Director Richard Linklater teams up once again with four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke in a performance that really should win him his first Academy Award.
He stars as Lorenz Hart, the former creative partner of Richard Rodgers, with whom he collaborated on 28 stage musicals, contributing hundreds of classic American songs as Rodgers and Hart.
Among them is Blue Moon, featuring Hart’s lyrics of unfulfilled longing and loneliness.
Screenwriter Robert Kaplow chose this as the film’s title, with the song’s themes tragically radiating through Hawke’s phenomenal lead throughout.
The setting is Sardi’s restaurant in New York City on March 31, 1943. The bar-fly lyricist (7 months off an accidental alcohol-related death) awaits the arrival of Rodgers and his new collaborator, Hammerstein, at the opening night of their hit new Broadway show, Oklahoma!
Before the main party’s arrival, the washed-up Hart puts on his best Blanche duBois bravado, as Hawke embodies his enthralling wit and charisma in a quietly devastating performance. Aided by Kaplow’s beautifully penned script, the middle-aged lyricist boasts of a great afterparty he’ll be hosting later and expectations of sexual conquest with Margaret Qualley’s 20-year-old Elizabeth, despite Bobby Cannavale’s gruff barman questioning his sexuality. When Andrew Scott’s Rodgers enters, his portrayal of the composer masterfully displays the complex relationship between the pair: the mutual respect, love and admiration barely covering the frustration at Hart’s alcoholism, which led to their creative split in the first place.
Although this is a comedy-drama with plenty of delicious moments, Hawke is so masterful in portraying the unfulfilled yearnings of this musical great’s public and private ambitions that the emotional weight of it all stays with you well after the credits roll.
Blue Moon is out in UK cinemas on Friday.
