Philip and Ike, it comes off more annoying rather than adding any further feeling to the scenes. There are close-up shots where the actors’ faces fill almost the entire frame. Wouldn’t want them steady now would we? One noticeable bit of fun is the art direction on the fictional book jackets of Ike’s previous work from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. The book jackets are an homage to what book jackets used to look like; Listen Up Philip’s movie poster also nods in a similar direction.
I wanted to enjoy Listen Up Philip more than I actually was. The dialogue is witty and even though we aren’t supposed to care about almost all of the characters, they are fun to watch. I can think of no other actor more suited to play to Philip. His dry and serious delivery is borrowed from a combination of his Wes Anderson roles. Here’s hoping Perry’s next film is just as interesting as Listen Up Philip with a bit less overt gimmickry.
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