'Late Fame' A Review

Late Fame is a drama about NYC poet turned mailman Ed Saxberger(Willem Dafoe) who is "re-discovered" by a trust-fund would-be artist Meyers(Edmund Donovan) and his affluent group of friends that includes the mysterious actress Gloria(Greta Lee).

Dafoe is always watchable(as he is here) but the character is so kind of obvious, oblivious, and thin, the script so upper-class arts-school thesis-project there's nothing he can do. Donovan is both interesting and funny as is Lee but neither can really contend with how bludgeoningly undergraduate the whole affair is.

Shot on location in NYC the place at least feels authentic, unfortunately seemingly every other aspect does not. For a movie about a poet there's very little poetry, for a movie about artists there's very little art, the whole thing just feels very flat, uninspired, and predictable. It comes across as written by someone who's lead a privileged life trying to tell a story about a struggle they have only fantasized about.

An insult to poetry and poets.

Currently in theaters.

Don't See It.