By John Corrado
Richard Linklater’s wistful period piece Blue Moon finds the filmmaker back in Me and Orson Welles mode, delivering a series of beautifully written and performed scenes in his portrait of former creative partners Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) and Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott).
The year is 1943, and the setting is Sardi’s, the New York bar where iconic lyricist Hart is hanging out on the night that Oklahoma! premieres. The musical Oklahoma! (that exclamation point is a source of consternation for him) is about to become the biggest hit of Rodgers’ career, having crafted the show with his new collaborator Oscar Hammerstein (Simon Delaney).
As such, it’s a night of mixed emotions for Hart, who hasn’t taken the betrayal well, and is on the verge of being washed up. Despite having given up the bottle, he begs laidback bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) to pour him a shot, just so he can look at it. A piano player (Jonah Lees) sets the mood, playing music in the background, including Hart’s own compositions. Hunched in the corner is essayist E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy).
Rodgers will join them, waiting for reviews to start rolling in. Hart is also waiting for Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), the 20-year-old Yale student he has been mentoring and sending letters. Hart harbours romantic feeling for her. But others are confused. Doesn’t he like men? Lorenz clarifies that he is “ambisexual,” and simply appreciates beauty in all its forms. In this refreshingly complex and not reductive portrayal of Hart’s sexuality, the film gets at something deeper about human desire.
This is the way that Hart carries on throughout the night, holding court and discussing his work with anyone who will listen, while debating the perfect lyric or the best lines in Casablanca (a running motif that is beautifully woven in throughout the film). Hawke’s Hart waxes poetic about his love for words, and the dialogue in Robert Kaplow’s screenplay absolutely sparkles. Fittingly, Kaplow also wrote Me and Orson Welles for Linklater.
Linklater is no stranger to talky romances or narratives constrained by time, and Blue Moon allows him to do both. It’s a chamber piece, with each actor embodying their roles. Hawke disappears into the role of Hart, his hunched over posture and combover making him appear weathered and aged, while Scott is excellent as the still-youthful Rodgers.
When the two get a moment alone together, sparks fly between the actors, the tension and chemistry between them being as compelling as it is moving to watch. Behind the camera, Linklater wonderfully evokes the setting and era, transporting us back to this night. It’s ineffable, to borrow one of the words that Lorenz gushes over in the film.
The Joy of Movies 