Movie · 2025 · Music, History, Drama, Comedy · 1h 40m · R · English
Curator score: 6.2/10 (196K ratings)
Forgotten but not gone.
Overview
On the evening of March 31, 1943, legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence in Sardi’s bar as his former collaborator, Richard Rodgers, celebrates the opening night of his ground-breaking hit musical, “Oklahoma!”
Ratings
Curator score: 6.2/10
IMDb: 6.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.58/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Metacritic: 78
TMDB: 6.7/10
Director
Richard Linklater
Production
Detour Filmproduction, Sony Pictures Classics, Renovo Media Group, Wild Atlantic Pictures, Under the Influence Productions, Cinetic Media
Cast
Ethan Hawke, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott, Margaret Qualley, Patrick Kennedy, Jonah Lees, Simon Delaney, Giles Surridge, Cillian Sullivan, Michael James Ford, John Doran, Anne Brogan, David Rawle, Aisling O'Mara, Caitríona Ennis, Robert Kaplow, Andrew Bennett, John Cronin, Elaine O'Dwyer, Ian Dillon
Where to watch
Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharply observed, talky chamber piece that turns one bruised night into a melancholy portrait of artistic jealousy, queer longing, and self-mythologizing. It sounds especially rewarding if you like performance-driven historical dramas with a theatrical pulse and a bittersweet sense of humor.
Best for
Richard Linklater fans
theater and musical history buffs
viewers who enjoy intimate, dialogue-heavy character studies
fans of sad, funny barroom dramas
audiences drawn to queer period stories
Skip if
you want a plot-heavy biopic
you dislike long conversations in one setting
you prefer big emotional payoffs over quiet drift
you are not interested in Broadway or mid-century showbiz lore
Overview
Blue Moon is built like a late-night confession: one room, one evening, one man watching his place in history slip away. Richard Linklater uses the bar setting to make the film feel both cozy and airless, a social hangout movie that gradually reveals itself as a study in humiliation, wit, and loneliness. Ethan Hawke seems perfectly tuned to the role’s mix of charm, vanity, and self-destruction.
Worth noting
What makes it linger is the way it turns Broadway lore into emotional weather rather than trivia. The Rodgers-and-Hart split is the obvious historical engine, but the movie is really about dependency, envy, and the terror of being left behind while someone else gets the spotlight. It’s funny in a dry, rueful way, but the sadness keeps deepening.
Bottom line
This is likely to be most satisfying for viewers who enjoy dialogue as action and who don’t mind a film that stays small to feel large. It’s a polished, mournful chamber piece with an unusually strong sense of time and place, and it should hit hardest for anyone who’s ever loved an art form that moved on without them.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Isaac Greig (4.5★) · 9891 likes
They do a MCU-style Stuart Little name drop in this
zac.blonded (3★) · 6427 likes
Had chills every time Ethan Hawke got off his stool and was still the same height
David Sims (4.5★) · 5079 likes
we need more bar movies
James (Schaffrillas) (4★) · 4675 likes
Finally, a movie about a guy who hates Oklahoma as much as I do
Kit Lazer (4★) · 3906 likes
Quite possibly the saddest movie ever made for nostalgic theater kids who became middle-aged bisexual alcoholics.