10 Essential 2015 Movies You Might've Missed (So Far)

4. Listen Up Philip

Llisten Up Philip is something of a celebration of the misanthrope, with the titular writer Philip Louis Friedman (Jason Schwartzmann) rarely letting up in his absolutely scathing condemnation of virtually everything he encounters. Just when you think things can't get any more bitter and abrasive, he meets Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce in perhaps the best role you'll see him in for some time), a once-successful author whom Philip utterly admires to the point of wanton emulation. Like Philip, Zimmerman is a pretentious asshole to the core, forever condescending and convinced of his unfailing talent, regardless of the fact his career has been stalled for years. Alex Ross Perry writes and directs these completely unsympathetic characters without sentimentalising them - it's a scathing, frequently hilarious portrait of narcissists coming undone by their own arrogance and refusing to acknowledge that anything bad that happens to them could be in any way their own fault.