Blue Moon’s driving factor is its simplicity. Director Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Hit Man) utilizes it in such a way that its simple setting–Sardi’s–becomes a character itself. The limited scenery pulls focus to the characters set within it, all of them anchored by a tour de force performance from Ethan Hawke.

In March 1943, Lorenz Hart (Hawke), a famed songwriter who, at that moment, is unaware that there is only seven months left of his life, walks into Sardi’s. Earlier, he had been at the Broadway premiere for Oklahoma!, the new Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. However, it is not a success for him. For the first time in their long career together, Hart’s longtime partner Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) has created something without him. It isn’t a Rodgers and Hart production: it’s Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (Simon Delaney). And though Hart tries to act magnanimously, the betrayal of their success easily bleeds through.

Before their arrivals, though, Hart commiserates at the bar with the bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale). Hawke portrays Hart as charming, verbose, and convivial. He is animated, his character always moving at any given time. Compared to Eddie, and the piano player Morty Rifkin (Jonah Lees), Hart is very much the star of this evening’s show.

Robert Kaplow’s script gives Hart no shortage of things to say. His happiness is a facade, and one that is already peeling at the edges. Despite his smiles and his fast-paced commentary, you can see that Hart is not as gregarious as he wants people to think. Despite his promises that he’s off the booze, he asks Eddie to pour him a shot, which he inevitably ends up drinking. However, by the time he does drink it, you almost feel like he’s earned it. That’s how charming Hart is.

Hart is quirky, animated, and the star of his own show

Joining the small cast of Sardi’s patrons is author E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy), who gets sucked into Hart’s sitcom with an amiable smile. We spend the first part of this movie deep in conversation with these characters, while also simultaneously feeling like we are not being let in on something. Indeed, while Hart continues chatting on and on about the college girl that he met, Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley), you wonder, until you finally see her, if she is even real.

Once the curtain falls on Oklahoma! and the guests begin to trickle in, the atmosphere of Blue Moon quickly switches to something almost uncomfortable. Hart is established and talented, as he has told us, but the way he is received in the room is the opposite of what you’d expect a man with his accomplishments to go through.

Amidst all of this, Hawke delivers a truly sublime performance. He has a vulnerability about him that contrasts against his earnestness. Of course, makeup and camera trickery help Hawke disappear into the persona of the five-foot Hart, the rest falls onto him. For a hefty weight, Hawke shoulders it well.

There are several chuckle-worthy moments, mostly at the expense of Oklahoma!. Kaplow has a masterful command of the language here, and much of what is said will stick with you after the credits roll. It has the chance to be maudlin, and though it is at times, it’s balanced with Hawke’s performance to make it a potent blend.

Qualley and Scott also make a mark in their respective performances. In a cramped, intimate coat room scene, Qualley dashes any romantic hope Hart may have had, but so gently it hardly feels like a rejection at all. Conversely, Scott plays Rodgers as tense around his former partner, with the bad blood not quite able to be staunched even with the request to team back up with Hart on a remake of A Connecticut Yankee.

Blue Moon is equal parts hopeful and hopeless. One can dream, but it does not mean the dream can come true. One thing is certain, though: Maybe Hawke will finally nab that Oscar.

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