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There’s something about Jason Schwartzman that I just don’t like. Granted, I’ve never met him, and I actually think we’d get along very well, but the characters he typically portrays all have this air of pretentiousness that I can never look past. However, for better or worse, Schwartzman knows how to take that archetype and run with it, very successfully I might add. For Listen Up Philip, it seems like his character is magnified tenfold.
Written and directed by Alex Ross Perry, Schwartzman stars as the titular Philip, an ego-centric writer awaiting the imminent release of his second novel. However, with the relationship with his girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss) failing, he finds solace in taking a small vacation at his idol’s (Jonathan Pryce) country home to get away from the rigors of the city and his public life to focus on himself, the one thing he may actually enjoy in life.
Listen Up Philip will be in theaters on October 17th. You can read the film’s synopsis below.
A complex, intimate, and highly idiosyncratic comedy, Listen Up Philip is a literary look at the triumph of reality over the human spirit. Anger rages in Philip (Jason Schwartzman) as he awaits the publication of his sure-to-succeed second novel. He feels pushed out of his adopted home city by the constant crowds and noise, a deteriorating relationship with his photographer girlfriend Ashley (Elisabeth Moss), and his indifference to promoting his own work. When Philip’s idol Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce) offers his isolated summer home as a refuge, he finally gets the peace and quiet to focus on his favorite subject — himself.