A sharply acted chamber piece that turns one long night into a funny, bruising portrait of envy, talent, and self-destruction. It should especially land for viewers who like talky, theatrical dramas with melancholy undercurrents and a strong sense of period atmosphere.
Blue Moon
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Music · History
Fri · 1h 40m
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott
Overview
On the evening of March 31, 1943, legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence in Sardi’s bar as his former collaborator, Richard Rodgers, celebrates the opening night of his ground-breaking hit musical, “Oklahoma!”
Director
Richard Linklater
Cast
Ethan Hawke, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharply acted chamber piece that turns one long night into a funny, bruising portrait of envy, talent, and self-destruction. It should especially land for viewers who like talky, theatrical dramas with melancholy undercurrents and a strong sense of period atmosphere.
Best for
Richard Linklater fans
theater and musical-history nerds
viewers who like intimate, dialogue-driven character studies
fans of bittersweet hangout movies
audiences drawn to queer subtext and self-lacerating wit
Skip if
you want a plot-heavy movie with lots of external action
you dislike stagey, talk-heavy films
you need a broadly uplifting or emotionally tidy story
you are not interested in mid-century Broadway lore
Overview
Blue Moon is built like a great bar conversation that keeps circling the same wound until it finally lands somewhere tender. The setup is simple: one night, one room, one man watching his career, his collaborator, and his sense of self slip away. That restraint gives the film its charge, letting performance, timing, and accumulation do the heavy lifting.
Worth noting
What makes it work is the mix of wit and ache. It has the easy rhythm of a hangout movie, but the mood is closer to a slow emotional collapse, with booze, memory, and professional jealousy all blurring together. Ethan Hawke gives the kind of lived-in, self-undoing performance that makes the whole thing feel both theatrical and painfully human.
Bottom line
It will likely be too mannered or talky for some viewers, but for anyone who likes Linklater at his most conversational and melancholy, this is exactly the sort of movie that sneaks up on you. It’s a period piece, a showbiz lament, and a sad comedy about being left behind all at once.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Isaac Greig (4.5★) · 10020 likes
They do a MCU-style Stuart Little name drop in this
zac.blonded (3★) · 6536 likes
Had chills every time Ethan Hawke got off his stool and was still the same height
David Sims (4.5★) · 5160 likes
we need more bar movies
James (Schaffrillas) (4★) · 4723 likes
Finally, a movie about a guy who hates Oklahoma as much as I do
Kit Lazer (4★) · 3990 likes
Quite possibly the saddest movie ever made for nostalgic theater kids who became middle-aged bisexual alcoholics.
Themes
professional jealousy, artistic collaboration, self-loathing, alcoholism, queer identity, Broadway history, mid-century Americana, one-night chamber drama
Topics
period drama, theater world, character study, bittersweet, talky, mid-century, queer subtext, alcoholism, showbiz, chamber piece