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Separating from the more prominent collaborator in a performance duo is a dangerous endeavor. Larry David went through it. Likewise Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this humorous and heartbreakingly sad intimate film from scriptwriter Robert Kaplow and filmmaker Richard Linklater narrates the almost agonizing account of songwriter for Broadway the lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his separation from composer Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with theatrical excellence, an unspeakable combover and simulated diminutiveness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is often digitally reduced in size – but is also sometimes recorded placed in an off-camera hole to stare up wistfully at more statuesque figures, confronting Hart's height issue as José Ferrer previously portrayed the small-statured Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Elements

Hawke achieves substantial, jaded humor with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the movie Casablanca and the cheesily upbeat theater production he just watched, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he bitingly labels it Okla-queer. The sexual identity of Hart is complicated: this movie skillfully juxtaposes his homosexuality with the non-queer character created for him in the 1948 musical the production Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney playing Lorenz Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of bisexual tendency from the lyricist's writings to his protégée: youthful Yale attendee and aspiring set designer Elizabeth Weiland, portrayed in this film with heedless girlishness by the performer Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the famous New York theater lyricist-composer pair with the composer Rodgers, Hart was accountable for unparalleled tunes like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, the standard My Funny Valentine and of course the song Blue Moon. But frustrated by the lyricist's addiction, undependability and gloomy fits, Rodgers ended their partnership and teamed up with the writer Oscar Hammerstein II to compose the show Oklahoma! and then a multitude of stage and screen smashes.

Psychological Complexity

The movie conceives the profoundly saddened Lorenz Hart in Oklahoma!’s first-night Manhattan spectators in the year 1943, observing with jealous anguish as the show proceeds, loathing its insipid emotionality, hating the punctuation mark at the end of the title, but soul-crushingly cognizant of how extremely potent it is. He knows a hit when he views it – and perceives himself sinking into defeat.

Prior to the interval, Lorenz Hart unhappily departs and makes his way to the bar at the venue Sardi's where the remainder of the movie takes place, and anticipates the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! troupe to show up for their post-show celebration. He is aware it is his showbiz duty to praise Rodgers, to act as if things are fine. With smooth moderation, actor Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what each understands is Hart's embarrassment; he gives a pacifier to his self-esteem in the guise of a brief assignment composing fresh songs for their ongoing performance the show A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Bobby Cannavale acts as the bartender who in conventional manner listens sympathetically to Hart’s arias of bitter despondency
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy portrays EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart inadvertently provides the idea for his kids' story the book Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley acts as the character Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Yale student with whom the film imagines Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in love

Lorenz Hart has already been jilted by Richard Rodgers. Surely the world wouldn't be that brutal as to have him dumped by Weiland as well? But Qualley mercilessly depicts a girl who wants Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can confide her exploits with young men – as well of course the showbiz connection who can further her career.

Performance Highlights

Hawke shows that Lorenz Hart partly takes spectator's delight in listening to these boys but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Weiland and the film informs us of a factor infrequently explored in films about the world of musical theatre or the cinema: the awful convergence between occupational and affectionate loss. Nevertheless at a certain point, Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has achieved will endure. It's an outstanding portrayal from Hawke. This might become a live show – but who would create the numbers?

Blue Moon was shown at the London movie festival; it is out on the 17th of October in the United States, the 14th of November in the Britain and on the 29th of January in Australia.