Late Fame

A wonderfully introspective Willem Dafoe lends his delicate gravitas to the role of Ed Saxberger, a once-upon-a-time New York poet who has worked at a post office for nearly four decades, his work now largely forgotten. After an eager and flattering young fan (Edmund Donovan) appears on his doorstep one night, Saxberger is welcomed into a new coterie of twentysomething admirers who hope to make him the central figure in an emerging literary salon. Intoxicated by the attention--and the presence of the wannabe tragedienne Gloria (a sinuous, Kurt Weill-crooning Greta Lee)--Saxberger nevertheless must reckon with the authenticity of this newfound circle of aspirants. Kent Jones's thoughtful and marvelously witty second feature adapts Arthur Schnitzler's recently rediscovered novella Late Fame (in a sly, hugely entertaining script by Oscar-nominated May December writer Samy Burch), updating the Austrian writer's take on turn-of-the-century Vienna for a wistful yet unromantic look at a lost idea of downtown New York. -New York Film Festival https://youtu.be/FI_7PobKjt0