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Separating from the better-known colleague in a performance duo is a hazardous business. Larry David experienced it. The same for Andrew Ridgeley. Currently, this humorous and profoundly melancholic small-scale drama from scriptwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and helmer the director Richard Linklater narrates the nearly intolerable story of songwriter for Broadway the lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his breakup from Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with flamboyant genius, an notable toupee and fake smallness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is often digitally reduced in height – but is also at times recorded placed in an unseen pit to stare up wistfully at more statuesque figures, facing Hart's height issue as actor José Ferrer in the past acted the diminutive Toulouse-Lautrec.

Multifaceted Role and Themes

Hawke achieves substantial, jaded humor with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the cheesily upbeat musical he recently attended, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he bitingly labels it Okla-queer. The sexual identity of Lorenz Hart is complex: this picture skillfully juxtaposes his gayness with the non-queer character invented for him in the 1948 musical the musical Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney acting as Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of bisexual tendency from the lyricist's writings to his protege: youthful Yale attendee and aspiring set designer Elizabeth Weiland, played here with carefree youthful femininity by actress Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the legendary New York theater songwriting team with musician Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was accountable for incomparable songs like the song The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course the song Blue Moon. But exasperated with Hart’s alcoholism, inconsistency and depressive outbursts, Rodgers ended their partnership and joined forces with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to write the show Oklahoma! and then a series of theater and film hits.

Emotional Depth

The picture conceives the severely despondent Hart in Oklahoma!’s opening night New York audience in the year 1943, gazing with covetous misery as the performance continues, hating its insipid emotionality, detesting the punctuation mark at the conclusion of the name, but heartsinkingly aware of how lethally effective it is. He realizes a hit when he sees one – and feels himself descending into unsuccessfulness.

Even before the intermission, Hart sadly slips away and makes his way to the bar at the venue Sardi's where the rest of the film occurs, and expects the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! company to appear for their following-event gathering. He realizes it is his showbiz duty to compliment Rodgers, to act as if everything is all right. With polished control, Andrew Scott acts as Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what they both know is the lyricist's shame; he offers a sop to his self-esteem in the form of a brief assignment writing new numbers for their existing show the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which only makes it worse.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale plays the barman who in traditional style attends empathetically to Hart's monologues of acerbic misery
• Actor Patrick Kennedy acts as writer EB White, to whom Hart accidentally gives the idea for his children’s book the book Stuart Little
• Qualley plays Elizabeth Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Yale student with whom the film conceives Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in adoration

Hart has earlier been rejected by Richard Rodgers. Undoubtedly the world can’t be so cruel as to get him jilted by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley mercilessly depicts a girl who desires Lorenz Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can confide her experiences with guys – as well of course the theater industry influencer who can advance her profession.

Performance Highlights

Hawke reveals that Hart to a degree enjoys voyeuristic pleasure in listening to these guys but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Elizabeth Weiland and the film informs us of something infrequently explored in pictures about the realm of stage musicals or the movies: the awful convergence between career and love defeat. Yet at one stage, Lorenz Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has accomplished will survive. It's a magnificent acting job from Hawke. This may turn into a theater production – but who shall compose the songs?

The film Blue Moon was shown at the London cinema festival; it is available on October 17 in the United States, 14 November in the United Kingdom and on the 29th of January in the Australian continent.