‘Blue Moon’ Review: Ethan Hawke and Andrew Scott Sizzle in Richard Linklater’s Tragicomic Valentine to Love and Broadway [A-] – Berlinale

On a cold, rainy November night in 1943, a disheveled man with a long overcoat and a bottle of booze fell to the ground unconscious, unnoticed and uncared about by those going past. Only three days later, he would pass away from pneumonia complications. That man was the lyricist Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke), the scribe behind ditties such as “My Funny Valentine” and “Blue Moon,” his best-selling track. Richard Linklater’s latest film, Blue Moon, tracks Lorenz on a single night six months prior to his untimely death at the age of 48, on opening night of Oklahoma!, the newest play from Richard Rogers (Andrew Scott), his former writing partner and insinuated lover.

After leaving this production of Oklahoma! early – a play he cattily derides as populist, easy sentimentalism – we find Lorenz entering Sardi’s bar. The film begins from this moment to play out in a sense of faux real-time. Time is something Linklater has always enjoyed manipulating and twiddling around his directorial thumb; the likes of Boyhood, which was shot across a span of 12 years; the Before trilogy, which revisited the same characters in the three chronological locations of 1995, 2004 and 2013 while several scenes in each trilogy feel like little bubbles of frozen time; even his directorial debut Slacker is about microscopic human connections within a significantly small time span of 24 hours. With Blue Moon, Linklater thoroughly examines Lorenz as a complicated, closeted bisexual queen across 100 minutes through his interactions with Rogers and his new writing partner Oscar Hammerstein (Simon Delaney), the bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale), and seemingly unrequited love interest Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley).

Hawke is transformed into Lorenz in two distinct ways within Blue Moon, which marks the ninth collaboration between Hawke and Linklater. Firstly, Lorenz was not a tall man. With a little Hobbit-style camera trickery, and what appears to be a body double, Linklater is mostly able to persuade us that Hawke’s Lorenz is barely shoulder-height to the 5’8″ of his student protege Elizabeth. The second is that Hawke has been given the same, lacquered comb-over that the songwriting maestro had. It takes a little while for the picture to really let this look settle for those who are familiar with Hawke’s usual scruffy mane but once Robert Kaplow’s script nestles into a snappy groove, the performance and the film become easy to swoon for. 

There is a strong sense of stage to Blue Moon, as there are extended monologues of parley between the cast. At one point, Lorenz and Elizabeth enter a cloakroom to get some privacy and begin conversing about their previous almost salacious rendezvous. The pair have remarkable chemistry that is bred from how much this feels like a stage show; you are so intimate with them in this cloakroom that it feels like you can reach out and feel the fur that drapes behind them, where you can almost smell the bourbon on the lips of Lorenz that he licks in desire for the 20 year old. In modern vernacular, Lorenz would be deemed predatory for mentoring a young woman whom he is attracted to, but this is quietly and poetically waved away with dialogue about how his affection is based on respect for her character. There’s a power dynamic in place, but this is a mutually beneficial relationship – Lorenz gets the juicy gossip of a rambunctious young woman, Elizabeth makes a contact in the industry she can use as a leg up – and one that isn’t sexual in nature. Elizabeth has set boundaries that Lorenz daren’t break if he is to keep her as a friend, since his recent escapades have slowly shrunk his circles.

Lorenz is what we may nowadays call a ‘hopeless romantic.’ Hawke plays the character as if he is in a near permanent sense of arousal, like a puppy who can’t stop humping anything in sight but will pine when he gets told off. He even describes that the sexiest thing in the world is a half-erect penis because you never know if it’s coming or going. This is the type of leery witticisms that Lorenz keeps on the tip of his silvertongue, and Kaplow’s script revels in it with a sense of tragicomedy. Lorenz is a hound dog, but he’s also very lonely. His best friend seems to be the bottom of a bottle, and his career has stagnated since the dissolution of his partnership. Sardi’s Bar quickly becomes the location for the after-party of Oklahoma! and Lorenz is full of gushing admiration for the production that he was complaining about seconds prior. This code-switching is not a symptom of someone trying to be sly about their intentions, and instead is Lorenz desperate to be liked, desperate to be remembered for more than the song ‘Blue Moon’ which he never wanted to release.

This is shown in no better way than his conversation with Richard. The two have the chemistry of ex-lovers, where one has moved on but the other is in a limbo of lovelorn angst. Lorenz cannot code-switch or be anything but his genuine self because Richard has seen him at his best and at his worst. In a film that shows Lorenz as someone freely willing to beg for compliments only to laugh them away, this feels like the only time he isn’t performing. When their conversation comes to a close, Lorenz is in a state of desperation. His desire to reconnect with Richard means he begins singing one of their tunes as his former partner opens the door to leave. It is almost the Greek tragedy of Orpheus. His vocal rendition is the look back at Underworld’s door, and the last fleeting glance between them becomes a final goodbye. Hawke and Scott sizzle on camera together, tragically so, as Scott commands the screen with an almost military-level of precision while Lorenz is his caterwauling, spiralling opposite.

Consolata Boyle’s costumes are quite the enchantment. Elizabeth is gowned in a lush, shimmering gold dress and neckwear that sparkles as much as her character’s personality does. The suits and gowns worn by the supporting cast are classically inclined, tailored and ravishing in equal measure. Eddie and Lorenz have a funny tête-à-tête over movies of the era, with Casablanca their go-to debate on the merits of its narrative. Boyle’s costume choice here is to place Eddie in a white suit, a visual reference to Humphrey Bogart’s Rick, which leads nicely into multiple recreations of scenes in the film between the barman and his client, who face off over Lorenz’ alcohol consumption more than once. Casablanca is a prominent touchstone for Blue Moon, which is set right at the cusp of the systemic change that would follow World War Two, much like Michael Curtiz’ romantic masterpiece is. 

If his previous film Hit Man was Richard Linklater’s grand return to the great comedic stylings he fostered with his middle career efforts of Bernie or School of Rock, then Blue Moon is the Texan director’s return to what his career sprang from; lovelorn human beings trying to survive through the vices and virtues that they have fostered for themselves. A character study that hums with wit and pathos, that has love and sympathy for a person who, like most bisexuals, just wants to be accepted and loved “just that much.”

Grade: A-

This review is from the 2025 Berlin Film Festival where Blue Moon had its world premiere. There is no U.S. distribution at this time.

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Connor Lightbody

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