Film review: Blue Moon

It’s been thirty years since the first collaboration between actor Ethan Hawke and filmmaker Richard Linklater, when they began working on the now beloved ‘Before’ trilogy. They have reunited for period piece Blue Moon which, like a lot of the director’s work, takes place across one day – or one evening in this case to be more specific.

Set almost entirely in a New York City bar in 1943, the historical snapshot plot centres around troubled lyricist Lorenz Hart (Hawke) after he attends the opening night of stage musical Oklahoma! on Broadway. Feeling bitter about his writing partner Richard Rodgers’ (Andrew Scott) success in his new duo with Oscar Hammerstein II, he distracts himself and everyone else around him by regaling them with stories of his infatuation for Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), a 20-year-old student who he claims is his latest protégé.

Shot through a lens clouded by cigar smoke and a decadent nostalgia for the time, the chamber piece narrative makes great use its space as our barfly protagonist zips from one conversation to the next, stopping for copious shots of bourbon rather than drawing a breath. The no-holds-barred script is penned by novelist Robert Kaplow and is full of dark quips and vulgarity on musicals, cinema, alcohol, sex, love, lust, and everything in between. Hart’s hilarious put-downs are savage, particularly on the merits of his friend’s new production. As the film develops, we find a deep melancholy behind his scathing humour that highlights his many contradictions; he’s an open book but also an enigma, he’s the life and soul of the party but also the loneliest person in the room.

With a dodgy combover and a height shortened to around five feet by clever camera trickery, Ethan Hawke physically transforms into the leading role. His madcap energy is intoxicating and whether he’s bantering with meathead bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale), offering wisdom to fresh-faced pianist ‘Knuckles’ (Jonah Lees) or trading tales with jaded writer E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy), he’s a force of nature. Scenes become more emotionally weighty in the third act as his confident façade fades, leading to a gut punch of a finale. Qualley is excellent as well. Young and vibrant with the world at her feet, Hart excitedly wants to live vicariously through her ripening escapades.

Very funny but with pangs of pathos, comedy drama Blue Moon sees director Richard Linklater on terrific form, with Ethan Hawke’s wonderfully theatrical performance putting an exclamation point on this poignant portrait.