46/100

"Ike's time with Philip had been rejuvenating," intones Eric Bogosian's narrator roughly midway through the film, "restoring a sense of pride and vitality that the man at one point subsided solely upon."

That's nonsensical, but you can easily see how Perry confused "subsided" with "subsisted." A mistake anyone could make, though it's surprising that it wasn't caught by Bogosian (assuming it's not his error), or by editor Robert Greene, or by any of the people who presumably read the screenplay before filming began. Not a big deal, really. Tell me more, o omniscient one!

"When Philip departed in late August for the college, Ike was remiss to find himself backsliding into a familiar pattern of boredom and tedium."

That's…

Midway through watching this, my girlfriend shuddered audibly. "Remember that John Waters line about how if someone throws up during one of his movies, it's like a standing ovation?" I said. "Well, this is a cringe comedy."

This is a deftly written movie, both on the micro level of lines and punchlines within hostile conversations, and in terms of macro plotting, with character arcs dovetailing or ricocheting across jagged chronologies. Philip's story is one of history repeating itself, as the title character's break-ups echo his own past break-ups as well as those of his mentor Ike, who's tutoring him in the art of being a little shit. Meanwhile, women like Ike's daughter Melanie and Philip's almost-ex-girlfriend Ashley try to break…

I'd heard of Alex Ross Perry, I think maybe around the time when Christopher Robin was released, but I wasn't familiar with his work. Actually, I'm not really sure where I'd first heard of him, and honestly, I probably wouldn't have discovered this film if it wasn't about to leave streaming.

As for this movie, I didn't know what to expect from it. And now that I've finished watching it, I feel even more perplexed by its impact. It doesn't really have a storyline or structure, so to say. It's more so a peek into the everyday life of Phillip—played by Jason Schwartzman—a relentlessly abrasive writer, who's always bitter and arrogant in his demeanor. The opening sequence has him berate…

I apologize for the recent briefness of my reviews, as things have been very hectic with the coming of the end of the semester and all, but I feel I have to drop at least a paragraph on Listen Up Philip to properly express how much I enjoyed this film. From it's unlikable yet slightly lovable characters to its playful critique of the literary world and its inhabitants, almost, almost reaching the heights of a highly effective and hysterical self-parody, yet I'm not entirely sure that's verbalizing it correctly. Either way, the laughs are there... but I wasn't expecting this film to deliver the goods on the dramatic side of things as well as it did, particularly some of the…

a nasty, fierce and depressive Woody Allen derivative. tough watch to have to follow proper asshole Schwartzman and his god awful shtick. the first review on here is ranting about the apparent mistakes in language that seem to be plenty. no idea what's accurate about that criticism as I'm no native speaker, but that would hint towards massive pretentiousness, which is nothing too hard to believe. just like with Woody self-deprecation, -aggrandizement and -delusion are often part of the same batch.

Jonathan Pryce is a nice add-on but an equally horrible man, just heavily aged. Elizabeth Moss isn't particularly more engaging, but Perry loves her, you can tell. there's tons of attractive ladies running around here (Rytter, de la Baume,…