For every actor, musician, writer and artist who has become a wealthy and enduring celebrity, exponentially more of them have enjoyed a brief, shining moment, never to be heard of again. What separates those who last from those who fade away? Is it luck, talent, drive, destiny? All of the above?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an intriguing question that may have no definitive answer, but one that director Kent Jones (2018\u2019s acclaimed \u201cDiane\u201d<\/a>) and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Samy Burch (\u201cMay December\u201d<\/a>) lovingly and lyrically consider in the often first-rate \u201cLate Fame.\u201d The film is based on an 1895 novella by Arthur Schnitzler (also author of the book that became \u201cEyes Wide Shut\u201d<\/a>), which went unpublished until 2014.<\/p>\n A quietly captivating Willem Dafoe plays Ed Saxberger, a New York post office veteran of 37 years in a seemingly satisfying if decidedly low-key existence. For him, it\u2019s work, then maybe a game of pool with his blue-collar buddies at a local bar (though he\u2019s six years sober) and a solo return to his Greenwich Village walk-up. <\/p>\n That is, until one night, he\u2019s approached outside his apartment building by a somewhat affected but seemingly earnest young man who goes by his last name, Meyers (Edmund Donovan). With his elevated speech, tony air and throwback attire, he\u2019s like someone from another era; you could see him as one of Jay Gatsby\u2019s pals or a bon vivant who drops by on \u201cDownton Abbey.\u201d<\/p>\n Meyers proceeds to tell an astonished Ed that he\u2019s a huge fan of his long-forgotten 1979 poetry collection entitled \u201cWay Past Go,\u201d the postal worker\u2019s fleeting brush with literary success. \u201cThey just slap you across the face with their style and with their relevancy,\u201d extols Meyers of the poems. \u201cThey\u2019re timeless.\u201d<\/p>\n Really, what writer, no matter how detached from their past, could resist that kind of sweet talk?<\/p>\n A meet-up with Meyers\u2019 \u201cartistic community,\u201d a circle of so-called intellectuals known as the Enthusiasm Society, leads Ed to humbly dip a toe back into his vanished creative side. He\u2019s not unaware that Meyers\u2019 mostly 20-something male friends have \u2014 like many \u2014 romanticized the gritty abandon of lower Manhattan\u2019s bygone literary scene and perhaps Ed\u2019s tenuous place in it. They might be poseurs tossing around references to Ginsberg and Bukowski, but the welcome mat the group offers Ed is enticing and inspiring.<\/p>\n Still, a visit to Meyers\u2019 sleek apartment, admittedly paid for by his parents, confirms for Ed the kind of youthful privilege at play here, so unlike the scrappier downtown bohemia of his own artistic heyday.<\/p>\n