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Breaking up from the better-known collaborator in a entertainment partnership is a dangerous business. Larry David experienced it. The same for Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this humorous and deeply sorrowful intimate film from writer Robert Kaplow and director the director Richard Linklater narrates the all but unbearable account of songwriter for Broadway the lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his breakup from Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with flamboyant genius, an unspeakable combover and artificial shortness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is regularly technologically minimized in height – but is also at times shot placed in an unseen pit to stare up wistfully at more statuesque figures, confronting the lyricist's stature problem as José Ferrer previously portrayed the diminutive artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Themes

Hawke achieves big, world-weary laughs with Hart's humorous takes on the hidden gayness of the classic Casablanca and the overly optimistic theater production he recently attended, with all the lariat-wielding cowhands; he bitingly labels it Okla-queer. The orientation of Lorenz Hart is complicated: this movie effectively triangulates his gayness with the straight persona invented for him in the 1948 musical the musical Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney playing Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of bisexuality from Hart’s letters to his young apprentice: youthful Yale attendee and would-be stage designer the character Elizabeth Weiland, acted in this movie with carefree youthful femininity by Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the legendary Broadway composing duo with composer Rodgers, Hart was responsible for unparalleled tunes like The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, the standard My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But exasperated with Hart’s alcoholism, undependability and depressive outbursts, Rodgers ended their partnership and partnered with Oscar Hammerstein II to create the show Oklahoma! and then a multitude of live and cinematic successes.

Emotional Depth

The film conceives the deeply depressed Lorenz Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s opening night NYC crowd in 1943, observing with covetous misery as the production unfolds, loathing its insipid emotionality, detesting the exclamation point at the finish of the heading, but dishearteningly conscious of how devastatingly successful it is. He understands a smash when he views it – and feels himself descending into failure.

Before the intermission, Hart sadly slips away and makes his way to the tavern at the venue Sardi's where the rest of the film takes place, and waits for the (unavoidably) successful Oklahoma! cast to show up for their post-show celebration. He is aware it is his showbiz duty to congratulate Rodgers, to feign all is well. With smooth moderation, the performer Andrew Scott plays Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what they both know is the lyricist's shame; he provides a consolation to his pride in the guise of a temporary job creating additional tunes for their current production the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which just exacerbates the situation.

• The performer Bobby Cannavale acts as the barkeeper who in conventional manner hears compassionately to Hart's monologues of vinegary despair
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy acts as writer EB White, to whom Hart inadvertently provides the notion for his children’s book Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley acts as Elizabeth Weiland, the inaccessibly lovely Yale attendee with whom the movie imagines Hart to be intricately and masochistically in affection

Hart has previously been abandoned by Rodgers. Surely the universe wouldn't be that brutal as to cause him to be spurned by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley ruthlessly portrays a youthful female who desires Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can disclose her exploits with young men – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can advance her profession.

Acting Excellence

Hawke demonstrates that Hart to a degree enjoys observational satisfaction in hearing about these young men but he is also authentically, mournfully enamored with Elizabeth Weiland and the movie reveals to us an aspect seldom addressed in films about the world of musical theatre or the films: the dreadful intersection between occupational and affectionate loss. However at one stage, Lorenz Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has accomplished will endure. It's an outstanding portrayal from Hawke. This could be a live show – but who will write the numbers?

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