Blue Moon (2025) – Review

Quick Thoughts:

1. Ethan Hawke is wonderful. 

2. The conversations are engaging.

3. Bobby Cannavale would be a great bartender.

4. I love when Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater team up to make dialogue-heavy films.

5. Blue Moon!

6. Best 2025 whiskey drinking.

During a Q&A for the film Everybody Wants Some!!, Richard Linklater mentioned that he’d been working on a trilogy that focused on snapshots of influential artists’ lives. The first film in Linklater’s “artist trilogy” was Me and Orson Welles (2009), which was adapted from Robert Kaplow’s book and focused on Orson Welles’ theater production of Caesar. With Blue Moon, he’s reteamed with Kaplow and Ethan Hawke to tell a story about a particular night on March 31, 1943, when an all-timer lyricist named Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) was having a terrible night. Lorenz is best known for his work with Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), as the two wrote the music and lyrics for 26 Broadway plays and a handful of films. After 20 years of alcohol abuse and depression, the two split (amicably) and Rodgers began working with Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney), and on the night of the 31st, their play Oklahoma! opened to acclaim and success. 

After an opening involving a drunk Hart collapsing in a rain-soaked alley, the film cuts to Hart leaving the Oklahoma! premiere early and heading to the well-stocked bar at Sardi’s Restaurant in New York City. Hart is a regular at the bar, and if inspected, it’s likely his favorite cushioned barstool likely bore the exact indentation of his butt. Standing a little over five feet, Hart is dwarfed by the tall bar, which further adds to his insecurity during the depressing night. Initially, he refuses to drink, but as the Oklahoma! opening night party kicks off, his favorite bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) starts pouring him shots of whiskey (Blue Moon features the best whiskey drinking of any 2025 film). While perched on his seat, he chats with author E.B. White (Simon Delaney), piano player Morty (Jonah Lees), and his protege Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), a woman (with great clavicles) whom he has an “irrational adoration” for. While Hart is happy that his friend has found tremendous success, he’s melancholy and contemplative about his future. His alcohol-fueled antics have burned too many bridges, and since he’s a self-described “ambisexual,” he’s forced to discreetly live in the closet. This leads to his death at the age of 48, after an alcohol-fueled bender left him fatally ill. 

Between Waking Life, Before Sunset, Before Sunrise, Before Midnight, Tape, Boyhood, and Blue Moon, Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke have teamed up to make some excellent talk-heavy films that mostly take place in a single day (Boyhood and Waking Life are the exceptions). What’s great about Blue Moon is that Linklater and Hawke had the script for over 10 years and waited until they were mature enough to make the film. Hawke needed to grow into the role, while Linklater worked to mold the script into something he was comfortable directing. The end result is an engaging experience loaded with Broadway Easter eggs, genuine emotion and an incredible performance from Ethan Hawke that is equal parts funny, melancholic, heartfelt and endearing.

Final Thoughts – Blue Moon is a mature and engaging look into the workings of an iconic songwriter who was filled with “unsentimental joy.” Watch it!