You Gotta Have Hart
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [or near purple] is a link to something in the above title or the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
However, if you’d like to know more about rationale of my ratings visit this explanatory site.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
No Spoilers Alert this time because the focus on famed Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart presents aspects of a well-known person’s life which are easily found on the Internet (although while Robert Kaplow’s script is noted as based on letters between Hart and Elizabeth Weiland I’m sure there was a lot of creative license employed in the numerous dialogues which construct this intensely-verbal narrative—appropriate given that our protagonist was known for his well-chosen words put to music).
WHAT HAPPENS: On the night of March 31, 1943 Lorenz (“:Larry”) Hart (Ethan Hawke) exits the Broadway theatre debuting the (now-famous) musical, Oklahoma! with music by Richard Rogers (Andrew Scott), lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney) rather than Hart who’d been the go-to partner with Rogers for over 20 years on their many stage works until his drinking/undependability led Rogers to seek a new collaborator. As Hart retires to the (at first near-empty) bar at Sardi’s restaurant across from the theatre he gets into lengthy conversations with bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) and Army sergeant-on-leave pianist Monty Rifkin (Jonah Lees), dismissing the quality of the new musical—while sullenly acknowledging it’ll become a huge hit (he was sure correct about that!)—and talking wistfully of his hoped-to-be new love, art student Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), despite his admission she’s 20 to his 47, along with the reality he could be just as attracted to men (with that anger-inducing reputation about him known in the public realm).
As the night goes on, with Larry awaiting the arrival of Rogers, Hammerstein, and many others when the play concludes as they all gather in this noted hot-spot to await the reviews in the city’s late edition newspapers, we have considerably more conversations between Larry and author E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy); Elizabeth (who accepts the flowers he bought for her but never receives his other intended gifts), although her message to Larry is they have no future as lovers both because she’s smitten with another art student and what she really wants tonight is to meet Rogers in hopes of becoming his production designer (as he leaves Sardi’s he gives her a ride to his Oklahoma! celebration party); Rogers, who offers Larry the opportunity to write some new songs for a revival of their A Connecticut Yankee musical (which does happen later, despite Rogers’ concerns Larry will revert to his alcoholism); and Hammerstein, with both trading compliments (unclear how sincere they are). After everyone else clears out Larry talks some more with Eddie and Marty, downs some shots that debunk his intended sobriety, then leaves although it’s not clear if he’s really having his own party that night. A few pre-credits graphics tell us Rogers and Hammerstein went on to become Broadway’s most successful musicals partners while Hart, 7 months after the events of this film, was found passed out drunk on the streets of Manhattan, died a few days later in a hospital. (If you’d like more plot details [it’s been another one of those busy weeks for me], you can go to go to this site.)
SO WHAT? My main reason for wanting to see Blue Moon was to find out how valid is Ethan Hawke’s Oscar nomination as Actor in a Leading Role; well, he certainly proved how worthy that honor is with a magnificent performance that almost wants to make me support him for the award except I’m also highly impressed with Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025), ae well as Michael B. Jordan in Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025), who plays 2 roles (!), and probably Golden Globe victor Timothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie, 2025)—haven’t had a chance to see it yet, hope it streams before Oscars night—I also haven’t seen Wagner Moira in The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2025) which I know next to nothing about, so until that one should come my way I’ll use it as a straw-man replacement so I can get Russell Crowe into this category for his fine work in Nuremberg (James Vanderbilt, 2025), a film I’d also like to see competing for Best Picture as I'd replace Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier, 2025).
High praise is due to Hawke (a frequent Linklater collaborator since Before Sunrise [1995]) for successfully taking on the burden of not only being in every scene but also (as best I recall) being in close to every shot in all those scenes. His powerful presence reminds me of another “blue” film where the impact of the lead performance was so strong it brought my rating up to 4 stars when Cate Blanchett dominated Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013) so well she won a Best Actress Oscar. Whether Hawke also brings home the prize remains to be seen (full categories' lists here [you'll have to scroll down a bit]), but he’s a legitimate contender. Before this film I knew little about Hart and his Broadway musicals except in his bio I found him to be the lyricist to a few songs I’m aware of—"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “My Funny Valentine,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Where or When”—so now I know/appreciate him more. One other thing I appreciated about this film is how the events seem to unfold in real time with no activity-compression through editing (although I’m sure it took judicious editing to weave these scenes together so they progress effortlessly), enhancing the drama as it feels spontaneous in its flow, another reason you might appreciate seeing it for yourself.
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: Blue Moon was released to domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters on October 17, 2025 with its widest run in 689 of them (has grossed $2.1 million [$2.7 million globally] so far), but now it’s down to 25 so your best option is streaming where it rents for $5.99 from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV. The CCAL encourages viewing as Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are 91%, Metacritic average score is 78%, as this ultimately-sad narrative shows a lot in a condensed form about Hart’s life with an Ethan Hawke performance well-deserving of his Oscar nomination, the main reason to see this fascinating film. Stephanie Zacharek of TIME agrees: "Blue Moon is both a modest movie and a dazzling, generous work. […] It’s about unhappiness as creative fuel, about friends and creative partners torn apart by demon drink, about the ways in which two human beings can live forever within the miracle of a song. It’s the kind of film a director and actor make when they’re completely simpatico, as Hawke and Linklater are, having sustained a working partnership since 1995's Before Sunrise—you can’t make a movie as simultaneously joyous and melancholy as this one is without being fully in tune with each other.”
But, of course, some others won’t agree, such as Kevin Maher of The Times (U.K.): "One of the most committed performances of Ethan Hawke’s career is cruelly undercut by some ridiculous “shrinking” tricks [Hart was under 5 feet, much-taller Hawke was shot to appear that way; …] And when a rare wide shot captures Hart full-bodied in the men’s room, and standing by a seemingly oversized urinal, it appears as if we’ve been teleported back to the shires, and Frodo Baggins is attempting to use Gandalf’s facilities. […] it’s fundamentally limited, like an experimental one-act play that’s mostly devoid of dramatic tension. I’m not convinced that a full-height Hawke would have saved it either.” While I’m supportive of this film you can choose for yourself while you attend to my usual closing device of a Musical Metaphor, Rogers and Hart’s “Blue Moon,” written with several discarded lyrics for a couple of MGM movies before becoming a radio hit in 1934. It’s been recorded endlessly with my choice of Ella Fitzgerald's version, as it speaks to Larry’s sadness along with his hopeful salvation from Elizabeth, even though we sense that never finalized. However, given Hart’s attempt to interest Rogers in writing some comedic material here’s another “Blue Moon,” this one a doo-wop version by The Marcels, which might be silly to a purist, yet they had a hit with it in 1961.
SHORT TAKES
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