ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Richard Linklater, director of character-driven, dialogue-heavy dramas like “Boyhood” and “Before Sunrise” and charming hang-out comedies like “Dazed and Confused” and “Hit Man,” is back with a film combining both disciplines. “Blue Moon,” a biographical drama about famed Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart, features what might be the greatest performance of frequent Linklater collaborator Ethan Hawke’s career.

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“BLUE MOON” (2025, 100 min., directed by Richard Linklater)

With “Blue Moon,” Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke have worked together on nine different films, including The Before Trilogy, “Boyhood” and “Tape,” an underrateed favorite of mine. However, their latest is the first time Hawke has taken center stage. From top to bottom, “Blue Moon” is the Ethan Hawke show.

Hawke plays Lorenz “Larry” Hart, one half of the Broadway songwriting duo Rodgers and Hart, who spent 25 years writing together, producing enduring show tune standards like “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “My Funny Valentine” and the titular “Blue Moon.” The film is set on March 31, 1943, the opening night of “Oklahoma!,” the famed musical which Rodgers wrote with his second longtime collaborator, Oscar Hammerstein II. The action takes place almost entirely at the bar of Sardi’s, the famed Broadway restaurant. The cast is small, the action is minute and the monologues are long.

Like the theater with which its protagonist is obsessed, “Blue Moon” is structured a whole lot like a play.

If the stage isn’t typically your cup of tea, have no fear. Hawke’s performance as Hart is an undeniable hook. Hawke is captivating as the charismatic, bitter man, treating his barroom comrades as audience to his prima donna rhapsodies. In Hawke’s hands, Hart is a master storyteller and an insecure ass, generous with his praise and singularly self-absorbed. When he’s at the bar, his preferred throne, Hart is the king of his dominion. However, when Rodgers – played by a laconic, severe Andrew Scott in a terrific bit of casting – and his admirers arrive from the “Oklahoma!” debut, Hawke owns the groveling, insecure and sarcastic sides of Hart, too.

While Hawke grants Hart all the effortless charm of a movie star, a bit of camera wizardry gives him the body to mismatch. Though Hawke is 5 foot 10 inches tall and a handsome 55 years old, “Blue Moon” transforms him body and soul into the balding, 5 foot tall, 47-year-old Hart. Hawke plays Hart with the moxie of a heartthrob and the experience of the heartbroken.

Though watching a film comprised solely of Ethan Hawke monologuing as a caustic, erudite narcissist is my exact idea of a fun time, “Blue Moon” does have a narrative drive, embodied by Margaret Qualley in a sly, showy performance. Qualley plays Elizabeth Weiland, a young college student Hart has declared his protégée and object of his affections. At the beginning of “Blue Moon,” we are told Weiland promised to make an appearance at the “Oklahoma!” party, where Hart is convinced – or, perhaps, convincing his peers – he and Weiland are destined to consummate their hitherto platonic love. Before her arrival, Hart wiles away the time discovering new ways to extol her beauty, building anticipation for their reunion out of mythic thin air.

Qualley earns the drum roll. In life, Hart had a reputation as a semi-closeted gay man, beautifully imbued by Hawke through Hart’s efforts at denial in front of Weiland. However, when his muse is out of the room, Hart loudly proclaims himself an “omnisexual,” flirting openly with men and reminiscing about women. The difference between his meek conduct with Weiland and his jocular comportment with his pals is the biggest clue to the audience that the grand romance Hart has concocted is a ruse. Whatever Hart might tell us, “Blue Moon” is not a love story. Weiland would agree: Qualley skillfully conveys a cool, coy undercurrent of ambition around her overeager Romeo, even if he refuses to see it. Qualley is giving an equally layered performance to Hawke’s, if much less flashy.

No matter how great they may be, the stellar performances of “Blue Moon” would be adrift without its script, written by novelist Robert Kaplow. Every conversation features something hilarious, prophetic or profound, often all at once. The dialogue is perfectly tuned to Linklater’s sensibilities as a storyteller. Fans of “Before Midnight” will love “Blue Moon,” too.

“Blue Moon” is a eulogy in soliloquy. I cannot think of an actor who could have delivered it all better than Hawke. An actor this gifted comes along only once in a blue moon – here’s hoping he gets laurels for this performance the real Hart would have been proud of.

Rating: 5/5

“Blue Moon” is now available to stream on demand.