In Richard Linklaers ”Before sunrise,“Julie Delpy’s Céline suggests that“ If there is any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the attempt to understand someone and share something. “Thirty years after Céline and Ethan Hawke’s Jesse fell in love, reunites Linklater with Hawke for”Blue moon“The recent attempts of the collaborators to find that magic. The film In question, understanding Lorenz Hart, the great American lyricist who – together with composer Richard Rodgers – is responsible for countless classics found in the big American songbook. But from the beginning, Linklater understands the inherent difficulty that comes with catching such a single voice all these decades later.
“Blue moon“Opens with two wild contrasting quotes. One is from Oscar Hammerstein II, who claimed that Hart was “awake and dynamic and fun to be with.” The other is from Cabaret -legend Mabel Mercer, who describes him as “the saddest man I ever knew.” Both are of course true, when Linklater captures so vividly, but it says that the more positive of the two quotes come from Hammerstein, who replaced Hart as Rodger’s partner and continued to create the musical “Oklahoma!”, Who liked more success than Richard ever found with its former collaborator.
Set on the opening evening for “Oklahoma!” 1943, ”Blue moon“Takes place completely at the bar where Rodgers will greet his loving public and celebrate what will eventually be considered one of the biggest musicals ever written. Hart does not share exactly that feeling. Throughout the night, which we experience with him in real time, Richard’s former partner takes Swipes on “Oklahoma!” at a given opportunity (most of whom he creates for himself).
“Am I bitter?” He asks Bobby Cannavales somewhat crass but well significant bartender. “Damn yes!” But even with so much bias against such a beloved American classic, Hart makes some good points. Why, by all things, corn is described as “as high as an elephant’s eye” in the song “Oh, what a beautiful mornin ‘”? And why does the title need an exclamation mark? That Jab has the extra advantage of doubled as a wink to fans of linklaters “Everybody Wants Some !!”, which speaks to the knowing width that drives “Blue Moon” forward.
Through Hart, Linklater may have just found the perfect protagonist in which he can channel his signature chatty style. The author who is known for pen “My Funny Valentine”, “The Lady is a Tram”, and the titular “Blue Moon” may be known for his delicious heartbreaking ballads, but it is his hurtful word play and wild transfers that dominate here; Hart is charged endless quips and vulgar jokes that he almost escapes depending on his audience. Robert Kaplow, who previously wrote Linklaters underestimated “Me and Orson Welles”, clearly has so much fun with this script, especially when he loses in generally circulated rumors about Hart’s sexuality.
The sexiest thing in the world, according to Hart, “is a half exclusively penis.” That is because a complete is an exclamation mark-the “story is already over” -But half an outdoor penis? “Will it or do it go?” Hart asks with a smirk and freely plays what people thought about him at a time when few would be so balled (to have a better word). When asked directly if he prefers men over women, Hart describes himself as “ambisexual”, a person who “can move just as well with either hand.” This Gatling Gun strategy for conversation can be a bit much, which often makes the film feel like a one-man show whose supportive role is held hostage, but that is very point. For some were hart only too much to be with. It is especially true for Rodgers, who could no longer stand and work with him so close when he worked around his alcoholism during the better part of 25 years.
“Your work is brilliant,” Rodgers tells Hart at a rare moment where he does not try to escape the connections to his former partner and return to the party. “That’s not the problem.” No, the problem is that Hart is very sad and even more alone – almost desperate. The infinite talkative and constant showboating, this eternal “behavior” as Hart himself puts it, reveals a man who drowns in uncertainty without actually explaining his feelings as such. Even the mouse that visits Hart every morning in his apartment on the 19th floor has stopped coming.
Despite, or perhaps because of his pain, Hart is charming and “overwhelming” to the same extent, a force of bold, vibrating energy. When he describes his writing protege Elizabeth (Margaret Qualey), who is engaged in adjectives and metaphors to her beauty, he says when he first met her that “it was as if she was breathing different air for me.” Still, there is very little air left for someone to breathe when Hart starts talking.
