After the success he scored with The Color Wheel, Alex Ross Perry could
finally afford to shoot a film on other than a shoestring budget. The result
was Listen Up Philip featuring dramatic Jason Schwartzman in a robust main
role and sublime Elisabeth Moss in a subtle supporting stunt.
Schwartzman plays a misanthropic and egocentric author who impatiently
awaits publication of his second book. In New York, he is unable to focus on
virtually anything anymore, so when his literary idol, Ike Zimmerman, offers
him a chance to spend some time in his isolated summer home, he grabs
it regardless of how his girlfriend Ashley may feel about it. Of course, his
abrupt departure nothing but deepens their crisis.
Based on a tightly written screenplay, the film paints a light-hearted but
simultaneously melancholic and somewhat nostalgic picture of the New
York artistic community.