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There are few genres that the American filmmaker Richard Linklater hasn’t sunk his tooth into. He’s made romantic dramas within the type of the Earlier than trilogy, surrealist animated movies for adults equivalent to Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, and among the most immortal coming-of-age motion pictures in current reminiscence, amongst them Dazed and Confused, Slacker, Boyhood and Faculty of Rock. Blue Moon, although, could be very a lot a minor effort within the Linklater canon. Premiering in competitors on the Berlin Movie Competition, the Texan auteur’s new movie – his twenty second, and the primary of two due for launch on this 12 months alone – boasts a tremendous, quirky and brave efficiency from Ethan Hawke, however it’s a stagey affair which at occasions turns into very stilted.
Hawke performs the legendary Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart (Hawke), the author of traditional songs equivalent to “Blue Moon” and “My Humorous Valentine”. We meet him in 1943, his glory days lengthy behind him: the story begins with Hart collapsing in a rainswept New York alleyway, washed up at 47 and within the last days of his life. We’re then whisked again in time by seven months, to the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma!, a present that revolutionised musical theatre with its brash mix of track, dance and comedy. Hart is within the viewers however leaves quietly. He heads to Sardi’s bar, his favorite watering gap, the place he cuts a pathetic determine: he’s effortlessly witty however the extra jokes he cracks with the pleasant barman (Bobby Cannavale), the sadder he appears. He’s a bisexual alcoholic who likes to think about himself as “drunk on magnificence,” however we rapidly collect that he’s deeply pissed off each professionally and romantically. His newest obsession is the attractive younger Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley), a would-be Broadway author, however he’s far too wizened and previous for her.
Hawke has now labored with Linklater throughout quite a few tasks – together with within the Earlier than trilogy and the Oscar-winning Boyhood – however he’s by no means fairly performed a job for him like this. By means of intelligent results and digital camera work, a number of inches have been shaved off Hawke’s regular top. He’s now the smallest man within the room. His hair is thinning (he tries to cover baldness with a comb-over) and his pores and skin is wrinkled. He’ll be very sweet-natured one second and completely acerbic the following. Hart has been overtaken by mates and rivals who used to look as much as him, most notably by the youthful and much more dynamic Richard Rodgers (a dashing Andrew Scott). He’s consumed with self-pity. It’s a testomony to Hawke’s ability as an actor that he makes us care concerning the character.
At occasions, the temper right here skirts nearer to that in one among playwright Eugene O’Neill’s cautionary barroom tales about harmful drunkards than to the bubbling world of Broadway musicals of the period. We hear as Hart swaps tales with New Yorker author EB White (Patrick Kennedy), whom he admires, or chatters away about his love of Casablanca with the barman. However Hart isn’t any Bogart, and Elizabeth is refusing to be his Ingrid Bergman.
The spectacular Qualley will get the movie’s finest monologue, telling a prolonged, tragicomic story a couple of sexual misadventure with a younger jock. Hart is besotted by her, however she regards him solely as somebody to gossip with and speak in confidence to, not as a possible lover. Plus, her eye is on the principle prize, and solely utilizing Hart to advance her profession.
Linklater skilfully evokes the Broadway milieu of the Nineteen Forties in all its brittle wit and class. The movie has loads of intelligent dialogue, too, with sharp jokes about every little thing from Frank Sinatra to Stuart Little. The issue, although, is that the longer we spend within the bar with Hart, the extra claustrophobic and dispiriting the storytelling turns into.
Dir: Richard Linklater; Starring: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Andrew Scott; 100 minutes
‘Blue Moon’ is a world premiere in competitors on the Berlin Movie Competition, and shall be launched in UK cinemas later within the 12 months
