“Late Fame”

Director Kent Jones (“Diane“ (2018)) works with a killer cast in this reset of a novella by Arthur Schnitzler, with 1890s Vienna transposed to modern day New York City (the script’s by Samy Burch, “May December” and the upcoming “Coyote vs Acme”). The esteemed Willem Dafoe stars as Ed Saxberger, a New York City postal worker who back-in-the-1980s-day penned an obscure work of revered poems. He’s rediscovered by a gaggle of youthful writers and artists who brand themselves the Enthusiasm Society. There’s a beatnik vibe to the group, led by a scarf-wearing dilettante who goes by the moniker of just Meyers (Edmund Donovan, who gives his pompous character a modicum of depth and vulnerability). They embrace Ed as something of a Bukowski-esque literary lion and through fawning flattery entreat him into their circle. The newfound notoriety rekindles Ed’s creative passions. As he starts to see the world through the progressive lens of his admirers, he calls out fellow old White guys for the intolerance he had become numb to over the years. The rising arc becomes Ed’s mounting affections for the much younger Gloria (Greta Lee, the soulful heart of “Past Lives”), the group’s aspiring actress, chanteuse and something of a Blanche DuBois in the making. 

Read more Markey is the better leader for AI civil rights in Cambridge and the country

Lee, who you can also catch in the subpar sci-fi thriller, “The Last House“ over on Netflix, strikes the screen as a luminous wonder, but at times feels miscast and out of place. She does strike a genuine (if more platonic than romantic) chord with her veteran costar. Ultimately, the film feels drawn out, as Dafoe’s Ed never brings congruence to a hodgepodge of ideas and icons, despite the actor’s affable effort. —  Tom Meek

Playing at the Brattle Theatre

“Tony”

“I was, to be frank, a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout,” celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain once wrote of his younger self, “And badly in need of a good ass-kicking.” It is this lout who serves as the central character in “Tony,” the likably shaggy new biopic from director Matt Johnson (“Blackberry”). “Holdovers“ breakout Dominic Sessa plays Tony (“Only my mother calls me Anthony!”) as a ball of brooding, unfocused energy. Tony’s dreams of becoming a bad-boy writer in the Kerouac vein are stymied when he’s denied a fellowship at Vassar; disastrously, he pitches his novel to the tawny professors as a “buildings Roman” rather than a bildungsroman. Frustrated and embarrassed, Tony sneaks out of his family’s New Jersey home and hops a ferry to Provincetown in hopes of reconnecting with his high school crush (Emilia Jones). To make ends meet, he takes a job washing dishes in a seafood restaurant, where he is hassled by the seasoned townie employees (among them Leo Woodall, last seen in this year’s IFFBoston centerpiece “Tuner,” and podcaster Stavros Halkias). Nevertheless, the chef (a tender Antonio Banderas) sees something in the angry young man and begins teaching him the wonders of the kitchen.

While the trailers paint “Tony” as a by-the-numbers biopic, the film is thankfully something more intimate and freewheeling. Even if you didn’t know Sessa’s character was meant to be Bourdain (his full name is never spoken until the film’s final moments), you’d be left with a fully satisfying coming-of-age period piece — a “buildings Roman,” if you will. Johnson perfectly captures both the anxieties of youth and the woozy atmosphere of 1970s P-Town, anchored by a wistful piano score by Johnson’s “Nirvanna the Band the Show” costar Jay McCarrol. At the center of it all is Sessa, who proves himself one of the most exciting and charismatic young actors working today. Not bad for a kid who was discovered five years ago at Deerfield Academy!

“Tony” sags a bit in the third act, veering into conventional melodrama and biographical box-checking — “You should go by ‘Anthony.’ It suits you.” Still, this is the rare biopic where the conventions of the genre feel like dressing for the drama rather than the other way around. Whether you’re a certified Bourdainiac or simply in the market for a well-acted Cape Cod hangout film, “Tony” makes for a satisfying meal. —  Oscar Goff

Playing at Somerville Theatre and Kendall Square Cinema

“The Brink of War”

There’s solid acting but thin bones in this Cold War dramatization of the 1986 Reykjavík Summit talks between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The movie’s premise is the two men came tantalizingly close to a sweeping agreement that would have eliminated both country’s nuclear arsenals. Written and directed by Michael Russell Gunn, the film’s essentially a stalemate debate dressed up as a geopolitical thriller. Jeff Daniels (“The Squid and the Whale,” “Dumb and Dumber”) is Reagan and Jared Harris (“Mad Men,” “Chernobyl”) Gorbachev, staring at each other across a table, trying to win by touting the virtues of capitalism or communism, respectively.  It could almost be a single set, two-man stage play, although having it on-location in Iceland makes for gorgeous framing, and we get cameos from the first ladies (Hope Davis as Nancy Reagan left back home, and Branka Katić as Raisa Gorbachev on site and obsessed with Icelandic horses). 

