Cinema review: Blue Moon
Lately, I got into the habit of going to the cinema every week and this is something I'm really enjoying for various reasons:
- it's satisfying to track movies in Letterboxd.
- I feel like a true cinephile, therefore clearly superior than the common mortal.
- in reality, my film vocabulary consists only in "I liked it", "it was interesting" and "I didn't get anything" so I thought it would be cool to write here.
The movie I choose for the first review is Blue Moon. I didn't knew anything about the story, the characters or the director. My quick glance at the synopsis was enough to catch my interest, describing the movie as a "meditation about love, friendship and art" from the perspective of the Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart as he reflects on his declining career.
I always loved a good meditation, whatever the subject, so I had imagined the movie to be some sort of trip through the ups and downs of an artist in decline, maybe even ending on a glorious return for the happy ending. I couldn't be more wrong.
Everything happens in a bar, without major changes in the scenery and characters, with Hart reflecting about all of his frustrations and romances with whoever listens to him: his longtime writing partner, Richard Rodgers, has just opened a new musical which seems to get more praise and attention than any other work they've done together; at the same time, he falls deeply in love with Elizabeth, his student, and wants to impress her in an upcoming party.
These reflections become almost a monologue, with other characters intervening occasionally, and at some point Eddie, the bartender, asks him a question that I feel sums up well the movie:
Did you ever think your entire life is a play [...] and that 99% of the people are just like extras?
In any case, this didn't make the movie less captivating; on the contrary. Ethan Hawke was amazing in the way he brought the character to life, so much so that I imagine Lorenz Hart just as he was portrayed in the film. For someone who didn't know him and all the history between Hart and Rodgers, I think the movie was an excellent tribute to the life of one of the most influential men in Broadway history.
4/5