Review | Berlin 2025: Blue Moon movie review – Ethan Hawke leads Richard Linklater’s tender drama
Richard Linklater’s new film sees long-time collaborator Ethan Hawke play the American lyricist Lorenz Hart as he struggles with fading fame
3.5/5 stars
“I have written a handful of words that are going to cheat death.” So says Ethan Hawke as he plays the real-life American lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895-1943) in Richard Linklater’s latest film.
Hart was one half of Rodgers and Hart, the duo that created such indelible songs as “My Funny Valentine”, “The Lady is a Tramp” and, of course, “Blue Moon”. But the film, which takes place across one evening in March 1943, sees him on the slide.
His partner Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) has just created his first musical, Oklahoma!, with new collaborator Oscar Hammerstein. Theirs is set to become the most significant partnership in American musical theatre history.
Set in famed New York restaurant Sardi’s, with the bar run by an amusingly droll Bobby Cannavale in the film, Blue Moon takes place on Oklahoma!’s opening night. Lorenz is invited to the after-party and regales those that care to listen to his witticisms, while sniping about the “inoffensive” Oklahoma!, branding it “a 14-carat piece of s***”.