‘Blue Moon’ evaluation: Diving deep, Hawke performs a self-deluding Lorenz Hart

Many actors discuss course of however Ethan Hawke has made the act of creation central to his work. He’s performed musicians and writers and when he’s gone behind the digital camera, he’s targeted on the tales of composers, novelists, film stars and nation singers each well-known and forgotten. Typically, it appears like he’s the unofficial patron saint of artwork struggling, fixated on the glory and anguish of placing your self on the market on the planet.

So Hawke’s portrayal of Lorenz Hart, the sensible however troubled lyricist liable for beloved tunes like “My Humorous Valentine,” in a narrative set shortly earlier than his demise would appear to be simply the most recent chapter of a lifelong obsession. However “Blue Moon,” Hawke’s ninth collaboration with director Richard Linklater, cuts deeper than any of his earlier explorations. Imagining Hart on the evening of his former collaborator Richard Rodgers’ biggest triumph — the launch of “Oklahoma!” — Linklater gives a wistful take a look at a songwriter previous his prime. However the movie wouldn’t resonate as powerfully with out Hawke’s nakedly weak portrayal.

It’s March 31, 1943, eight months earlier than Hart’s demise at age 48 from pneumonia, and Hart has simply gruffly left the Broadway premiere of “Oklahoma!” Arriving early at Sardi’s for the after-party, he crops himself on the bar, complaining to bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) that the present can be a large success — and that it’s rubbish. Eddie nods in a means that means he’s usually lent a sympathetic ear to Hart’s rantings, permitting him to unload concerning the present’s supposedly banal lyrics and corn-pone premise and, worst of all, the truth that Rodgers could have his largest smash the second he stops working with Hart after almost 25 years. “This isn’t jealousy talking,” Hart insists, fooling nobody.

As performed by Hawke, Hart adores holding court docket, entertaining his captive viewers with witty put-downs and gossipy Broadway anecdotes. Begging Eddie to not serve him due to his consuming drawback, which contributed to the dissolution of his partnership with Rodgers, this impudent carouser could be an excessive amount of to face if he additionally wasn’t such enjoyable firm. However finally, Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and his new lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney) are going to stroll by means of that door and Hart should swallow his satisfaction and faux to be blissful for them. From one perspective, “Blue Moon” is concerning the starting of “Oklahoma!” as a pillar of American theater. From one other, it’s Hart’s funeral.

Set virtually solely inside Sardi’s, “Blue Moon” has the intimacy of a one-man stage present. After Hart vents about “Oklahoma!,” he readies himself for the arrival of Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley), a beautiful Yale undergrad he considers his protégée. (He additionally claims to be in love along with her, which baffles Eddie, who rightly assumed in any other case.) If the common acclaim of “Oklahoma!” will pressure Hart to confront his skilled irrelevance, possibly Elizabeth’s beaming presence — and the promise of them consummating their emotions — can be ample compensation.

Linklater, the person behind “Faculty of Rock” and “Me and Orson Welles,” has made a number of movies about creativity. (In a couple of weeks, he’ll debut one other film, “Nouvelle Obscure,” which focuses on the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s epochal “Breathless.”) However what distinguishes “Blue Moon” is that, for as soon as, it’s about another person’s achievement — not the primary character. Fearing he’s a has-been, the diminutive, balding Hart slowly succumbs to self-loathing. He can nonetheless spitefully quote the unfavourable critiques for his 1940 musical “Pal Joey.” And he nurses a paranoid pet idea that Rodgers determined to collaborate with Hammerstein as a result of he’s a lot taller than Hart. (“Blue Moon” incorporates old school digital camera tips to assist Hawke resemble Hart’s under-five-feet body.) Linklater’s films have steadily featured affable underdogs, however in contrast, “Blue Moon” is an elegy to a bitter, insecure man whose view of himself as a failure has develop into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Of the various artists Hawke has honored on display, he has by no means depicted one so touchingly diminished — somebody so consumed with envy who nonetheless can’t mislead himself about the great thing about the artwork round him. Turning 55 subsequent month, Hawke shares with Hart an effusive ardour for indelible work but in addition, maybe, a nagging nervousness concerning the finish of his inventive usefulness. If he had been youthful, Hawke would have come throughout as self-regarding. Right here, there’s solely a poignantly egoless transparency, exposing the lyricist’s private flaws — his drunkenness, his conceitedness — whereas capturing the delicate soulfulness that made these Rodgers and Hart tunes sing.

Apropos of his relaxed method, Linklater shoots “Blue Moon” with a minimal of fuss, however one can really feel its enveloping melancholy, particularly as soon as the subsequent technology of artists poke their head into the narrative. (Sondheim diehards will immediately determine the brash younger composer recognized solely as “Stevie.”) However neither Linklater nor Hawke is sentimental about that altering of the guard.

That’s why Hawke breaks your coronary heart. All of us are right here for simply a short while: We make our mark after which the ocean comes and washes it away. In an usually exceptional profession, Hawke has by no means embraced that reality so fully as he does right here. In the end, possibly the work artists go away behind isn’t their most vital contribution — possibly it’s the love that they had for artistry itself, a ardour that may encourage after they’re gone. That’s true of Lorenz Hart, and it’ll hopefully show true of Hawke and this understated however profound movie for years to return.