Motherless Brooklyn

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Motherless Brooklyn

film by Norton [2019]

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Last updated

July 22, 2026

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Motherless Brooklyn is a 2019 crime drama film directed by and starring Edward Norton. Norton also wrote the screenplay for the film, which is an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's novel. The story centers on a private detective who has Tourette syndrome and investigates the murder of his mentor. The film explores themes of corruption and power in 1950s New York City.12

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Alec Baldwin
30 Rock, SNL, and later films
… chapter in the 1970s; and Motherless Brooklyn (2019), a crime drama adapted from the novel by Jonathan Lethem. Baldwin also lent his voice to such animated films as The Boss Baby (2017); its sequel, The Boss Baby: Family Business (2021); and Arctic Dogs (2019). In 2020 he reprised the role…
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… chapter in the 1970s; and Motherless Brooklyn (2019), a crime drama adapted from the novel by Jonathan Lethem. Baldwin also lent his voice to such animated films as The Boss Baby (2017); its sequel, The Boss Baby: Family Business (2021); and Arctic Dogs (2019). In 2020 he reprised the role…
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Willem Dafoe
The Lighthouse, Poor Things, and Nosferatu
…lighthouse keepers in the 1890s; Motherless Brooklyn, a crime drama adapted from the novel by Jonathan Lethem; and Togo, a Disney drama about the “Great Race of Mercy,” in which dog-sled teams were used to distribute medicine during a diphtheria epidemic in Alaska in 1925. He later appeared in The…
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…lighthouse keepers in the 1890s; Motherless Brooklyn, a crime drama adapted from the novel by Jonathan Lethem; and Togo, a Disney drama about the “Great Race of Mercy,” in which dog-sled teams were used to distribute medicine during a diphtheria epidemic in Alaska in 1925. He later appeared in The…
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Edward Norton
Later credits
…to the director’s chair for Motherless Brooklyn, an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s novel about a private detective with Tourette syndrome; he also starred in the crime drama and wrote the screenplay. He subsequently reunited with Anderson on The French Dispatch (2021), in which he played a gangster who kidnaps the…
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…to the director’s chair for Motherless Brooklyn, an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s novel about a private detective with Tourette syndrome; he also starred in the crime drama and wrote the screenplay. He subsequently reunited with Anderson on The French Dispatch (2021), in which he played a gangster who kidnaps the…
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Bruce Willis
…comedy Between Two Ferns and Motherless Brooklyn, a crime drama set in the 1950s. Over the next several years he starred in a string of action movies that included Breach (2020), Out of Death (2021), and A Day to Die (2022).
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…comedy Between Two Ferns and Motherless Brooklyn, a crime drama set in the 1950s. Over the next several years he starred in a string of action movies that included Breach (2020), Out of Death (2021), and A Day to Die (2022).
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