Overview

• Director Kent Jones brings Samy Burch’s update of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1895 novella from Vienna to contemporary Manhattan.
• Willem Dafoe stars as Ed Saxberger, an overlooked poet newly embraced by a younger creative circle in New York.
• Greta Lee and Edmund Donovan co-star as key members of the group that helps revive Saxberger’s visibility.
• Early reviews describe a slice-of-life fable that contrasts past and present New York art worlds, with Dafoe’s naturalistic performance singled out.
• Jones recounts a chance five-hour plane conversation with Dafoe before casting and says he wrote the poem heard during Saxberger’s reading, while Variety reports Sandra Hüller exited due to scheduling before Lee joined.