In “Listen Up Philip,” the tiny fury of Jason Schwartzman suggests his “Rushmore” character is now 15 years older and a middling Brooklyn novelist. His deadpan misanthropy is good for some acerbic laughs in a movie that starts appealingly but gradually comes to seem closed and stuck.

In writer-director Alex Ross Perry’s third film, Philip is an arrogant, yet self-loathing, creative type who can’t quite sustain a relationship with his girlfriend (Elisabeth Moss) and retreats upstate to be cosseted by a famous older novelist (Jonathan Pryce) who encourages his bad behavior.

Alas, Perry (whose influences include Noah Baumbach, Wes Anderson and Philip Roth) isn’t heading anywhere in particular; may his next film develop a story worthy of his angular wit.