Review - Blue Moon
Directed by: Richard Linklater
Written by: Robert Kaplow
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Rating: 3.5/5
Richard Linklater has always had a gift for finding the quiet, delicate shadings of ordinary life, but Blue Moon might be the closest he has come to something openly devastating. The film drifts with a melancholy softness, yet every scene carries emotional weight. It is the kind of work that feels small until it suddenly isn’t, the kind that lingers long after the credits because it has tapped into something true.
Ethan Hawke delivers one of the strongest performances of his career. Raw, grounded, and full of a lived-in ache, he inhabits Lorenz Hart with a level of intimacy that feels almost intrusive. Hawke has always been Linklater’s greatest collaborator, but here he feels unleashed. Every gesture, every self-effacing joke, every moment of vulnerability is calibrated with honesty rather than performance. It is, without question, one of the best roles he has taken on in years.
Andrew Scott and Margaret Qualley bring sharp, affecting support, and Scott in particular makes the perfect counterpoint to Hawke’s volatility. They are both objectively very good, adding texture without ever pulling focus from the film’s core. But this is Hawke’s showcase. He devours the character, mining Hart’s regret and brilliance with a precision that never slides into melodrama.
Linklater shapes the film with a gentleness that slowly gives way to something heavier. The final act hits hard. Not through manipulation, but through emotional inevitability. The sadness comes from a place that feels earned. Like a song you know is ending, even as you wish it would stretch itself out a little longer.
If Blue Moon has a flaw, it is that the film’s quieter stretches occasionally risk drifting too far inward. But even then, the craft keeps it anchored. The soft lighting, the reflective pacing, the attention to the loneliness beneath Hart’s charm. It all accumulates, scene by scene, until you suddenly realize the film has tightened its grip.
Blue Moon is a beautiful and deeply sad meditation on legacy, longing, and the version of ourselves we fear we will be remembered for. And at its center is Ethan Hawke, delivering one of the performances of the year, proving once again that some collaborations only get deeper with time.
