Late Fame

Poetry used to be widely read. It was considered important. Now, when most people don’t read it, poets may justifiably feel nostalgic about the days when intellectuals gathered in Greenwich Village coffee houses and wrote poems.  It’s been idealized, and in the new comedy-drama Late Fame, it’s a subject of wistful satire. Willem Dafoe plays Ed Saxberger, an older man living in lower Manhattan who has worked at the post office for the past 36 years. He is single, and his life outside of work seems to consist of hanging out at the local bar playing pool with other guys from…