This is probably a biased little ramble, given that I am unlikely to ever slander Richard Linklater. He’s just as casually prolific as Soderbergh or peak Eastwood, while staying so down-to-earth with that guy-next-door approachability, even when his films might get a little too “artsy” for the mainstream. With each handful of films, he’s more the master and gets even more of my respect. I want to catch Nouvelle Vague (Travis’ review here)- what a great year in that we get a concurrent pair of new pieces from him.
As P.T. Anderson has finally set one of his first films in this day and age, Linklater, meanwhile, goes back further than he’s ever been with Blue Moon. I was thrilled about this being both a period piece and an ode to connective cinema with a marvelous throwback to Casablanca, Brief Encounter, and such. He’s now among a small group of directors who has echoed this era most succinctly, bringing the same intimacies into the present with his “Before” series. Making a connection that’s so natural and strong, even if it’s only for a day, is worth living for. He knows this as well as any of us would like to admit.
Ethan Hawke and his frequent director are obviously fascinated with lesser-known and largely forgotten artists for their biopics, as Hawke introduced me to Flannery O’Connor in Wildcat, and Linklater now highlights that before Hammerstein, Rodgers had another long-term partner.
By “partner”, I mean a collaborator, as the famous composer Rodgers was a straight and sober working family man, on his way up in the world, while the other half of his first act is a flashy but fading, charismatic lyricist, Lorenz Hart. Cleverly and I’d say perfectly, Rodgers is portrayed by Andrew Scott, and Hart is played by Hawke.
A bottle episode occurring in the bar which Hart inhabits as the end is near – both of his life and his unkempt ambitions – becomes the snarky company that takes over your Saturday night, and you get to see the crumbling of a time-honoured creative partnership as if it were a proper marriage, even if it was platonic (I Googled, and yes, there was just the love of music uniting them).
The last desperate pitches and appeals of Hawke’s Hart to Scott’s Rodgers invoke as much devastated empathy as they do second-hand embarrassment; both actors have done such a fantastic job of reminding us of those once-great relationships which are forced to wind down into mere acquaintances or bitter former friends… and often with somewhat of an urgency as one party starts to misbehave or disgrace themselves.
Then there are the great duelling monologues between the broken Hart and his muse in Margaret Qualley, as the former’s intentions to vicariously invade her life and circle of vanity become quite clear. He needs a new lifeblood and inspiration in the form of another, or he just might die of the relative uselessness and lack of attention. And despite his open orientation, he’s painfully jealous of her will to drive thirty hours to see another man. Perhaps more than anything else in his life, he’s in love with admiration – and he’s edging over to sit beside her as she’s bathing in it.
There was so much immersion into this world of timely pop culture and nostalgic namedropping, with Of Human Bondage mentioned, E.B. White eavesdropping, and that cocktail tavern culture which oozed of style and caustic banter.
And if any of that doesn’t reel you in… one of the strongest themes in Blue Moon is that of the tragedy of wasted talent, and I don’t think there’s anyone in the world who that doesn’t affect, thinking of themselves or others. I laughed when I heard Hart pitch his cannibal musical – oh, how the Midnight Madness crowd would have eaten that up and partied with him after. Maybe you were in the wrong era, Lorenz, or just hadn’t found the wildest ones in the right time.
One thing can be certain, and that is that all eras – no matter how famous, glorious or great – end. Eras of a personal, professional, social or cultural nature. Nothing lasts forever, and so don’t miss that last humble hoorah when you know that’s what it is. That’s what this film is… the end of an era, in the life of one man who relished and thrived in it up until one night.
Blue Moon opens nationwide on October 24th from Sony Pictures Classics.
