Editor’s Notice: This overview was initially revealed in the course of the 2025 Berlin Movie Competition. Sony Photos Classics releases “Blue Moon” in choose theaters starting Friday, October 17.
In Richard Linklater’s “Earlier than Dawn,” Julie Delpy’s Céline means that “If there’s any type of magic on this world, it should be within the try of understanding somebody, sharing one thing.” Thirty years after Céline and Ethan Hawke’s Jesse fell in love, Linklater reunites with Hawke for “Blue Moon,” the long-time collaborators’ newest try to seek out that magic. The movie in query seeks to know Lorenz Hart, the nice American lyricist who — alongside composer Richard Rodgers — is liable for numerous classics to be discovered within the nice American songbook. However from the outset, Linklater understands the inherent problem that comes with capturing such a singular voice all these a long time later.
“Blue Moon” opens with two wildly contrasting quotes. One is from Oscar Hammerstein II, who claimed that Hart was “alert and dynamic and enjoyable to be round.” The opposite is from cabaret legend Mabel Mercer, who describes him as “the saddest man I ever knew.” Each are true, after all, as Linklater captures so vividly, but it’s telling that the extra optimistic of the 2 quotes comes from Hammerstein, who changed Hart as Rodgers’ associate and went on to create the musical “Oklahoma!,” which loved extra success than Richard ever discovered along with his earlier collaborator.
Set on the opening evening of “Oklahoma!” in 1943, “Blue Moon” takes place totally within the bar the place Rodgers is ready to greet his adoring public and have fun what’s going to finally turn into considered one of many best musicals ever written. Hart doesn’t precisely share that sentiment. All through the evening, which we expertise alongside him in real-time, Richard’s former associate takes swipes at “Oklahoma!” at any given alternative (most of which he creates for himself).
“Am I bitter?” he asks Bobby Cannavale’s considerably crass however properly that means bartender. “Fuck sure!” However even with a lot bias towards such a beloved American basic, Hart does make some good factors. Why, of all issues, is the corn described to be “as excessive as an elephant’s eye” within the music “Oh, What A Lovely Mornin’”? And why does the title want an exclamation level? That jab has the additional benefit of doubling as a wink to followers of Linklater’s “All people Needs Some!!,” which speaks to the figuring out wit that drives “Blue Moon” ahead.
Via Hart, Linklater may need simply discovered the right protagonist in whom to channel his signature chatty type. The author well-known for penning “My Humorous Valentine,” “The Girl is a Tramp,” and the titular “Blue Moon” could be recognized for his exquisitely heart-wrenching ballads, but it surely’s his searing wordplay and wild overconfidence that dominate right here; Hart is loaded limitless quips and vulgar jokes that he nearly will get away with relying on his viewers. Robert Kaplow, who beforehand co-wrote Linklater’s underrated “Me and Orson Welles,” is clearly having a lot enjoyable with this screenplay, particularly when he faucets into extensively circulated rumors round Hart’s sexuality.
The sexiest factor on the earth, in accordance with Hart, “is a half-erect penis.” That’s as a result of a full one is an exclamation level — “The story’s already over” — however a half-erect penis? “Is it coming or is it going?,” Hart asks with a smirk, freely taking part in into what individuals considered him at a time when few could be so ballsy (for need of a greater phrase). When requested immediately if he prefers males to girls, Hart describes himself as “ambisexual,” an individual who “can jerk off equally properly with both hand.” This gatling gun method to dialog could be a bit a lot, usually making the film really feel like a one-man present whose supporting solid is being held hostage, however that’s very a lot the purpose. For some, Hart was simply an excessive amount of to be round. That’s very true of Rodgers, who may not stand working with him so intently whereas working round his alcoholism for the higher a part of 25 years.
“Your work is sensible,” Rodgers tells Hart in a uncommon second the place he’s not attempting to flee the clutches of his former associate and return to the celebration. “That’s not the issue.” No, the issue is that Hart is very unhappy and much more lonely — virtually determined, in truth. The limitless speaking and fixed showboating, this perpetual “performing” as Hart himself places it, reveals a person drowning in insecurity with out really explaining his emotions as such. Even the mouse who visits Hart every morning in his nineteenth ground residence has stopped coming.
Regardless of, or maybe due to his ache, Hart is charming and “overwhelming” in equal measure, a power of audacious, vibrating vitality. When he describes his writing protege Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley), dedicating reams of adjectives and metaphors to her magnificence, he says upon first assembly her that “It was as if she was respiratory completely different air to me.” But there’s little or no air left for anybody to breathe when Hart begins to speak.
