Film Review: Blue Moon

Welcome back to the blog readers. One person who definitely has Academy voters in the palm of their hand is Richard Linklater. Nowadays, most films he makes get some award attention in one way or another, with his film Boyhood (2014) winning Patricia Arquette her Oscar. He has a film adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along (TBD) on the way, and he is a pretty busy man. Continuing my trek to watch all the acting nominees, would this film be deserving of yet another Best Actor nominee? Stick around to find out.

Blue Moon was directed by Richard Linklater from a screenplay by Robert Kaplow, inspired by the letters to Lorenz Hart from Elizabeth Weiland. The film stars Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott. In the film, a despondent Hart reflects on his life and career as his former collaborator Richard Rodgers celebrates the success of his new musical Oklahoma!.

The hype around this film for me was limited to only two things: Ethan Hawke's Oscar-nominated performance and Robert Kaplow's Oscar-nominated script. I did not really have a whole lot of excitement for this film, but I was hopeful I would get some enjoyment out of it. Thankfully, it was good for me to keep my expectations low, because this film was an acting masterclass for Hawke. The script was masterful, and I love how this film acts like a play (similar to Black Bag (2025)).

Let's talk about it. Ethan Hawke deserved his nomination. Thank you all, have a great day. Oh, you want me to go into full detail? What is there to say about a man who took on the role of Lorenz Hart and absolutely carried the film? I could not believe that just a few years ago he was in Moon Knight (2022), and now he is giving a raw, powerful, reflective, vulnerable, emotional, desperate, and borderline uncomfortable (in a good way) performance. I could absolutely believe that I was watching Hart in real time unravel and be jealous of the job his friend did without him. I really did mean what I said at the top of the paragraph when I said he deserved his nomination.

I next want to talk about the screenplay of this film. Like I mentioned in an earlier paragraph of this review, the two main pillars of this film were always going to be the performance of Hawke and the script. Robert Kaplow penned the script, and reading he has never written a screenplay got me a little nervous. He was absolutely on his game and he deserved his Original Screenplay nomination. He is able to partner beautifully with Hawke to unveil the multiple layers within Lorenz Hart, and the two are able to transform every word Hawke says into an overall package that paints Hart as a tragic figure.

And finally, I want to mention the fact that this film feels like a play. Another film that this one reminds me of (and I did mention it in an earlier paragraph) is Black Bag, a thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh earlier in 2025 that I ranked as my sixth favorite film of the year. This is something that I took away from both films: their structure allows the story to flow in a way that not many other films can, and it is absolutely fascinating. This one feels more like a play than Black Bag since it really shifts to three distinct areas in one location.

In conclusion, Blue Moon is a well-crafted look at a man at the most reflective time at his life. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you at some point in the future.