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Separating from the more prominent partner in a entertainment partnership is a hazardous business. Larry David experienced it. Likewise Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this humorous and profoundly melancholic small-scale drama from writer the writer Robert Kaplow and helmer Richard Linklater narrates the nearly intolerable story of songwriter for Broadway the lyricist Lorenz Hart right after his breakup from composer Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with flamboyant genius, an notable toupee and fake smallness by Ethan Hawke, who is often digitally shrunk in height – but is also sometimes recorded positioned in an off-camera hole to gaze upward sadly at taller characters, facing Hart's height issue as José Ferrer once played the small-statured artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Multifaceted Role and Themes

Hawke gets large, cynical chuckles with the character's witty comments on the subtle queer themes of the film Casablanca and the cheesily upbeat theater production he recently attended, with all the lasso-twirling cowboys; he acidly calls it Okla-homo. The orientation of Hart is complex: this film skillfully juxtaposes his gayness with the straight persona created for him in the 1948 stage show the musical Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney playing Hart); it shrewdly deduces a kind of bisexuality from Hart’s letters to his protege: youthful Yale attendee and aspiring set designer the character Elizabeth Weiland, portrayed in this film with carefree youthful femininity by Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the famous New York theater songwriting team with the composer Rodgers, Hart was accountable for matchless numbers like The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, the standard My Funny Valentine and of course the song Blue Moon. But exasperated with the lyricist's addiction, unreliability and melancholic episodes, Richard Rodgers ended their partnership and joined forces with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to create the show Oklahoma! and then a series of stage and screen smashes.

Psychological Complexity

The film imagines the severely despondent Lorenz Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s premiere New York audience in 1943, looking on with jealous anguish as the show proceeds, despising its mild sappiness, abhorring the exclamation point at the conclusion of the name, but dishearteningly conscious of how lethally effective it is. He knows a smash when he sees one – and feels himself descending into failure.

Even before the intermission, Lorenz Hart unhappily departs and makes his way to the bar at the venue Sardi's where the remainder of the movie takes place, and waits for the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! company to appear for their after-party. He is aware it is his performance responsibility to praise Richard Rodgers, to feign things are fine. With smooth moderation, actor Andrew Scott plays Richard Rodgers, clearly embarrassed at what they both know is Hart's embarrassment; he provides a consolation to his self-esteem in the form of a brief assignment composing fresh songs for their existing show the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which only makes it worse.

• Bobby Cannavale plays the barman who in standard fashion listens sympathetically to the character's soliloquies of vinegary despair
• Actor Patrick Kennedy portrays EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart unintentionally offers the concept for his kids' story the book Stuart Little
• Qualley plays Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Ivy League pupil with whom the picture conceives Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in adoration

Hart has already been jilted by Richard Rodgers. Undoubtedly the world couldn't be that harsh as to have him dumped by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Qualley ruthlessly portrays a youthful female who wishes Lorenz Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can confide her adventures with boys – as well of course the theater industry influencer who can advance her profession.

Acting Excellence

Hawke shows that Lorenz Hart to a degree enjoys spectator's delight in learning of these young men but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Elizabeth Weiland and the picture tells us about something infrequently explored in films about the realm of stage musicals or the films: the awful convergence between occupational and affectionate loss. Nevertheless at one stage, Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has accomplished will persist. It's an outstanding portrayal from Ethan Hawke. This may turn into a theater production – but who shall compose the tunes?

Blue Moon was shown at the London cinema festival; it is out on 17 October in the United States, November 14 in the UK and on 29 January in the Australian continent.