Ethan Hawke’s 2025 Drama With A 91% Rotten Tomatoes Score Is A Must-Watch On Netflix
Playing an actual particular person on display screen in a method that does not really feel like a shallow imitation is hard. (Speaking of which: Best of luck to the “Beatles — A Four Film Cinematic Event” solid at dodging these inevitable comparisons to the caricature variations of the Fab Four in “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”) But portraying an actual one who’s consistently placing on a efficiency of their very own is tougher nonetheless. It’s to his credit score, then, that Ethan Hawke does this with out breaking a sweat in “Blue Moon,” the actor’s newest team-up with director Richard Linklater and a deservedly applauded 2025 true story drama that can hopefully achieve extra eyes now that it is streaming on Netflix. (The movie’s 91% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes ought to solely assist its trigger.)
Written by Robert Kaplow (who, together with Hawke, has earned an Oscar nod for his efforts on the image), “Blue Moon” facilities on Lorenz Hart (Hawke), the legendary US lyricist whose many nice works embrace the titular tune (a music I’ll personally at all times affiliate with the warbling mice from the movie “Babe” — sorry, Mr. Hart, however none of us get to really select our legacy). Like many Linklater options, his and Hawke’s “Before” film trilogy included, the story right here takes place in a restricted window of time and consists largely of individuals chatting. Their most important matter of dialogue? The spiffy new stage musical that was written by Hart’s former artistic companion of 20 years, Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), and has solely simply opened the identical evening that many of the film is ready in 1943… a present by the identify of “Oklahoma!”
Yes, as you’ve got little doubt put collectively, we’re speaking about the identical Rodgers of Rodgers & Hammerstein fame. Is it any surprise Hart’s a multitude?
Blue Moon is a melancholy showcase for Ethan Hawke and his co-stars
Lorenz Hart would possibly’ve been an actual particular person, however as depicted by Ethan Hawke in “Blue Moon,” he is your typical Richard Linklater protagonist (and that is a praise). Case in level: In the uncommon moments that Hart is not babbling poetically about artwork, life, and intercourse, you’ll be able to see the anguish and craving that he is desperately failing to carry again bubble up behind his eyes. He’s a queer, brief, repressed particular person who can not help however venture queer, brief, repressed particular person power (regardless of how a lot he insists that is not him), and even when the film did not reveal his tragic destiny in its opening minutes, one might readily (and sadly) discern it from the best way Hart handles himself on the bar the place a lot of the motion unfolds.
As Rodgers, Andrew Scott does lots with little or no; he is a cocktail of smiling reverence and barely hidden resentment when he speaks to his good, infuriating ex. Meanwhile, Margaret Qualley is equally excellent as Elizabeth Weiland (the winsome, liberated younger girl and aspiring artistic that Hart has grown near), and Linklater is content material to let his actors maintain the highlight as effectively, as his path is generally invisible. The movie does have some minor technical issues because it employs pressured perspective and different sensible tips to make Hawke look as brief as the actual Hart (which results in some mildly ungainly camerawork), however it’s a small quibble for what’s in any other case a considerate, melancholy film a couple of troubled artist left behind by historical past.
On a lighter notice: Keep your eyes peeled for a random “Stuart Little” (?) Easter egg right here, then learn up on the precise e book later. You’ll by no means take a look at the M. Night Shyamalan-penned adaptation of this story the identical method.
