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Separating from the more famous collaborator in a entertainment double act is a hazardous affair. Comedian Larry David did it. So did Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Currently, this clever and deeply sorrowful chamber piece from writer Robert Kaplow and director Richard Linklater recounts the all but unbearable account of songwriter for Broadway the lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his split from Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with theatrical excellence, an dreadful hairpiece and simulated diminutiveness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is often digitally reduced in size – but is also occasionally filmed placed in an unseen pit to look up poignantly at more statuesque figures, addressing the lyricist's stature problem as José Ferrer in the past acted the small-statured artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Motifs

Hawke earns big, world-weary laughs with Hart’s riffs on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the excessively cheerful stage show he recently attended, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he bitingly labels it Okla-gay. The sexuality of Lorenz Hart is multifaceted: this film effectively triangulates his queer identity with the heterosexual image created for him in the 1948 musical the production Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Lorenz Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of bisexuality from Hart’s letters to his protege: young Yale student and aspiring set designer Weiland, portrayed in this film with carefree youthful femininity by Margaret Qualley.

As part of the legendary Broadway lyricist-composer pair with the composer Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was responsible for incomparable songs like The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But annoyed at the lyricist's addiction, inconsistency and gloomy fits, Rodgers severed ties with him and partnered with Oscar Hammerstein II to create the musical Oklahoma! and then a raft of stage and screen smashes.

Sentimental Layers

The movie envisions the severely despondent Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s first-night New York audience in 1943, looking on with jealous anguish as the production unfolds, loathing its mild sappiness, hating the exclamation mark at the finish of the heading, but heartsinkingly aware of how lethally effective it is. He knows a smash when he views it – and feels himself descending into unsuccessfulness.

Even before the break, Lorenz Hart unhappily departs and heads to the bar at the establishment Sardi's where the remainder of the movie occurs, and anticipates the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! troupe to appear for their following-event gathering. He knows it is his performance responsibility to compliment Richard Rodgers, to act as if everything is all right. With suave restraint, Andrew Scott acts as Rodgers, evidently ashamed at what both are aware is Hart’s humiliation; he offers a sop to his pride in the form of a temporary job creating additional tunes for their current production the show A Connecticut Yankee, which only makes it worse.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale acts as the barkeeper who in traditional style listens sympathetically to Hart’s arias of bitter despondency
• Patrick Kennedy portrays EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart inadvertently provides the concept for his kids' story the book Stuart Little
• Qualley acts as the character Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Yale attendee with whom the film conceives Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in adoration

Lorenz Hart has previously been abandoned by Rodgers. Undoubtedly the universe wouldn't be that brutal as to cause him to be spurned by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Qualley mercilessly depicts a girl who wishes Hart to be the chuckling, non-sexual confidant to whom she can reveal her adventures with young men – as well of course the theater industry influencer who can advance her profession.

Performance Highlights

Hawke shows that Hart partly takes spectator's delight in learning of these young men but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Elizabeth Weiland and the movie reveals to us something seldom addressed in films about the realm of stage musicals or the films: the dreadful intersection between occupational and affectionate loss. Yet at some level, Hart is defiantly aware that what he has accomplished will persist. It's an outstanding portrayal from Hawke. This could be a live show – but who will write the numbers?

The movie Blue Moon screened at the London cinema festival; it is available on the 17th of October in the United States, November 14 in the United Kingdom and on 29 January in the Australian continent.