#REVIEW: “BLUE MOON”

Review by  Amanda Gilmore for Mr. Will Wong

Director Richard Linklater has two strong films coming out this fall, and both follow creative visionaries in their field. Nouvelle Vague follows Director Jean-Luc Godard as he filmed Breathless, while Blue Moon follows legendary Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) on one pivotal night.

Blue Moon takes place in one bar on one storied night on Broadway. Lorenz leaves the Broadway opening of “Oklahoma!” to arrive at the famous Sardi’s early for the afterparty. His ego has taken a hit. After working on multiple hit musicals with Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), “Oklahoma!” was the first musical Rodgers made without him. Lorenz spends his night talking to barkeep Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) and others at the afterparty while confronting his shattered self-confidence.

Single setting and single day narratives fall flat. But Linklater and Screenwriter Robert Kaplow have succeeded in making this one captivating. This is wholly thanks to the legendary creative they’ve memorized. There’s so much of Lorenz’s life packed into this one night. The Filmmakers can expose his alcoholism and mental health issues while also depicting his exceptional artistry. The challenging interior life of the man aided in his ingenuity. The Filmmakers achieve the ability to show the good, bad, and ugly, along with Lorenz’s desire to be desired.

They do this through his love interest. Lorenz was involved, although not as romantically as he may have wished, with 20-year-old college student Elizabeth Welland (Margaret Qualley) during this night. He was more than half her age but held on to the hope that she might want him the way he yearned for her. Hawke and Qualley are magnetic together. Fully conveying how being desired by another can be more amorous than having physical intimacy.

The only trepidation one may have going into Blue Moon is its, for lack of a better word, ‘staginess’. It feels very theatrical. However, the Filmmakers are depicting an influential artist of the stage. Blue Moon is a film loaded with dialogue. Hawke spends the majority of his time in lengthy monologues or in conversation with another. There’s nothing wrong with this; it’s actually beneficial for the narrative. Yet, it may be a tough sell for audiences looking for something more, again, for lack of a better word, “showy”.

Although even if you aren’t a fan of this type of narrative structure, Hawke will make you one. He’s in a league of his own in a role he was born to play. He speaks a mile a minute as the short and often zany Lorenz. It’s an unforgettable performance that Hawke relishes every single moment of.

Mongrel Media release BLUE MOOON on Friday, October 24, 2025.