In lesser fingers, this might have proved cartoonish and even insufferable, however Ethan Hawke is theatrical in the easiest way doable, commanding the display along with his each gesture and utterance with out overplaying any of them. His vitality thrums like a choir line vibrato, like “the sexiest factor on the earth,” particularly within the first third after we’re nonetheless attending to know Hart earlier than Rodgers arrives. It’s in these scenes the place “Blue Moon” works greatest — virtually “levitating,” to borrow the phrase Hart makes use of to explain the hallmark of nice artwork, which pulls you off the bottom in ways in which method divinity. Linklater virtually manages that right here within the movie’s greatest moments, even when “Blue Moon” does wane a tad within the center.
As soon as Hart’s former associate arrives, limitless congratulations and glowingly optimistic overview excerpts punctuate their dialog as Hart tries his greatest to get again in Richard’s good books with out letting on how he actually feels about “Oklahoma!”. Andrew Scott’s composer is the alternative of Hart in each means, because the pair have been described in life. We’re solely with them this one evening, however there’s a lived-in chemistry between Scott and Hawke, as in the event that they’re an previous married couple however one doesn’t absolutely notice the connection is over whereas the opposite has already moved on. Snug familiarity and a clumsy want to flee co-exist like the 2 quotes initially, each true in incongruous concord. Scott’s by no means overwhelmed by Hawke in the identical means that many of the different characters are overwhelmed by Hart, grounded in his success and even pity that is available in waves for his so-called oldest “pal.”
Eleven years after Linklater gained the Silver Bear prize for his Oscar-winning “Boyhood,” Ethan Hawke would possibly simply have a shot at that very same stage of award recognition for his efficiency right here in “Blue Moon.” It’s transformative in a means that the Academy loves, making Hawke seem 5 ft tall when he ought to in truth be the one towering over Scott, not the opposite means spherical. But he by no means appears smaller than he does when Qualley’s “Irreplaceable Elizabeth” doesn’t give Hart the love he’s so determined for. Her monologue within the third act is a juicy one, mirroring the “irrational adoration” Hart feels with Elizabeth’s personal story of unrequited love. But it’s Hart’s response, a uncommon second of vulnerability that’s been wrenched out of him towards his will, that intrigues greater than the precise story itself.
Collectively, she, Hawke and Scott type an enchanting push-and-pull dynamic the place they’re concurrently swept up in one another and towards one another too. The very fact this all performs out in real-time heightens that impact significantly, sweeping us up within the maelstrom of Hart’s bravado because of Hawke’s signature appeal, even whether it is undercut by one thing else barely hid beneath the floor. As a result of even when his fingers are clasped collectively in glee, ready to listen to the subsequent a part of Elizabeth’s salacious story with bated breath, Hawke performs Hart with an underlying disappointment.
In the direction of the top, simply as issues start to wind down, the script punctuates this with a couple of exclamation factors of its personal, some offhand feedback about how Hart’s “greatest stuff continues to be to return” and that “it’s such as you’re writing my obituary.” Rodgers even suggests he go get assist at Physician’s Hospital, the identical hospital the place Hart did in truth find yourself dying seven months later of pneumonia. We all know that as a result of that is the place the movie started, in a freezing, wet alleyway earlier than settling into the wistful chamber piece it swiftly turns into. With this foresight handy, “Blue Moon” performs into Linklater’s normal themes of time and reminiscence and even dreaming in a extra delicate but no much less poignant means than normal.
That turns into clearest within the phrases “No one ever cherished me that a lot,” Hart’s favourite line from “Casablanca,” which turns into his chorus all through. As a result of right here, we’re watching a movie set within the ’40s which pulls emotional resonance from an older basic whereas we sit with the data of what’s to return and take into account what may have been; how Hart’s legacy may have surpassed what Rodgers and Hammerstein achieved if he’d dealt with life in another way. But “Blue Moon” doesn’t finish in tragedy, even when we already know Hart’s story does. As an alternative, we finish in the course of a narrative Hart appreciated to inform, creating the phantasm of a celebration — of a bar hangout that by no means ends. A narrative with no exclamation level, in case you like, simply as Hart would have wished.
However would he have appreciated this movie total or would he have despised “Blue Moon” simply as he did the music that shares its identify, the music for which he would turn into greatest recognized? That’s more durable to say, though it’s tempting to think about he would have loved the eye and validation such a piece brings, even when he won’t love each facet of it. The result’s magic regardless, the type Linklater strives for all through his work, as a result of it brings us nearer to understanding Hart in all of his contradictory splendor, even when it doesn’t succeed utterly.
Grade: B+
“Blue Moon” premiered on the 2025 Berlin Worldwide Movie Competition. Sony Photos Classics releases it in theaters beginning Friday, October 17.
Need to keep updated on IndieWire’s movie critiques and important ideas? Subscribe right here to our newly launched e-newsletter, In Evaluation by David Ehrlich, wherein our Chief Movie Critic and Head Opinions Editor rounds up the very best new critiques and streaming picks together with some unique musings — all solely obtainable to subscribers.
