Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on Fire!
When people talk about very talented actors, people who are genuinely and consistently good at the craft, Ethan Hawke doesn’t get mentioned enough. Hawke feels (to me) like one of those actors who goes into every job like it’s the one that’s going to make his career. He commits, and he’s good to great in pretty much everything he’s been in, at least that I’ve seen (and I even forgive him for The Purge). I was happy to see that he was nominated for an Oscar, his third acting nomination and first for lead. Blue Moon hinges entirely on Ethan Hawke’s performance. This film is him, and he is the film, even with a good supporting cast.
Blue Moon is a memoir of sorts of Lorenz “Larry” Hart (Hawke), the lyricist half of Rodgers and Hart, who wrote a number of Broadway musicals over the course of a couple of decades. Hart’s decline came about not from rumors of his sexuality (he was what we would today probably call pansexual), but his copious drinking. Rodgers, needing a more consistent partner for his music, teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein to make the greatest musical composition team ever, starting with their first collaboration, Oklahoma!
And that’s going to be important to this story. Aside from the opening moment when we see Lorenz Hart clutch his chest and collapse and then a brief moment during a performance of Oklahoma!, the entirety of the film takes place at Sardi’s opening night of the first Rodgers and Hammerstein musical in 1943. Hart watches a bit of it, excuses himself from his mother’s side, and slides off to the bar at Sardi’s where he’ll wait for the show to end and the after party to begin.
What ensues is a long, rambling conversation between Hart, Eddie the bartender (Bobby Cannavale), and Morty Rifkin (Jonah Lees) who is playing the piano while on leave from the military. Hart is a long-time customer of the bar at Sardi’s, enough that Eddie knows he probably shouldn’t serve him at all. Hart talks about past shows, his relationship with Rodgers, the world around them, Broadway, and especially about Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley). Hart, who is 47, is smitten with 20-year-old Elizabeth. He hints that they spent a weekend together (but a chaste one), and is hoping that this will be the night that he finally consummates the relationship.
A short conversation with Elizabeth, a longer one with E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy), and eventually Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and Hammerstein (Simon Delany) arrive with an entourage. While a lot of this up to this point has been entertaining, there is a serious tonal shift now. Hart, who is pompous and braggadocious, is funny with his constant patter and comments. But now, confronted with the upcoming clear success of his former partner with a new writer, desperate to be seen as important and valuable again, hoping that his days as a lyricist are not over and that he won’t quickly be forgotten, Hart turns into a masterclass of desperation. Rodgers wants to do a revival of A Connecticut Yankee, with Hart writing lyrics for new songs. Hart, desperate to peel Rodgers away from Hammerstein, has an idea for a show about Marco Polo and is frantic for Rodgers to listen to him.
Blue Moon is a microcosm of Lorenz Hart. It’s alcohol, brilliance, desperation, panic, and quiet resolve all at once. This is Hart having the worst day of his life, in public, in front of the people whose lives he wants to be a part of. It’s heartbreaking and brilliant and almost inspiring all at the same time.
I haven’t seen enough from 2025 yet to know if this should have been nominated for Best Picture. There might well be 10 movies I like more than this one. But I can tell you that if I watched every movie from 2025, there wouldn’t be five better performances than Ethan Hawke’s in this. Hawke is sublime. He feels like he has lived in this skin. His Hart is a raconteur, and the life of the party. He has a quick wit and charm. And he is absolutely, heartwrenchingly out of his depth in everything. Hawke, and I say this as someone who likes Ethan Hawke, has never been better. This is a masterclass in acting. I would have loved to see some love for Bobby Cannavale, but to be fair, that’s always true in general.
Honestly, that’s the reason to watch this. Hawke is pitch perfect. He inhabits this role brilliantly and totally, and if he hadn’t been nominated, it would be something to storm the Academy to fix. He is magnetic.
Watch this for him. Okay, watch a little bit for Bobby Cannavale.
Why to watch Blue Moon: Ethan Hawke gives a master class in acting.
Why not to watch: This is a movie that is all conversation, so be braced for no action.
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