“Blue moon, you saw me standing alone, Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own.” So do the lyrics go for the wildly successful and romantic ballad, whose lyrics by Lorenz Hart paint the picture of someone wholly alone. Indeed, cabaret singer Mabel Mercer described him as “the saddest man I ever knew”. But who is this Lorenz Hart, the lyricist behind the biggest romantic hits of the 1920-30s, from: “My Funny Valentine”, “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” as well as Frank Sinatra’s iconic “The Lady is a Tramp.”
Lorenz Hart is a fully fleshed out person, or in this case a character (in its double-meaning) whose long and eloquent discourses are related to us in 2025 through his letters to his muse, his love Elizabeth. Ethan Hawke does such a marvellous job of portraying this quirk-filled, flamboyant man that you forget it is the Ethan Hawke, heartthrob of the ’90s. Hawke completely transforms himself for the role, dawning a hairstyle that shall (hopefully) forever remain in the past with gel strands of hair plastered on the cranium and a typical New York accent of the 1940s. The camera angles somehow show Hawk as dwarfed compared to the rest of the cast, but whose ego and presence surpasses/titans them all
Director Linklater plot of this semi-biopic is really just dialogue, or rather Hart’s witty and rife with references monologue interrupted by side-characters sporadically (for comedic relief or to thicken Lorenz’s side-plots). Hawke’s performance is therefore not only mesmerizing as he is completely transformed (recognized only by his singular side-profile), but is truly Oscar worthy as he is the sole star of the show. We as audience are not bored from the pages and pages of lines and instead we are fully enthralled, or as author E. B. White puts it “enchanted”, captivated by a complex man who feels so much, means so much to the arts community, yet is too much for the world around him.
As Shakespeare said “all the world’s a stage and we are merely players,” and Blue Moon is akin to a play whose only stage is the thespian beloved restaurant Sardi’s, where all the action/dialogue happens. The players play, act only to incite and invite Hart into more discussion. You have the quintessential character of the era, the bartender who moonlights as shrink to his patron. Played by Bobby Cannavale, the good looking slightly misogynistic bartender brings an air of lightness (or rather of standard intellect which if funny in the stuffy dialogue). Margaret Qualley is a wonderful actress, though we don’t really sympathize with Elizabeth, until her too-long monologue where her character garbs in dimension and we sympathize with a girl trying to make it in the world of showbiz.
The most important side-character, however, is Hart’s partner musician Richard Rogers (Andrew Scott) who composed the music for the over 1000 songs they collaborated on. The quintessential duo of the era, America’s Gilbert and Sullivan, become the centre of the story. We see the duo reconnecting on Oklahoma!’s opening night, a collaboration not between Rogers and Hart but by Rogers and Hammerstein III, a blow to Hart’s ego and heart. Or rather the Center for the story are all the awful things happening to Hart, for how much can one man take.
“Blue Moon” is an ode to the arts, to music and lyrics and the powerful precision of words chosen which imparts a certain feeling. It’s sad, sweet and enchanting. In general, intelligent movies are lacking, and old audiences will appreciate Hawke’s craft and the meticulous precision of a world slow of pace, detailed, glamorized that we have lost in our fast-paced efficient world that would never have allowed for the twisting tirades talked/present throughout. The attention to detail, the enunciation of every word make you want to become as grossly educated, to plunge in this world of chaos and connection, of arts and literature, of glamour and knowledge. And for almost 2 hours, we to get to bask in this world, to feel Hart understand this man that many of us have never heard of, yet whose impact can be heard and felt in a countless countries. As Hart described it : “levitation is the hallmark of great art, it breaks free from gravity.” His own words can be reversed, reflecting the authenticity and timelessness of his work, with words bigger than the era.
Blue Moon is in theatres now.
