Dafoe delivers award-worthy turn in contemplative look at youth, art, and aging
Based purely on its trailer, you’d be forgiven for thinking Late Fame is some sort of smug takedown of pretentious Gen Z and young millennials, something along the lines of Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young. To be sure, the film does satirize a certain type of intellectual wannabe, but its ribbing is much more gentle and empathetic than you might imagine from the trailer, which includes some of the more overt bits of skewering. Unlike Baumbach’s picture, Late Fame has a fondness and a forgiveness for all its characters, despite—or maybe because of—their flaws. It also features a career-best performance from Willem Dafoe, which is reason enough to see this beautifully rendered, evocative meditation on the enthusiasm of youth, the drive of the artistic temperament, the melancholy of growing older, and the intersection of all three. Continue reading “Film Review: “Late Fame””
Top 10 lists are notoriously subjective, of course; one fan’s “best” can easily be another’s “worst.” To be included on my Top 10 Films of the Year list, a film has to do two things: affect me profoundly while watching it, and stay in my thoughts long after the credits roll. Below are my ten favorite films of 2019 that meet that criteria. You can also check out my list from last year