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Listen Up Philip
USA 2014
produced by Joshua Blum, Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, David Lowery, Katie Stern, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos (executive) for Sailor Bear, Washington Square Films, Faliro House Productions
directed by Alex Ross Perry
starring Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Krysten Ritter, Joséphine de La Baume, Jonathan Pryce, Jess Weixler, Dree Hemingway, Keith Poulson, Kate Lyn Sheil, Yusef Bulos, Maité Alina,Daniel London, Samantha Jacober, Lee Wilkof, Joanne Tucker, Steven Boyer, Teddy Bergman, Craig Butta, Rachel Oyama, Babs Olusanmokun, Riley O'Bryan, Alexandra Neil, Francis Benhamou, Damaris Lewis, Carme Boixadera, Brian Ceballo, Rob Yang, Christine Chang, Craig Grant, Aja Dier, Sofiya Akilova, Brandy Burre, Flo Ankah, Marcus Callender, Christine Lin, Eric Bogosian (voice)
written by Alex Ross Perry, music by Keegan DeWitt
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Philip (Jason Schwartzman) is nothing but an arrogant asshole, too full
of himself to really let anyone into his life - but he also is a writer
whose first novel has become a bestseller and his second novel is
promising to say the least, so the New York art scene flocks to him all
the same. And even his publisher pussyfoots around him, accepts when he
cancels a reading tour, and tries to go out of his way for Philip. Philip
even has a girlfriend, Ashley (Elisabeth Moss), a successful photographer
in her own right, but if it's up to him, it's only he who dictates the
terms in their relationship, something she's less and less likely to
accept. Then he meets Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce), a brilliant veteran
writer but just like Philip an antisocial bastard - even if Ike has toned
these tendencies down over the years. Philip and Ike get along splendidly,
and before long, Ike becomes Philip's mentor and invites him to spend time
- lots of time in fact - in his house in the country, even if (or just
because) his daughter Melanie (Krysten Ritter) thinks little of Philip.
Later Ike also gets Philip a chair at a college upstate, where he is to
teach "creative writing", but proves to be as much of an asshole
with his students as with everyone else ... and the youngsters find this
fascinating. He also starts an affair with a French professor (Joséphine
de La Baume), but mainly because she didn't like him at all in the
beginning, and he wanted to prove something to himself. Philip's
extended absence from her home and life prompts Ashley to take her life
into her own hands, to by and by remove all traces of his existence from
her home, and when he finally returns, she has come far enough to not even
let him in anymore. Listen Up Philip is an interesting,
at times also humourous, portrayal of the New York art scene and
especially certain "brilliant" artists who lack any social
skills and are still the center of attention for unknown reasons - and the
character of Philip is pretty well-written (and well-portrayed by Jason
Schwartzman) inasmuch as he isn't characterized as just a brute but an
actually very vulnerable human being who is unable to give back to those
who try to help him. As a whole though, the film is less than perfect,
basically it seems to be just a string of events with little to no
structure to it and Philip's character is given little chance to actually
evolve. Still, totally watchable, as it is made out of many good
situations, just a bit lacking on the storytelling side.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
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