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Parting ways from the more famous colleague in a entertainment double act is a hazardous business. Larry David went through it. So did Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this clever and deeply sorrowful chamber piece from screenwriter Robert Kaplow and director Richard Linklater recounts the all but unbearable tale of musical theater lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his breakup from composer Richard Rodgers. He is played with theatrical excellence, an notable toupee and artificial shortness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is frequently technologically minimized in size – but is also at times shot positioned in an off-camera hole to look up poignantly at taller characters, addressing Hart's height issue as José Ferrer previously portrayed the petite Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Themes

Hawke earns substantial, jaded humor with the character's witty comments on the concealed homosexuality of the film Casablanca and the overly optimistic stage show he just watched, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he acidly calls it Okla-gay. The sexual identity of Lorenz Hart is complicated: this film effectively triangulates his queer identity with the straight persona invented for him in the 1948 musical Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney portraying Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of bisexuality from the lyricist's writings to his young apprentice: young Yale student and aspiring set designer Weiland, acted in this movie with heedless girlishness by the performer Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the famous Broadway lyricist-composer pair with musician Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was accountable for incomparable songs like the song The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But annoyed at the lyricist's addiction, undependability and gloomy fits, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and partnered with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to create Oklahoma! and then a series of live and cinematic successes.

Emotional Depth

The film imagines the profoundly saddened Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s premiere New York audience in the year 1943, observing with covetous misery as the performance continues, hating its insipid emotionality, detesting the exclamation point at the finish of the heading, but dishearteningly conscious of how extremely potent it is. He realizes a smash when he watches it – and feels himself descending into failure.

Prior to the break, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and makes his way to the pub at the establishment Sardi's where the rest of the film takes place, and expects the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! cast to show up for their post-show celebration. He is aware it is his showbiz duty to congratulate Richard Rodgers, to pretend things are fine. With suave restraint, the performer Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers, evidently ashamed at what each understands is the lyricist's shame; he gives a pacifier to his self-esteem in the appearance of a temporary job composing fresh songs for their existing show A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale portrays the bartender who in conventional manner attends empathetically to Hart’s arias of vinegary despair
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy portrays author EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart unintentionally offers the idea for his kids' story the book Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley portrays the character Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Yale attendee with whom the picture conceives Lorenz Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in love

Lorenz Hart has previously been abandoned by Richard Rodgers. Certainly the cosmos wouldn't be that brutal as to have him dumped by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley ruthlessly portrays a youthful female who desires Hart to be the chuckling, non-sexual confidant to whom she can reveal her adventures with guys – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can advance her profession.

Performance Highlights

Hawke shows that Hart somewhat derives observational satisfaction in listening to these guys but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Elizabeth Weiland and the film reveals to us an aspect infrequently explored in pictures about the world of musical theatre or the movies: the dreadful intersection between professional and romantic failure. However at one stage, Hart is defiantly aware that what he has accomplished will persist. It's an outstanding portrayal from Ethan Hawke. This may turn into a theater production – but who would create the numbers?

The film Blue Moon was shown at the London cinema festival; it is out on the 17th of October in the USA, the 14th of November in the Britain and on the 29th of January in the land down under.