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Late Fame

Late Fame

Director – Kent Jones – 2025 – US – Cert. 15 – 96m

*****

A reclusive New York postal worker who published volumes of poetry years ago becomes involved with a contemporary circle of rich young writers and creatives – out in UK and Ireland cinemas on Friday, September 4th

New York postal worker Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe) lives a quiet life, with a regular, once a week night out playing pool with his mates. He regularly gets answerphone messages from his sister telling him his brother doesn’t have long left to live, and he really should come and visit before it’s too late.

Minding his own business, he’s walking through the park when he’s accosted by a young man. It emerges that Saxberger published volumes of poetry in the 1970s, and while never commercially successful, he is held in high regard by those who pay attention to such things. The young man takes a chance and invites Ed to a meeting of writers, poets and actors. Ed, flattered, says, why not?

So it is that Ed finds himself attending meetings of this artistic circle, run by Meyers (Edmund Donovan from Civil War, Alex Garland, 2024) which consists mainly of young rich kids whose parents are funding them.… Read the rest

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Features Live Action Movies

Driving Mum
(Á Ferð Með Mömmu)

Director – Hilda Oddsson – 2023 – Iceland, Estonia – Cert. 12a – 112m

****1/2

After his mum dies, a man must honour her last wish by driving her to her final resting place… On the way, she talks to him… – out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 1st

The 1980s. Jón (Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson) lives with his mother (Kristbjörg Kjeld) and his faithful dog Brezhnev in a remote part of rural Iceland. Days are spent sitting in the house knitting sweaters and listening to the radio – actually audio cassette recordings of the radio which run out in mid-sentence. These are periodically received in batches in boxes from a visiting trader in a boat in exchange for Jon and his mum’s home-knitted sweaters. Mum regrets never having been to Gullfoss, and Jon points out it’s unlikely to happen now. He is also a keen amateur photographer who operates his own darkroom. Rightly or wrongly, his mum worries about how he will survive after she’s gone.

One morning, he wakes to discover she has died in her sleep. He makes her corpse up as best he can, which leaves much to be desired, since her resultant look is somewhere between a clown and a zombie.… Read the rest