PARK CITY– Picture Jason Schwartzman’s hyper-verbal, overconfident teen from “Rushmore” 15 years later and afflicted with a grumpy “Greenberg” streak and you’ll see where Alex Ross Perry’s third feature “Listen Up Philip” is heading.
Schwartzman’s title figure is an often hilariously angry novelist who is enjoying some success but can’t control the internal petty rage that the actor conveys with his trademark deadpan. Elisabeth Moss is his exasperated girlfriend, Jonathan Pryce a leonine elder statesman of letters who enables his misbehavior and Eric Bogosian is the omniscient narrator a la “Royal Tenenbaums,” a film that also comes to mind when Perry presents s adorable shots of vintage mock book covers.
Despite the almost shamelessly derivative nature of the piece, I mostly enjoyed it, especially in the early going when Schwartzman’s self-destructive rants are fresh. They do grow a bit stale, and the literally and figuratively unfocused work (shot in annoying verite style complete with blurry moments) gets stuck in a rut with too many scenes of boys misbehaving while the women get little to do but react and be generally appalled. Perry’s sharp wit saves many a scene, though, and if the cynical novelist is a familiar figure Philip is more entertaining than not. I hope the film attracts enough notice to earn Perry a shot to make a more polished and original work with more narrative momentum.