Blue Moon (15)

Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon tells the story of the legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart bravely facing the future as his professional and private life unravel during the opening night party for his former partner Richard Rodgers’ hit show, “Oklahoma!”. In 100 minutes, the film unspools in real-time the events in Sardi’s bar on the evening of March 31, 1943. It is a meditation on friendship, art and love, featuring a rich tapestry of writers, actors, musicians, friends and protégés – a parade of the famous and the soon-to-be-famous. By the time this night is over, Hart will have confronted both a world irrevocably changed by the war, and the seeming impossibility of love.

With powerful performances from Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart, Andrew Scott as Richard Rodgers, Margaret Qualley as Hart’s protégé Elizabeth and Bobby Cannavale as Hart’s bartender, buddy and confidante, the film perfectly captures, with Linklater’s deft, comic touch, a singular, astonishing moment in time. (belinale.de)

The film gained Andrew Scott the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the Berlin International Festival and the Boston Society of Film Critics gave the Best Actor Award to Ethan Hawke and the Best Original Screenplay to Robert Kaplow.