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Late Fame and the Bittersweet Poetry of Aging

I have met many a crusty old poet or author in the mould of Willem Dafoe’s Ed Saxberger in Late Fame -folks whose education back in the day was highbrow, for lack of a better word, but whose work has been fleeting or sporadic and live mostly mundane, down-to-earth lives where their literary credentials might be anonymous. A couple of them taught creative writing at the modest college I went to, others I have encountered through my local prairie literary festival. It is interesting to wonder what they make of their marginal connection to fame, if maybe they strived for something more akin to some of the great writers who no doubt inspired them.
Late Fame is directed by Kent Jones from a script by Samy Burch, who has fast become one of the most interesting screenwriters working today (her three film credits are her Oscar-nominated May December, Coyote vs. Acme, and this). It is based on a novella by classic Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler written in the 1890s but only published in 2014, and that early modern style is apparent in the film, through certain contexts -like a society of privileged young literary enthusiasts- and its themes on art and inspiration, legacy and regret. It has a certain tragic classical bent to its treatment of Ed, one that proves the concepts of Schnitzler and his contemporaries still holds weight more than a century later.
Ed Saxberger is an aging Manhattanite who works a mundane job in the post office and spends his off-time hanging out with a collection of friends at a pool bar. Back in the 1970s he moved to New York as an inspired poet, hobnobbed a little within the bohemian literary scene, and even published a book of poems called Way Past Go. But his writing pursuits weren’t sustained through either creative glut or lack of connections. Only now decades later he discovers a fan in a man called Meyers (Edmund Donovan), who invites him into his club of young writers. Chuffed at being admired, Ed indulges him, and though a bit out-of-pace with the group’s pompous attitudes and wealthy backgrounds, he partakes in the organizing of a public reading and even the mighty task of writing original material for it -in the process finding himself at a crossroads between ages and classes, as he silently reflects on and yearns for his younger days and missed opportunities.
It is a curious experience for Ed, who relishes in the interest everyone shows to him and his work (and a perhaps more intellectual bent to their conversations and tastes than his usual crowd), but he is also very conscious of being the old man in the group -in seeing the youth and promise of the “Enthusiasm Society” his past is reflected back to him and also how little actually came of it. And it is not quite clear what had ultimately happened in Ed’s life -whether he lost that spark of inspiration or simply ran against roadblocks in publishing other work. There is a suggestion something personal might have been involved -an underlying thread of the film focusing on calls he receives (and occasionally returns) from his sister about the deteriorating condition of their brother with whom Ed is estranged. In fact there is the inference of a starker disconnect with his family, he having moved to New York from Pennsylvania to be a poet and simply stayed for decades when it didn’t work out. Though he’s not necessarily struggling, he lives on a very lower income strand without a whole lot of drive or real joy in his life -there is a sense of stubborn pride that underpins his character.
And it is played with a wonderful humane subtlety by Dafoe -one of his most quietly engaging performances in years. He captures both the melancholy and alienation of this man, who wants to be the kind of person who fits in with this young crowd yet is conscious that he doesn’t and shouldn’t. A part of it is age, but it is also a life’s experience on a different social rung than them. Yet he goes along with their actions and ideas, pressured into committing to writing something new, and somewhat manipulated into a meeting with a publisher who has been led by  Meyers to believe he is working on an autobiography. However it is all different with Gloria (Greta Lee), a working actress who is a touch older than the rest and the sole woman of the group, and who really behaves like a bohemian of the time that Schnitzler would have written about. Because of this, Ed connects with her as another figure out of time and becomes enamoured. It is a very interesting character and dynamic, which Lee plays well as a kind of conscious take on the manic pixie dream girl. There is something earnest and heartfelt to their chemistry and I really appreciate the insinuation that Ed is aware of what it really is, accepting it whilst pining for more.
But this is of course also a movie about poetry, and Ed's relationship to it -what it means to be a poet- in coming back into that world after so long. He feels an impostor in the elder statesman role that is thrust on him by the group and suffers a difficulty in reconnecting with that poetic self, pressured at the image he has to live up to for both the society and himself. He can't reach that inspiration anymore, preoccupied with nostalgia and the bitter dread that he may have missed his time. It's an anxiety we can all relate to -certainly those of us above certain ages- that we missed our shot and it is too late to take it again. Ed is not the same person who wrote Way Past Go, though it is still a vital part of him -as exemplified when he does perform one of his old poems that connects sharply with the feelings of his recent weeks, as though he is in direct communion with his past. It is a terrific, moving performance in a stylistic neutrality contradictory to every other performer. He is too old for such shenanigans. He can only be true and raw.
The society don't really know who they are or what they are doing. Something that can't be said of Ed's other friends. Apart from age, there is also that important class distinction that puts Ed in a strange place -his intellectual interests aligning with his young admirers while his practical comfort zone is with his working-class friends, who are shocked to learn of his book and are quick to make fun of it. It's mean and insensitive but there is a lingering superiority complex that Ed appears to have, and which also seems connected to his fraught relationship with his family -it is a good explanation for why he is so partial to flattery. What's interesting is that his humbling comes largely from internal factors as his story moves along rather than some big moment of realization of the emptiness of his apparent "rediscovery".
If Ed can't find his genuine connection to his art, at least the audience can with Late Fame -one of the most fascinating movies about artists in recent years. You really feel the age of the story and themes (as well as the character) in the best way, and it is a stirring meditation on regret, recognition, and self-reflection. A beautiful performance from Dafoe, a captivating one from Lee. And an excellent movie that leaves you wiser perhaps than when it started.

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