‘Blue Moon’ Review: A Shimmering Script About Ol’ Broadway Struggles to Accommodate the Wrong Star
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Witticist-lyricist Lorenz Hart would cringe at the pun, but “Blue Moon” is nothing if not a funny valentine to the tortured (closeted, Jewish, alcoholic, diminutive) songwriter who died in 1943 at age 48, having drunk too much on opening night of his final collaboration with composer Richard Rodgers. Set six months earlier, Richard Linklater’s splendid portrait stars a courageous but egregiously miscast Ethan Hawke, chewing the scenery from a one-foot trench in the floor.