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Parting ways from the more famous partner in a showbiz double act is a dangerous endeavor. Comedian Larry David went through it. The same for Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this humorous and profoundly melancholic small-scale drama from screenwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and helmer Richard Linklater narrates the almost agonizing story of musical theater lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his separation from composer Richard Rodgers. He is played with theatrical excellence, an dreadful hairpiece and artificial shortness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is regularly digitally reduced in size – but is also occasionally shot positioned in an unseen pit to stare up wistfully at taller characters, addressing the lyricist's stature problem as actor José Ferrer previously portrayed the diminutive Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Elements

Hawke earns substantial, jaded humor with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the overly optimistic theater production he just watched, with all the lasso-twirling cowboys; he acidly calls it Okla-gay. The sexuality of Hart is multifaceted: this film effectively triangulates his gayness with the straight persona invented for him in the 1948 musical Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney acting as Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of bisexual tendency from Hart's correspondence to his protege: college student at Yale and budding theater artist the character Elizabeth Weiland, portrayed in this film with carefree youthful femininity by actress Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the famous New York theater songwriting team with the composer Rodgers, Hart was in charge of incomparable songs like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But annoyed at the lyricist's addiction, inconsistency and gloomy fits, Richard Rodgers broke with him and teamed up with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to create Oklahoma! and then a multitude of stage and screen smashes.

Sentimental Layers

The movie conceives the deeply depressed Lorenz Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s first-night New York audience in the year 1943, observing with envious despair as the performance continues, despising its bland sentimentality, detesting the punctuation mark at the end of the title, but soul-crushingly cognizant of how extremely potent it is. He realizes a success when he views it – and feels himself descending into unsuccessfulness.

Before the break, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and goes to the tavern at the establishment Sardi's where the balance of the picture unfolds, and expects the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! troupe to arrive for their after-party. He knows it is his performance responsibility to praise Richard Rodgers, to act as if everything is all right. With polished control, Andrew Scott plays Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what each understands is Hart’s humiliation; he provides a consolation to his pride in the form of a temporary job composing fresh songs for their ongoing performance A Connecticut Yankee, which only makes it worse.

• Bobby Cannavale portrays the barkeeper who in standard fashion hears compassionately to the character's soliloquies of vinegary despair
• Actor Patrick Kennedy portrays writer EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart accidentally gives the idea for his youth literature the novel Stuart Little
• Qualley portrays Elizabeth Weiland, the inaccessibly lovely Yale student with whom the film imagines Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in adoration

Lorenz Hart has earlier been rejected by Richard Rodgers. Undoubtedly the universe wouldn't be that brutal as to have him dumped by Weiland as well? But Qualley mercilessly depicts a youthful female who wants Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can confide her exploits with guys – as well of course the showbiz connection who can further her career.

Acting Excellence

Hawke shows that Hart to a degree enjoys observational satisfaction in hearing about these boys but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Weiland and the picture informs us of a factor rarely touched on in movies about the realm of stage musicals or the movies: the dreadful intersection between occupational and affectionate loss. Nevertheless at a certain point, Lorenz Hart is defiantly aware that what he has achieved will persist. It's a magnificent acting job from Ethan Hawke. This might become a stage musical – but who would create the songs?

The film Blue Moon screened at the London film festival; it is out on the 17th of October in the USA, 14 November in the United Kingdom and on January 29 in the Australian continent.