Listen Up Philip

     The last film I saw for Sundance 2014 was director, Alex Ross Perry's, third feature film: LISTEN UP PHILIP.  Arising early for this 8:30 showing, I was on an extreme edge to be enlightened by the sarcastic wit and talent that only actors like Elisabeth Moss and Jason Schwartzman can deliver.  But, movies have a funny way of surprising you, and not always for the better.  This was, unfortunately, one of those times.
     This was probably the first film that I have been exposed to with a completely voiced over narrative.  Perry felt that emotions of the mind can only told, not showed, which resulted in an adult form of a picture book.  Instead of the audience imposing their own meaning on the actions of the characters, they were directly informed of what was happening with a droning monologue of convoluted and, at times, pretentious vocabulary.  And to top it off, every male character was entitled, emotionally disconnected, white, and rich.
     Philip (Schwartzman) begins the story with an attempt to get his second novel published in a wide and mainstream pool of recognition.  Shortly after, he teams up with popular culture writer of the late sixties and seventies, Ike (played by Jonathan Pryce--a non-surprising role), where the two spend the entirety of the film feeding off of each other's narcissism and mediocre success.  Nothing really ever happens in LISTEN UP PHILIP except for watching these two men antagonize and belittle everyone around them, especially the women in their life.  They are incapable of love, even for themselves, which allows them to spiral endlessly into loneliness and self-deprecation.  And even though the women who come the closest to experiencing their love (Elisabeth Moss, Krysten Ritter, and Josephine de La Baume) were almost just as pathetic, since they kept trying to give their hearts to men who clearly should not and could not reciprocate the feeling.  There were very few moments of redemption and you certainly couldn't help laughing at the way Philip spoke so freely to people, but no matter how hard you tried, there was no way to save Philip from the world of depressing crass that he had created for himself.  And, of course, this is how it ended.
     But what was most fascinating, perhaps, is that the Q&A after the film with the director, illuminated the serious relation between him and the main character.  In fact, he almost confessed that the majority of the film was autobiographical, a concept that I don't believe even Perry had realized until his arrival at Sundance.  He wanted to write a piece that would expose those who lived their lives in a self-serving manner--and it certainly excelled as an artistic work of expression.  However, I walked away from the whole event feeling depressed that there are people who choose this to be their story.