Listen Up Philip

I found my first experience with an Alex Ross Perry movie most agreeable. Listen Up Philp has all the ingredients for an excruciating feature film experience: Insistent, too tight, handheld camera, hipsters, an omniscient narrator, Jason Schwartzman, I could go on. But this little gem of a picture instantly won me over because Schwartzman plays the type of blissfully arrogant character I love in films, and this movie features not just one such character but two!

Schwartzman plays the titular young novelist awaiting the publication of his sophomore effort, but promoting that second book may be beneath him. He's also tired of his romantic relationship with photographer Ashley (Elisabeth Moss) and is no longer enjoying New York because it is such a noisy and inconvenient city. When Philip’s literary idol, Ike Zimmerman, offers his isolated summer home to Philip, the young genius is finally able to focus on himself, his opinions, and his needs.

The great Jonathan Pryce plays Zimmerman, an author in the mold of Philp Roth and his post-war, white male contemporaries, and the movie delves into the internalized world of such writers in a unique and impressive way. The movie has the energy and vibe of early '90s indie cinema; think Hal Hartly, Whit Stillman, and Spike Lee. This aesthetic is helped by cinematographer Sean Price Williams, who shoots everything in zoomed-in, handheld, super 16mm, and because Perry clearly draws inspiration from those filmmakers and the filmmakers that inspired them—Scorsese, Cassavetes, etc. The movie is intentionally rough in terms of its visual and editorial style. It's almost as if Perry is trying to be off-putting with his directorial hand. Still, everything is of a piece, and we can't help but sit rapped in the details of this nasty little indie comedy.