Blue Moon: tender drama led by Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley
3.5/5 stars
'I have written a handful of words that are going to cheat death.' So says Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke), the real-life lyricist in Richard Linklater's latest film. A likeable chamber piece, Blue Moon premiered this week in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, and it would not be a stretch to see Hawke awarded for his performance. Thirty years and nine films into his long-standing collaboration with Linklater , this is arguably his most verbose role for the director.
Hart was one half of Rodgers and Hart, the duo that created such indelible songs as 'My Funny Valentine', 'The Lady is a Tramp' and, of course, 'Blue Moon'. But the film, which takes place across one evening in March 1943, sees him on the slide.
His partner Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) has just created his first musical, Oklahoma! , with new collaborator Oscar Hammerstein. Theirs is set to become the most significant partnership in American musical theatre history.
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