Images courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
BLUE MOON– 4 STARS
LESSON #1: WHICH RICHARD LINKLATER ARE WE GETTING TONIGHT?— It’s been said before, but we’ve reached a point, deep into the fruitful vitae of filmmaker Richard Linklater, where a new movie from him—like either his 2025 twinbill of Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague—demands immediate categorization to know what we’re getting into. Thanks to the divergent range between the likes of Dazed and Confused, School of Rock, and Everybody Wants Some!! and the other side of the cinematic coin, holding Boyhood, Bernie, and the Before trilogy, there’s “Party Linklater” and “Prestige Linklater.” Both courses are plenty entertaining, but require different decorum, so to speak.
As a potential viewer of a Linklater film, you don’t want to bring the mood of a six-pack of cheap beer to a formal affair any more than show up to a kegger bonfire with the haughtiness of a vintage Beaujolais. For Blue Moon, taking place as so many of the Texan-based director’s best yarns do over the course of a single night, there’s an ambition for this film to meld both versions of Richard Linklater. That is, as plenty would call it, an intriguing proposition and challenge.
Blue Moon takes place on the very specific date of March 31, 1943. It is the opening night and Broadway premiere of Oklahoma!, conceived by the duo of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein III. Our eyes and ears from a box seat belong to Lorenz Hart, another of Rodgers’s longtime creative partners. Played by Ethan Hawke through a dramatic transformation of makeup and camera trickery, the diminutive man responsible for Babes in Arms and dozens of contributions to what would become the Great American Songbook of jazz standards does not like what he’s watching. He slips out early and heads to the popular Theater District haunt, Sardi’s—where his own caricature portrait hangs on the wall among other Broadway greats—for a libation before the after-party.
Lorenz Hart is welcomed with open arms and, despite his recent attempt at sobriety, an open tab by Eddie, the Sardi’s bartender (Bobby Cannavale). They know each other well, where the loquacious Hart, upon hearing the live background piano being played by young Morty “Knuckles” Rifkin (Jonah Lees of Superman), begins to chastise the merits of Casablanca. Soon, he turns his chiding to Oklahoma! itself, convinced it’s nothing more than a populist and fraudulent hayseed send-up with no future.
LESSON #2: HOLDING COURT— Grabbing the ears of Bobby, Knuckles, and the relaxing, aspiring author E. B. White (Patrick Kennedy of The Queen’s Gambit), years before he would write Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web, Lorenz Hart is personifying the term “holding court” in Blue Moon. Pouring out pages of dialogue and diatribes, Hawke’s main character pours all the tea he sees fit to vocalize while staring down a waiting and tempting shot of whiskey. Swirling in between his hot takes are his passionate opinions on entertainment. He declares, “great art levitates,” and he’s spot on. Hart’s track record of success has earned him the right to rant.
Lorenz Hart quickly changes his tune from lambasting to apple-polishing when the Oklahoma! dignitaries arrive, beaming from their successful debut. As soon as he can, Lorenz latches himself to Richard Rodgers (All of Us Strangers star Andrew Scott) and piles on florid praise and effusive compliments we—with our dramatic irony in Blue Moon of watching the minutes before this convergence—know to be a crock of brown-nosing shit. We sniff the jealousy, even if Rodgers cannot, and that multiplies when Oscar Hammerstein III (Simon Delaney of The Conjuring 2) joins the soiree, flanked by his young mentee Stevie Sondheim (Spilt Milk’s Cillian Sullivan).
While buttering up to his old partner with pitches for new collaborations is a pivotal reason for Lorenz Hart hanging around Sardi’s, Lorenz’s highest source of anticipation stems from the attendance of budding starlet Elizabeth Weiland (The Substance’s stunner Margaret Qualley). Even though he is self-declared “omnisexual” and old enough to be her father, Lorenz pines badly for Elizabeth and hopes to consummate his infatuation this very evening. He sees this potential romantic victory as the spark to turn his career and confidence around.
LESSON #3: WHAT WILL THIS NIGHT BRING?— Peeking around the cinematic window dressing of black-tie fashion and stuck-up Broadway decadence, Blue Moon is essentially a proper entry into the “Party Linklater” oeuvre, taking place in a “Presige Linklater” setting and time period. The “popular people,” so to speak, have come together to toast success, and we’re here for the stargazing. Yet, thanks to Linklater’s penchant for waltzing around small settings with engaging talks and fascinating people, the director sews in an abundance of anticipation and atmosphere. We truly don’t know what this night will bring, but we want to find out.
The engine for all of the boozy buzz and smoky mood is entirely Ethan Hawke. The often-overlooked and underappreciated actor orchestrates sizzling conversations with aroused fervor and pitch-perfect cadence. He capitalizes on his character’s ability to create an elaborate story or a flowery anecdote for anything or about anything, and, even if we don’t catch all the 1940s lingo and spicy references, we hang on his every word.
Moreover, we hear Lorenz Hart’s every word of his contrarian take in Blue Moon and digest it eighty-plus years later. Watching a waning talent—less than a year before his eventual death—claw for relevance and the chance to be excited about making something new again has a strong draw. Even if Hart is (and was) clearly wrong about the forecast of success for Oklahoma!, there’s nothing wrong with aiming for sharper cynicism next to populist fluff when necessary or wanting to echo Hart’s goal to “stop being so scared” to do so as creators and consumers. Richard Linklater, through thick and thin over the years, has never sunk as low as where Lorenz Hart finished his life and career, partially because he, too, has the same inextinguishable zest to challenge and create, and puts it on screen every chance he gets. Keep going, Richard. We’re here for it.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1347)
