As retirement beckons, "Ed" (Willem Dafoe) lives a pretty routine life sorting the mail during the day and meeting his friends in the bar for a game of pool after dinner. Returning home one evening he is approached by the slightly obsequious "Meyers" (Edmund Donovan) who knows that he has quite a literary past and whom is in awe of this erstwhile poet. "Ed" is flattered - it's been quite a while since anyone took any interest in his work, so after a few subsequent chats he agrees to accompany this young man to a local bar where his disparate group of aspiring creatives are just as in awe of "Saxberger". He is not alone is garnering their adulation, though, as the enigmatic actress "Gloria" (Greta Lee) hoves into view and succeeds in tantalising the older man whilst simultaneously winding up her purported boyfriend "Carmichael" (Arthur Langlie). Might these kids have managed to finally bring "Ed" from his cocoon of repetitive safety? Is he remotely prepared for the consequences when their appreciation of who has was starts to become an expection of who he is, or might be? Well we are about to find out as they decide to rent some theatre space and put on some recitals. "Ed" is to be top of the bill; "Gloria" is proving not to be quite what everyone expected and the stresses and strains of the organisation are testing the patience of the usually unflappable "Meyers". There is something remarkably powerful about not just Dafoe's understated performance but from the underlying critique of mankind's increasing reliance on technology to do all of our thinking for us - routine or creative. The writing provides us with sparingly conversational dialogue that shies, often only just, from simply sending up the pomposity of the kids from well-heeled families whose real life experiences could hardly be called tough, and by contrasting their often quite naive views with their more stoic and cynical older friend it manages to establish a scenario that's poignant, occasionally quite witty, but ultimately thought provoking - even if those it sets squarely in it's sights will no more watch a film like this than read any book of poetry let alone attend a reading. It's not trying to offer solutions, merely to identify and contrast how attitudes have changed over time, how the concepts of "talent" ebb and flow and it's anchored securely by Dafoe and Donovan whilst twisted by Lee in a fashion that suggests a certain depressingly void irreversibility of their digital future.

Source on TMDB