Blue Moon (15)

Richard Linklater casts Ethan Hawke as drunken wit Lorenz Hart and charts the beginning of the end of his epic downfall.

It’s March 31, 1943, and the Broadway smash Oklahoma! has just premiered to rave reviews. We join the diminutive lyricist Lorenz (Hawke) as he props up the bar at the New York haunt. His viperish assessment confirms that he is no fan of what he sees as audience-pandering romanticism. ‘Oklahoma!’, it transpires, is a new work by Hart’s long-time musical partner, Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott), who has chosen to work with Oscar Hammerstein (Simon Delaney). Hart is sour that he is no longer the focus of industry plaudits, yet half- heartedly attempts to hide his scorn. Margaret Qualley plays Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Yale student with whom the film imagines Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in love.

Lorenz’s catty manner and rampant alcoholism have made him a professional liability, and there’s a sense that an exasperated Rodgers almost sees this as revenge for so much unbecoming behaviour. Blue Moon is a film which you can slip into effortlessly, and soak up its smoky atmosphere.