Blue Moon

With BLUE MOON, Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke reunite more than a decade after BOYHOOD (2014), marking the Texas-born artists’ ninth collaboration. BLUE MOON is another all-American affair, set in the iconic Manhattan bar Sardi’s circa 1943, on the opening night of Oklahoma!, the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. Lorenz Hart (Hawke), the famed lyricist behind such classic songs as “My Funny Valentine” and former artistic partner of Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), is drinking himself into a stupor as he reckons with his career’s downfall. Sporting a combover and perpetually hunched, Hawke delivers a spellbinding (and impressively voluble) performance, balancing his character’s wit and charisma with a profound sense of regret and sadness. A rainy opening scene details the alcoholic’s tragically young passing at age 48, casting a melancholic shadow over the proceeding events in which Hart (who was also gay and Jewish) bares his heart to the few people around him, including the beautiful daughter of a Broadway impresario (Margaret Qualley). To this end, BLUE MOON feels less a biopic than a soulful eulogy, handed delicately by Linklater with a ruminative touch. (Beatrice Loayza)

Richard Linklater (selection): SLACKER (1990), DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993), BEFORE SUNRISE (1995), WAKING LIFE (2001), BEFORE SUNSET (2005), A SCANNER DARKLY (2006), ME AND ORSON WELLES (2008), BEFORE MIDNIGHT (2013), BOYHOOD (2014), LAST FLAG FLYING (2017), WHERE D’YOU GO, BERNADETTE (2019), HIT MAN (2023), NOUVELLE VAGUE (2025)