Alex Ross Perry is used to critics calling his characters unlikeable. Over the course of seven films released in the past ten years, the prolific 34-year-old writer-director has established himself as one of modern independent cinema?s preeminent chroniclers of massively self-involved and self-destructive people. (Somehow, this tendency landed him a job writing the 2018 box-office hit Christopher Robin for Disney.) While Perry has attracted an array of A-list talent to his micro-budgeted projects ? including frequent collaborators like Jason Schwartzman and Elisabeth Moss ? his work seems designed to repel viewers who are accustomed to conventionally amiable protagonists.