The Oscar drumbeat has already begun for Best Actor in a Leading Role this season.
Some performances have already been seen, like Leonardo DiCaprio in “One Battle After Another” and Michael B. Jordan in “Sinners.”
Prognosticators like to include predictions for things no one’s seen, like Daniel Day Lewis in “Anemone” and Timothy Chalamet in “Marty Supreme.”
But the truly outstanding performance so far is Ethan Hawke in “Blue Moon.” The Richard Linklater movie is currently at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, and releases October 17th.
Those who’ve seen “Blue Moon” know that this is Hawke’s finest and most unexpected performance. He plays songwriter Lorenz Hart, who co-wrote dozens of American Songbook songs like the title song, plus “My Funny Valentine,” “Where or When,” “My Romance,” “The Lady is a Tramp,” “(We’ll Have) Manhattan,” and so on.
Most of Hart’s hits were written with Richard Rodgers. When we meet Hart, it’s been 16 years since the duo has worked together. It’s the opening night of “Oklahoma!” — March 31, 1943 — which Rodgers has done with Oscar Hammerstein. Hart is prowling around Sardi’s where “Blue Moon” takes place, waiting for the after party to begin and reviews to be announced.
Hart is trying to get drunk at the empty bar in Sardi’s, talking mostly with the bartender (an amiable Bobby Cannavale) and the pianist, a soldier on leave named Knuckles (Jonah Lees). In time, a preppy looking older fellow is spotted drinking in a corner. That’s “The New Yorker” legend E. B. White (Patrick Kennedy), who’s struggling to finish “Charlotte’s Web” and gets another idea from Hart before the night is over.
You’d think a movie just set in Sardi’s wouldn’t have much action, but Linklater knows how to move a camera around like no one else. Also, the Robert Kaplow screenplay is so mesmerizing that the focus is on the words more than anything else, although a scene set with Hawke and Margaret Qualley in the coat check room is the surprise of the movie.
Eventually, the crowd comes in from opening, starting with Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and a variety of characters. Hammerstein introduces Hart to his 13 year old student named Stephen (as in Sondheim) and there are some other surprises — IFYKYK, as they say now.
But mainly, it’s all about Hart, who was just five feet tall, gay, and alcoholic. How Hawke and Linklater faked off the height is the real story, since Hawke is probably 10 inches taller in reality. Throughout the film, as Hawke — with his slicked back hair, sad pasty smile, and endless gab — moves around the restaurant, he’s dwarfed by everything and everyone around him.
Hawke has never had trouble talking talking talking on film or on stage. He’s basically a monologist who lets other people speak from time to time. Think of “Boyhood” or the “Before” trilogy, anything where Linklater encourages him to hold forth in filibuster. Kaplow’s screenplay is perfectly suited to the actor, who makes “Blue Moon” into a one man show that occasionally allows others to chime in.
Hart is fighting drink, loneliness, perceived failure, his homosexuality, and disappointment that “Oklahoma!” will now overshadow everything he’s written with Rodgers. Hawke is incandescent. He should get not only an Oscar but a simultaneous Tony Award he’s so good at conveying a drowning man pouring water on himself at the same time.
Cannavale, et al in the bar are very good, but Qualley is also doing top work here as the subtly ambitious daughter of the woman who runs the Broadway league. Her flirtation with the very much older Hart — who’s more interested in the men at the party — is riveting. Again, their scene in the coat check room is worth the price of admission.
I hope Sony will rev up a campaign for Hawke sooner rather than later. No prognosticators should sleep on this performance — or for that matter, this screenplay. What lovely work.
