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Separating from the more prominent colleague in a performance duo is a risky endeavor. Comedian Larry David did it. Likewise Andrew Ridgeley. Currently, this clever and deeply sorrowful chamber piece from screenwriter Robert Kaplow and filmmaker the director Richard Linklater recounts the all but unbearable tale of musical theater lyricist the lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his breakup from Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with flamboyant genius, an notable toupee and fake smallness by Ethan Hawke, who is often technologically minimized in stature – but is also at times shot standing in an off-camera hole to stare up wistfully at more statuesque figures, addressing Hart's height issue as actor José Ferrer previously portrayed the diminutive artist Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Elements

Hawke gets large, cynical chuckles with Hart’s riffs on the subtle queer themes of the movie Casablanca and the cheesily upbeat musical he recently attended, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he acidly calls it Okla-gay. The sexuality of Lorenz Hart is complicated: this film effectively triangulates his queer identity with the heterosexual image fabricated for him in the 1948 stage show Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney portraying Lorenz Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of bisexual tendency from the lyricist's writings to his young apprentice: college student at Yale and budding theater artist Weiland, portrayed in this film with carefree youthful femininity by actress Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the legendary New York theater composing duo with composer Rodgers, Hart was responsible for unparalleled tunes like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, the beloved My Funny Valentine and of course Blue Moon. But annoyed at Hart's drinking problem, inconsistency and gloomy fits, Rodgers ended their partnership and joined forces with the writer Oscar Hammerstein II to compose the musical Oklahoma! and then a raft of theater and film hits.

Psychological Complexity

The film envisions the deeply depressed Lorenz Hart in the musical Oklahoma!'s premiere Manhattan spectators in 1943, gazing with jealous anguish as the show proceeds, loathing its insipid emotionality, abhorring the punctuation mark at the conclusion of the name, but dishearteningly conscious of how lethally effective it is. He realizes a smash when he views it – and feels himself descending into defeat.

Before the interval, Lorenz Hart miserably ducks out and goes to the pub at the venue Sardi's where the balance of the picture occurs, and waits for the (certainly) victorious Oklahoma! company to appear for their post-show celebration. He knows it is his performance responsibility to praise Rodgers, to pretend all is well. With polished control, the performer Andrew Scott plays Rodgers, evidently ashamed at what each understands is the lyricist's shame; he offers a sop to his self-esteem in the form of a brief assignment composing fresh songs for their existing show A Connecticut Yankee, which just exacerbates the situation.

• Bobby Cannavale plays the barman who in standard fashion attends empathetically to Hart’s arias of bitter despondency
• Patrick Kennedy plays writer EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart accidentally gives the notion for his youth literature the novel Stuart Little
• Margaret Qualley plays the character Weiland, the inaccessibly lovely Yale attendee with whom the picture envisions Lorenz Hart to be intricately and masochistically in adoration

Hart has earlier been rejected by Richard Rodgers. Surely the world couldn't be that harsh as to have him dumped by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley ruthlessly portrays a young woman who wishes Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can confide her exploits with boys – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can promote her occupation.

Acting Excellence

Hawke shows that Lorenz Hart partly takes spectator's delight in listening to these boys but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Weiland and the film informs us of an aspect seldom addressed in movies about the domain of theater music or the films: the awful convergence between career and love defeat. Nevertheless at a certain point, Lorenz Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has attained will persist. It's a magnificent acting job from Ethan Hawke. This may turn into a live show – but who shall compose the numbers?

The film Blue Moon screened at the London cinema festival; it is available on October 17 in the United States, November 14 in the Britain and on the 29th of January in the Australian continent.