In smaller hands, this could have proven to be drawn or even unbearable, but Ethan Hawke is theatrical in the best way and commands the screen with all gestures and opinion without overplaying any of them. His energy room as a driving line Vibrato, as “the sexiest thing in the world”, especially in the first third when we still get to know HART before Rodgers arrive. It is in these scenes where “Blue Moon” works best – practically “levitating”, to borrow the word Hart uses to describe the characteristic of great art, which pulls you from the ground in ways approaching divinity. Linklater almost handles this in the best moments of the film, although “Blue Moon” decreases a bit in the middle.
When Hart’s former partner arrives, infinite congratulations and glowing positive audit extracts puncture his conversation when Hart tries his best to get back in Richard’s good books without releasing how he really feels for “Oklahoma!”. Andrew Scott’s composer is the opposite of Hart in every way, as the couple is described in life. We are only with them this night, but there is an attitude chemistry between Scott and Hawke, as if they are an old married couple but one does not quite realize that the relationship is over while the other has already moved on. Comfortable knowledge and a difficult desire to escape coexist as the two quotes in the beginning, both true in incongruous harmony. Scott is never overwhelmed by Hawke in the same way that most other characters are overwhelmed by Hart, founded in his success and even sin that comes in waves for his so -called oldest “friend”.
Eleven years after Linklater won the Silver Bear Prize for its Oscar-winning “Boyhood”, Ethan Hawke can only have one shot at the same level of prices at the price for his performance here in “Blue Moon.” It is transformative in a way that the academy loves, which makes Hawke seem five meters long when he should actually be the one who tower over Scott, not the other way around. Yet he never seems less than he does when Qually’s “unchanging Elizabeth” does not give hard the love he is so desperate after. Her monologue in the third act is a juicy, which reflects the “irrational worship” resistant feels with Elizabeth’s own story of unanswered love. Yet it is resin reaction, a rare moment of vulnerability that has been shifted out of him against his will, which intrigues more than the story itself.
Together, she, Hawke and Scott form a fascinating push-and-pull dynamics where they are simultaneously swept into each other and also against each other. The fact that all this plays in real time increases that effect significantly and sweeps us up into the Malströmmen of Hart’s Bravado thanks to Hawkes signature Charm, although it is subordinated by something else that was barely hidden under the surface. Because even when his hands are snapped together in Glee and waiting to hear the next part of Elizabeth’s Salacious Story with Bated Breath, Hawke Hart plays with an underlying grief.
Towards the end, just as things start to discontinue, the script punctures this with some exclamation points, some offhand comments about how Hart’s “biggest stuff will still come” and that “it is as if you write my death.” Rodgers even suggests he he Get help at Doctor’s Hospital, the same hospital where Hart actually stopped dying seven months later from pneumonia. We know that because this is where the film began, in a freezing, rainy alley before they sat down in the boring chamber piece At hand, “Blue Moon” plays into Linklater’s usual themes for time and memory and even dreams in a more subtle but no less gripping way than usual.
It becomes most evident in the words “No one ever loved me so much”, resin favorite line from “Casablanca”, which becomes his distance all the time. For here we look at a movie set in the 40s that draws emotional resonance from an older classic while sitting with the knowledge of what will come and consider what could have been; How Hart’s inheritance could have exceeded what Rodgers and Hammerstein achieved if he had handled life differently. Still, “Blue Moon” does not end in tragedy, although we already know that Hart’s story does. Instead, we end in the middle of a story that Hart liked to tell and create an illusion of a party – by a bargout that never ends. A story without an exclamation mark, if you want, just like Hart would have wanted.
But would he have wanted this movie overall or would he have despised “Blue Moon” just like he did the song that shares his name, the song he would be best known for? It is more difficult to say, although it is tempting to imagine that he would have had attention and validation that such work gives, although he may not love all aspects of it. The result is magic regardless, the friendly link clays strive for throughout his work, as it leads us closer to understanding hard in all his contradictory splendor, even if it does not succeed completely.
Rating: B+
“Blue Moon” premiered at 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics will release it in theaters later this year.
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