Blue Moon (dir. Richard Linklater)

by Jack Martin | Nov 30, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 100 mins

UK Distributor: Sony Pictures

UK Release Date: 28 November 2025

WHO’S IN BLUE MOON?

Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott, Jonah Lees, Simon Delaney, Cillian Sullivan, Patrick Kennedy, John Doran, Anne Brogan

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Richard Linklater (director, producer), Robert Kaplow (writer), Mike Blizzard and John Sloss (producers), Graham Reynolds (composer), Shane F. Kelly (cinematographer), Sandra Adair (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

In 1943, troubled lyricist Lorenz Hart (Hawke) contemplates his stalled career…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON BLUE MOON?

The life of Lorenz Hart, the forgotten yet significant Broadway lyricist best known for his short-lived collaborations with Richard Rodgers – who himself would go on to greater fame through his later partnership with Oscar Hammerstein II – has only been adapted once before for the screen. Hart was the subject of the 1948 MGM musical Words and Music with Mickey Rooney portraying him, but the film famously altered several important aspects of his life to meet the restrictive standards of the then-dominant Hays Code, notably his fluctuating sexuality (in the film, he’s straight as a whistle) and his crippling alcoholism that ultimately led to his death five years earlier, which Words and Music instead attributes to simple melancholia over the rejection of a woman.

Naturally, director Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon is a film about Hart that is beyond free from the days of the Hays Code and therefore able to more accurately portray him as he actually was instead of a heavily romanticised version of his personality. Yet, while the Linklater film has a lot of remarkable qualities that at the very least make it a captivating character study filled with wit and charm, Words and Music is the Lorenz Hart biopic that at least feels more like a movie, whereas Blue Moon is frustratingly far too stagey for a purely cinematic experience.

The film takes place eight months before Hart’s death, specifically on the night of 31st March 1943 as Oklahoma!, the first musical by Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and Hammerstein (Simon Delaney), makes its stage debut. Hart (Ethan Hawke), Rodgers’ former writing partner, is in the audience but departs early, headed to a bar and restaurant where the opening night celebration is due to take place, with Rodgers, Hammerstein and several other industry pals all scheduled to attend later on. It is here where the majority of the movie takes place, as Hart confides in bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) and pianist Morty (Jonah Lees) over a wide range of personal issues, from his bitterness surrounding the imminent success of his former professional partner, to his newfound sobriety which he struggles to maintain, to his deep fascination with young art student and aspiring production designer Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley) which, as per his self-described omnisexuality in addition to his crippling depression, he is pinning a lot of his hopes on.

Named after one of Hart’s most famous songs, Blue Moon similarly explores the contradictory feelings of love and loneliness as Hart, over the course of a single evening, experiences both emotions as they work in tandem to steer the deeply insecure lyricist toward an even deeper state of misery that would fuel his demise mere months later. It’s an emotionally deep script, as written by Robert Kaplow – who has history with Linklater, after the filmmaker adapted the writer’s book Me and Orson Welles into the 2008 film – which examines almost every relevant aspect of Hart’s life through very well-written dialogue without feeling like blatant exposition, instead letting much of it unfold naturally as characters converse and let their feelings become apparent, whether it be disdain or jealousy or misguided affection. You feel as though you’ve been on a wild rollercoaster despite never even leaving the building, for the script does a great job of offering the viewer insight into its deeply flawed protagonist in a way that honours and respects his legacy.

But the true brilliance of Kaplow’s script is that despite his blatant misery, self-absorption and borderline pathetic sense of desperation when it comes to forming (or in Rodgers’ case, reforming) connections with those on a more steady path than he is, Hart is often a genuine joy to be around. Hawke, in a truly fantastic performance, delivers a genuine acting showcase as he brings the already cracking dialogue to life with sparkling wit and dashes upon dashes of charm, always lighting up the screen and making this character feel well and truly rounded, particularly as we pick up on other little titbits about his life throughout. In terms of the supporting players, Scott is a highlight as the weary Rodgers who you can tell still harbours a deep amount of respect for Hart but little trust for his reliability, and while Qualley doesn’t have quite as much screentime she dazzles with early 40s charisma whenever she does pop up.

Yet, for all its stellar writing and acting, Blue Moon is surprisingly let down by Linklater, of all people. There’s nothing overtly wrong with how the director shoots the film, nor is it even in any way incompetent, but it’s more the fact that it constantly feels more like a stage play than it does a movie, as Linklater leans too hard into its theatrical nature to a point where it lacks a visual rhythm to match the one within its other elements. One could argue that Kaplow’s script is also fairly stage-like in its heavy reliance on dialogue, as is Hawke’s appropriately flamboyant performance that could potentially fuel a one-man show, but those aspects at least fit the film’s aesthetic better than the direction, which constantly gives off the vibe of a recorded National Theatre production (a good one, mind you) than anything truly cinematic.

Because of that, it’s easier to envision Blue Moon as a play instead of the chamber-piece movie it actually is, which makes it a slightly frustrating product since there’s plenty of other stuff about it that works great, but it overall cannot shake off its theatrical roots – which is weird, because this movie isn’t even adapted from a play. But much like the song it’s named after, Blue Moon has the gentle charm to just about work, even if it is aesthetically rather light and perhaps better suited for a whole other medium.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Blue Moon is an engrossing chamber-piece surrounding a tender episode in the life of lyricist Lorenz Hart, who is brought to life by Robert Kaplow’s cracking dialogue and Ethan Hawke’s fantastic lead performance, but oddly it is Richard Linklater’s overly theatrical staging and framing that denies it cinematic resonance.