Late Fame

Dir: Kent Jones, US, 2026, Drama/Comedy.
Willem Dafoe, Greta Lee, Jake Lacy.
“Ed Saxberger is an amiable, unassuming New Yorker on the cusp of old age who works at the post office… In his youth, he published an anthology of poetry called Way Past Go, which caused barely a ripple… Then one day he is accosted outside his apartment by an NYU student, who explains that he stumbled across Way Past Go at a secondhand bookstore and was transported, blown away and could scarcely believe what he’d found… Saxberger is portrayed with a loose, warm-leather ease by Willem Dafoe… It’s a performance so natural it barely looks like acting at all… Meyers runs a salon of sorts, the Enthusiasm Society, and cajoles his idol into writing a piece to be performed at the group’s first public show. Saxberger hasn’t written in decades, doesn’t even see himself as a writer, but he is flattered by the attention and faintly dazzled by Gloria, who is a club singer by night and a resting actor by day… This one has stayed with me. It’s a lovely slice of life, a heartfelt New York story… Saxberger’s poetry is ecstatic and gritty in the style of Frank O’Hara, conjuring the sounds and flavours of the old New York, and the authentically voracious hunger of youth.” – Xan Brooks, The Guardian (UK)

Genre: Drama

Runtime: 96 min

Rating: 14A