Blue Moon Review, Broadway’s Lost Genius Shines Through a Night of Bittersweet Revelations

“Blue Moon” is the rare film that draws the curtain on a singular evening, March 31, 1943, the opening night of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! yet manages to illuminate an entire era of musical theater and the bruised life of Lorenz Hart.

Directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke as Hart, “Blue Moon” takes place almost entirely within the warmly lit but isolating confines of Sardi’s bar in New York’s theater district.

Here, Hart, once half of the legendary songwriting duo Rodgers and Hart, lingers as an outsider, numbing himself with alcohol and sardonic wit while Oklahoma! signals the rise of a new Broadway era at his expense.

With a screenplay by Robert Kaplow, the film resists the traditional constraints of the biopic. Instead, it digs deep into fleeting conversations and character studies, presenting fleeting, thorny, sometimes hilarious dialogue through which greater truths about loneliness, love, and legacy emerge.

The action rarely leaves the bar, making the most of its single location and real-time progression by focusing on raw, crackling exchanges among its ensemble cast.

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Performance and Character Study: Ethan Hawke’s Dazzling Display

If there’s one aspect nearly every critic and audience member can agree on, it’s Hawke’s towering, magnetic turn as Lorenz Hart. Hawke embodies Hart’s sharp tongue and aching vulnerability, creating a persona that swings wildly between boisterous showmanship and tragic self-awareness. 

Every word and gesture is infused with a lifetime’s worth of regret, self-deprecating humor, and bruised ego. Hart’s pain, stemming from both his professional eclipse by his former partner Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and his personal struggles with closeted identity and longing, is laid bare, but Hawke and Linklater refuse to wallow in cheap sentimentality.

The interactions between Hart and the supporting cast are equally charged. Scott’s Richard Rodgers exudes a gruff charisma that perfectly balances Hawke’s neurotic energy, especially in their encounter as Rodgers celebrates Oklahoma! while Hart lobs barbs and nostalgia his way. 

Margaret Qualley’s Elizabeth Weiland, a bright young protegée, brings a sense of hope and modernity, while Bobby Cannavale’s barman Eddie becomes an unexpected sounding board for Hart’s sorrows and dreams.

Linklater displays his gift for directing actors in dialogue-heavy, confined settings. Viewers familiar with the “Before” trilogy will recognize the director’s love for words and timing, but “Blue Moon” brings added urgency, as Hawke’s Hart senses the world changing before him.

Script and Staging: Witty, Melancholic, and Full of Theatrical Life

Much of “Blue Moon’s” magic lies in its writing. The script is filled with razor-sharp banter, by turns witty, melancholic, and sharply observational.

Though some might find the structure stagy or even limiting in its single setting, most critics have argued that the elegant writing and power of the performances render such limitations strengths, not weaknesses.

In the tradition of classic theatre from Kaufman and Hart to Sondheim and Williams, Linklater and Kaplow’s script uses the constrained environment to focus, intensify, and reveal character.

Dialogues burst with cultural and historical references, yet never feel exclusionary. The bar itself becomes a symbolic crossroads for an old Broadway making way for the new.

The presence of real-life figures like E.B. White and Oscar Hammerstein II adds to the sense of an era observed and gently critiqued from within. Yet the core of the film remains Hart’s desperate need for recognition and affection, filtered through a haze of alcohol and self-doubt.

Technically, the film mirrors the highs and lows of an evening out, by turns muted and vibrant, hushed and exuberant. The camerawork is unflashy but expressive, highlighting the subtlety of performances.

Even the film’s musical motifs add quiet depth, with Hart’s own classic “Blue Moon” functioning as a motif for lost opportunities and fleeting joy.

Reception and Trending Topics: Artistry, LGBTQ+ Resonance, and Dialogue about Nostalgia

Online discussion surrounding “Blue Moon” has focused on three major threads:

• Awards Buzz for Ethan Hawke: Hawke’s tour de force has already generated accolades and speculation about nominations. Audiences and critics highlight his ability to portray humor, melancholy, and complexity, often within a single line or glance.

• LGBTQ+ Representation: The film’s portrayal of Hart’s semi-closeted life, including his yearning for connection in a restrictive era, has resonated strongly. Viewers and reviewers have connected Hart’s struggles to contemporary conversations about identity, loneliness, and unspoken love.

• The Tension Between Tradition and Innovation: Linklater’s staging confined yet lively, drenched in nostalgia but cuttingly relevant, has inspired discussion about the nature of artistic legacies, what it means to be remembered or forgotten, and the continual reinvention of Broadway and American culture.

Audience reactions have been overwhelmingly positive, with some noting the film’s sense of humor and moments of unexpected wildness, while others admit to being initially put off by its monologue-driven structure before finding themselves swept up in its emotional current. 

Not everyone is sold; some call it stagey or too talky, but even detractors admit that “Blue Moon” is a work of ambition and substance.

A Poignant, Unsparing Portrait of Artistic Longing

Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon” is far more than a simple period piece. It’s a wise, witty, and bruisingly personal exploration of longing, creative, romantic, and existential.

Fueled by Ethan Hawke’s phenomenal performance and stitched together by dialogue that sparkles and stings, the film offers a rare chance to spend time with a complicated genius on one fateful night.

The result is a tender, tragic, and sometimes very funny meditation on yearning, friendship, fleeting fame, and the toughest kind of love: self-forgiveness.

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