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Separating from the better-known colleague in a entertainment double act is a risky endeavor. Comedian Larry David went through it. The same for Andrew Ridgeley. Currently, this witty and profoundly melancholic intimate film from screenwriter Robert Kaplow and filmmaker Richard Linklater recounts the all but unbearable account of musical theater lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his split from composer Richard Rodgers. He is played with flamboyant genius, an notable toupee and simulated diminutiveness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally reduced in size – but is also at times shot placed in an unseen pit to look up poignantly at heightened personas, addressing Hart’s vertical challenge as José Ferrer once played the petite Toulouse-Lautrec.

Multifaceted Role and Motifs

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 rope-spinning ranch hands; he sarcastically dubs it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Hart is complex: this film clearly contrasts his homosexuality with the straight persona invented for him in the 1948 stage show the production Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney portraying Hart); it cleverly extrapolates a kind of bisexual tendency from Hart's correspondence to his protégée: young Yale student and aspiring set designer Weiland, acted in this movie with uninhibited maidenly charm by Margaret Qualley.

As part of the renowned Broadway composing duo with composer Rodgers, Hart was accountable for incomparable songs like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, the standard My Funny Valentine and of course the song Blue Moon. But annoyed at Hart's drinking problem, inconsistency and gloomy fits, Richard Rodgers broke with him and teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein II to write Oklahoma! and then a multitude of theater and film hits.

Psychological Complexity

The movie conceives the severely despondent Lorenz Hart in the musical Oklahoma!'s premiere Manhattan spectators in 1943, looking on with envious despair as the show proceeds, loathing its bland sentimentality, hating the punctuation mark at the end of the title, but heartsinkingly aware of how lethally effective it is. He understands a hit when he views it – and senses himself falling into unsuccessfulness.

Prior to the intermission, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and heads to the bar at Sardi’s where the balance of the picture unfolds, and expects the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! cast to show up for their after-party. He realizes it is his entertainment obligation to congratulate Richard Rodgers, to pretend everything is all right. With polished control, actor Andrew Scott acts as Richard Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what both are aware is Hart's embarrassment; he offers a sop to his ego in the guise of a short-term gig creating additional tunes for their ongoing performance A Connecticut Yankee, which only makes it worse.

• The performer Bobby Cannavale plays the barkeeper who in conventional manner listens sympathetically to Hart's monologues of vinegary despair
• Actor Patrick Kennedy plays author EB White, to whom Hart unintentionally offers the concept for his youth literature the book Stuart Little
• Qualley acts as the character Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Yale attendee with whom the movie imagines Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in adoration

Lorenz Hart has already been jilted by Richard Rodgers. Certainly the universe wouldn't be that brutal as to have him dumped by Weiland as well? But Qualley mercilessly depicts a young woman who wishes Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can disclose her experiences with young men – as well of course the showbiz connection who can promote her occupation.

Standout Roles

Hawke reveals that Hart somewhat derives voyeuristic pleasure in listening to these boys but he is also genuinely, tragically besotted with Elizabeth Weiland and the picture reveals to us an aspect infrequently explored in pictures about the world of musical theatre or the cinema: the dreadful intersection between career and love defeat. However at some level, Lorenz Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has achieved will survive. It's a magnificent acting job from Ethan Hawke. This may turn into a theater production – but who will write the numbers?

Blue Moon was shown at the London cinema festival; it is available on October 17 in the US, November 14 in the UK and on January 29 in the land down under.