BLUE MOON
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott
Director: Richard Linklater
ADRIANO
Typically, with a chamber piece like Blue Moon, you can't help but feel like you're watching a play. But director Richard Linklater embraces that, almost making sure you feel that way. His direction, mixed with the whip-smart script from Robert Kaplow, immerses us in the staginess of this bar setting, with Ethan Hawke's flamboyant character work giving it extra life through his monologues. It's one of my favourite Hawke performances, in fact. I can understand if Blue Moon doesn't work for you, but its energy and pizzazz, despite its limited setting, made for an entertaining and emotional powerhouse.
QUENTIN
For better or worse, Blue Moon feels very much like a stage play, a chamber piece driven entirely by bantery dialogue and actors acting. There is no real action, and any semblance of conflict is relegated to passive-aggressive remarks and subtle glances. Admittedly, the dialogue has an almost poetic pitter-patter to it that is hypnotic in the early going, made especially so by Ethan Hawke’s terrific performance as an internally depressed man struggling to put on a happy face. But this is the movie equivalent of a nearby stranger loudly complaining about his life to the bartender; eventually, you just want the guy to be quiet.
AMARÚ
Ethan Hawke is the Sun in Blue Moon, with celestial talents Andrew Scott, Margaret Qualley, and Bobby Cannavale revolving around his inescapable gravity. So inescapable is he, that when we have to share that gravity with one of those revolving stars, it slightly dampens the experience as we wait to have him all to ourselves again. But only slightly, as Hawke and his co-stars’ vigorous sparring is beautifully captured through Richard Linklater’s encompassing direction and Robert Kaplow’s sharp writing. Blue Moon is funny, sentimental, exhilarating, heartbreaking, and as fervently conflicting as all the complicated emotions Hawke effortlessly portrays as lyrical legend Lorenz Hart.
This film was reviewed by Adriano as part of Bitesize Breakdown's coverage of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.