LATE FAME
(director: Kent Jones; screenwriter: Samy Burch; cinematographer: Wyatt Garfield; editor: Mike Selemon; music: Don Fleming; cast: Willem Dafoe (Ed Saxberger), Greta Lee (Gloria), Edmund Donovan (Wilson Meyers), Jake Lacy (Harrison), Clark Johnson (Arnold), Tony Torn (Paulie), Clay Singer (Brussard), Arthur Langlie (Carmichael), Graham Campbell (Sherfey), Luca Padovan (Winn), Daniel Oreskes (Hank), Stephen Badalamenti (Irv), William Hill (Leonard); Runtime: 96; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Pamela Koffler, Mason Plotts, Christine Vachon, Danny Roberts, H.S. Naji, Jackie Langelier; Killer Films; 2025)
“Low-key melancholy drama about being an artist.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Kent Jones (“Diane”/”Hitchcock/Truffaut”), a former movie critic, directs with aplomb this low-key melancholy drama about being an artist. It’s based on the 19th century short story “Late Fame” by the Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler and is adapted to the screen by the writer Samy Burch.
Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe) is a middle-aged postal worker who as a young man wrote an anthology of poetry called Way Past Go that was published, but was soon forgotten without making any fanfare. After working at other things to survive, he forgot about being a poet and now lives without recognition in an affordable apartment building in NYC.
One night, he’s approached outside his building by a friendly young aspiring writer, Wilson Meyers (Edmund Donovan), who lives off his father’s money. He has read Ed’s poetry book and admires him. Meyers uses his boyish charm to get him to meet with a group of his young artist friends and one female member, an ostentatious actress/singer named Gloria (Greta Lee), in a salon he runs for his so-called Enthusiasm Society. They are all eager to show Ed how much they appreciate him as an artist, but he doesn’t know how to react to them except to look bemused. They urge him to write a new poem for them to perform on the club stage in the hope that will revitalize poetry readings in the city.
The wannabe poets have the wrong approach to art, while Ed they believe ran with the old poets and can show them the way.
When Ed reads his new poem, we see he’s the true artist.
The story flattens out at the mid point, giving us irritating moral lessons. But despite its many missteps over its uneven script, the film moved me by showing the city as a cultural haven and what the journey might be for a poet to go through if he tries to make it on his own.
There were wonderful things that stuck with me long after watching the film. Dafoe as always was great, while Greta Lee and Edmund Donovan turned in pleasing performances.
It played at the Venice Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 11/5/2025 GRADE: B
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