In 'Late Fame,' a forgotten poet is rediscovered by fans, who upend his life

For each actor, musician, writer and creator who has go a affluent and enduring celebrity, exponentially much of them person enjoyed a brief, shining moment, ne'er to beryllium heard of again. What separates those who past from those who slice away? Is it luck, talent, drive, destiny? All of the above?

It’s an intriguing question that whitethorn person nary definitive answer, but 1 that manager Kent Jones (2018’s acclaimed “Diane”) and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Samy Burch (“May December”) lovingly and lyrically see successful the often first-rate “Late Fame.” The movie is based connected an 1895 novella by Arthur Schnitzler (also writer of the publication that became “Eyes Wide Shut”), which went unpublished until 2014.

A softly captivating Willem Dafoe plays Ed Saxberger, a New York station bureau seasoned of 37 years successful a seemingly satisfying if decidedly low-key existence. For him, it’s work, past possibly a crippled of excavation with his blue-collar buddies astatine a section barroom (though he’s six years sober) and a solo instrumentality to his Greenwich Village walk-up.

That is, until 1 night, he’s approached extracurricular his flat gathering by a somewhat affected but seemingly earnest young antheral who goes by his past name, Meyers (Edmund Donovan). With his elevated speech, tony aerial and throwback attire, he’s similar idiosyncratic from different era; you could spot him arsenic 1 of Jay Gatsby’s pals oregon a bon vivant who drops by connected “Downton Abbey.”

Meyers proceeds to archer an astonished Ed that he’s a immense instrumentality of his long-forgotten 1979 poesy postulation entitled “Way Past Go,” the postal worker’s fleeting brushwood with literate success. “They conscionable slap you crossed the look with their benignant and with their relevancy,” extols Meyers of the poems. “They’re timeless.”

Really, what writer, nary substance however detached from their past, could defy that benignant of saccharine talk?

A meet-up with Meyers’ “artistic community,” a ellipse of alleged intellectuals known arsenic the Enthusiasm Society, leads Ed to humbly dip a toed backmost into his vanished originative side. He’s not unaware that Meyers’ mostly 20-something antheral friends person — similar galore — romanticized the gritty wantonness of little Manhattan’s bygone literate country and possibly Ed’s tenuous spot successful it. They mightiness beryllium poseurs tossing astir references to Ginsberg and Bukowski, but the invited mat the radical offers Ed is enticing and inspiring.

Still, a sojourn to Meyers’ sleek apartment, admittedly paid for by his parents, confirms for Ed the benignant of youthful privilege astatine play here, truthful dissimilar the scrappier downtown bohemia of his ain creator heyday.

The chaotic paper successful the Society is Gloria (Greta Lee, dazzlingly good), an impish sprite who’s hard to pin down. Is she truly a moving signifier actor? Ed gets swept up successful her performative antics and elusive, larger-than-life allure. (She’s older than her chap Society members but decades younger than Ed.) When they make a teasing flirtation, it’s 1 of the little credible turns here, fixed however authentic Ed is — and however dubious she appears (though immoderate information connected that beforehand volition aboriginal unfold).

This tilt toward Gloria causes the movie to suffer its mode a bit, pulling absorption from the much perchance captious mentor-disciple dynamic betwixt Ed and the anxious, navel-gazing Meyers. Plus, Donovan is fantabulous here, truthful little of him is, well, less.

That said, there’s a bravura second-act country that finds Gloria performing an impassioned mentation of the 1929 Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill torch opus “Surabaya Johnny” for an appreciative cabaret audience, 1 that includes a rapt Ed. It verifies Gloria’s singing endowment and proves a cleanable lucifer for her showy, cagey persona: the emotion kid of Marlene Dietrich and Sally Bowles.

If the communicative has a done line, it concerns the readying and execution of an evening of unrecorded readings from the Society’s works, with a caller poem from Ed arsenic its centerpiece. A fewer of the obstacles layered successful — Ed’s conflict to constitute and immoderate show-night property conflicts — consciousness a tad obligatory. But the lawsuit itself has its precocious points, including the portion Ed yet reads.

In addition, an awkward gathering betwixt Ed and a creaseless literate cause (Jake Lacy), on with a mini-subplot involving telephone calls from Ed’s frustrated sister astir their dying brother, travel disconnected somewhat wedged in. Not overmuch payoff there.

No matter. There’s contented and extent to the film’s themes of increasing old, dashed dreams and the magic of rediscovery, positive a deliciously ironic last twist. Jones manages his superb formed with aplomb and cinematographer Wyatt Garfield evocatively captures little Manhattan’s wintry, burnished glow.