Authorisation by Alex Ross Perry, USA 2014
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3093546/?ref_=fn_ft_tt_1
Philip is a 30-something novelist, about to publish his follow-up to his reasonably successful debut. Though the fact that he’s a published author has helped him get a decent apartment in New York and a loving girlfriend, his insecurity prompts him to alienate anyone around him, whether or not they supported him or no. He finds a mentor in the equally bitter former best-seller writer, struggling to make his comeback, but that doesn’t really help either of their personalities, nor their writing or management skills.
Jason Schwarztman plays the same role he always does, and is genuinely jerkassy towards all and sundry, including himself. It’s hard to sympathize, and thus easy to cheer for his girlfriend as she steadily acknowledges that she’s becoming his ex. Jonathan Pryce as the aging mentor is stellar. The film itself suffers from being very uneven; sometimes it’s just too much, or too boring, yet other times one gets completely invested in the happenings. The actual lines are remarkably well written, hovering just below the verge of sesquipedalian loquaciousness, but what else is there to expect when many of the characters are authors, and quite pretentious, at that?
Bechdel test: Fail
3 Laphroaig of 6