Read more All-in-one vintage store, coffee shop, and DVD rental opens in Somerville

As Gorbachev, Harris looks and feels the part, stubborn and full of resolve.  Daniels is less convincing as Reagan — he seems younger and snappier than my newsreel footage recall dials up (though Daniels is 71, just four years younger than Reagan was in 1986). He gets Reagan’s classic “Well…” verbal tic down with aplomb but never goes full-on Gipper. His Ronnie feels somewhat elevated, too, maybe because of the Angel Studios values-driven haloing of its subjects (“Young Washington,” “David“). The “way of life” speech is clunky, even ham-fisted (for contrast, Daniels fired a flame thrower blast about American greatness as Will McAvoy in Aaron Sorkin’s “Newsroom”).

There is plenty of deep, emotive acting and well-forged chemistry between its leads — and Oscar winner J.K. Simmons is steadfast in support as Secretary of State George Shultz. Devil-may-care comic relief comes from Katić’s punchy Raisa, who brings chaotic kitsch to every scene she’s in; Gunn is wise not to overuse her. Points to the production, too, for using the Höfði House — the actual humble site of the summit— for their set. But “Brink of War” is not as interesting or as historically informative as the previous Angel offerings. It’s a long 117 minutes and strains to manufacture suspense from its small sliver of history. There’s just not enough heft or hook to turn a footnote into a feature.  — Tom Meek

On demand on Prime Video and others

“Insidious: Out of the Further”

The sixth entry in the surprisingly durable “Insidious” franchise, “Out of the Further” proves that even the astral plane has its limits. This time out, the focus shifts from the haunted Lambert family to single mom and dentist Gemma Hall (Amelia Eve, Netflix’s “The Haunting of Bly Manor”). Gemma is raising her daughter in the house she grew up in, despite being haunted by memories of her own mother’s erratic behavior and untimely death. As anyone who’s seen an “Insidious” film can guess, the elder Hall was not actually a victim of mental illness but rather beset by hordes of astral-projecting demons. Sure enough, following the appearance of a trio of creepy old people wandering their neighborhood, Gemma and her daughter find themselves plagued by nightmares, some of which leave unnervingly physical evidence. To exorcise her demons both literal and metaphorical, Gemma must embrace her innate paranormal abilities — with help from the ghostly presence of the original film’s scene-stealing investigator Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye).

Apart from Shaye (whose appearance barely constitutes more than a cameo) and the conceit of the otherworldly “Further” zone, there isn’t much in “Out of the Further” to identify it as an “Insidious” film. For that matter, there isn’t much in “Out of the Further” at all. By removing most of the series’ recurring characters, the film finds itself without a center. Gemma, while appealingly played by Eve, lacks defining traits beyond “haunted.” This is more of a Spirit Halloween than a film, an endless procession of jump scares, pasty-faced ghouls and an undead cult leader who looks and sounds like a cadaverous Iggy Pop. Even the filmmakers themselves can’t seem to find a foothold, at times editing the film as if it’s a trailer for itself.

Taken purely as a mindless late-summer fright fest, there’s some fun to be had. The jump scares, while cheap, are effective, and a gross-out set piece in Gemma’s dentist office, complete with inside-the-mouth closeups, is winningly gruesome. For the most part, though, “Out of the Further” cribs most of its ideas from better movies; the leering old folks are straight out of “Carnival of Souls” (1962), and a pillow fort which becomes a surreal, endless tunnel would be a lot scarier if we hadn’t all just seen “Backrooms.” It may be time to deboard this astral plane for good. — Oscar Goff

Read more A memorial will be held for Larry Aaronson of Cambridge

At Kendall Square Cinema, Apple Cinemas Cambridge, and AMC Assembly Row 12