The In Crowd

There was no shortage of cool at Thursday’s New York Film Festival screening of Listen Up Philip. The dramedy, which tells the story of a narcissistic and often cruel literary star, brought together a tight-knit cast of indie talents (Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Kate Lyn Sheil, Josephine de la Baume, and Dree Hemingway). Their on-screen chemistry didn’t come out of thin air: director Alex Ross Perry, editor Robert Greene, cinematographer Sean Price Williams, and Sheil all met while working at the East Village store Kim’s Video, setting the tone for the remainder of the cast to become fast friends. “It was like a little family basically,” explained de la Baume, who was dressed head-to-toe in Olympia Le-Tan. The evening’s funny, chummy mood did not stop Ross Perry from expressing his gratitude for the actors’ work. “When someone like Jason or Elisabeth [Moss] or Jonathan Pryce or anybody puts their faith in a guy like me who’s never made a movie with professionals, it’s a real vote of confidence,” he said humbly. Schwartzman, wearing a Prada suit and his “lucky” Kenzo tie, stuck by his initial reaction to Ross Perry’s script. “It was so perplexing and uncomfortable to read that I found I couldn’t stop reading it,” he said. “It was only when it was over that I began to laugh and find the humor in it.”