Saturday night, Sharon and I watched Blue Moon. We are working on filling out our Oscar's dance card. The film received two nominations for the upcoming 98th Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay, and; Best Actor.Blue Moon is a biographical comedy-drama film directed by Richard Linklater. It was written by Robert Kaplow and was inspired by the letters of Elizabeth Weiland to Lorenz Hart. The film stars Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley [The Substance, Poor Things], Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott.
Set on the opening night of the landmark musical Oklahoma! in 1943, the film follows the brilliant but spiraling lyricist Lorenz Hart (Hawke) as he holds court at Sardi’s restaurant. The story captures a single, booze-soaked evening where Hart grapples with professional jealousy toward his former partner, Richard Rodgers (Scott), and a painful, unrequited infatuation with a young protégé (Qualley). It is a witty and bittersweet character study that explores the fading glory of a Broadway legend just months before his tragic death.
About 15 minutes into the movie, Sharon said "this is very dense." Hawke as Hart has a lot of dialogue. Hawke's performance is very good. I found the movie interesting because I didn't realize that Richard Rodgers had worked with anyone other than Oscar Hammerstein. Rogers had worked with Hart for twenty years before partnering with Hammerstein. After watching the film, I did a deep dive in Wikipedia reading about both Lorenz Hart and Richard Rogers.
One Footnote. The movie is primarily set in a single, iconic location: Sardi’s, the legendary restaurant and bar in New York City’s Theater District. Donna, Kevin, Sharon and I had dinner there after we saw Book of Mormon.
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