Blue Moon Review: Richard Linklater’s Gentle, Talkative Portrait of Genius and Loneliness
Abheet Gupta 
Richard Linklater has always been cinema’s quiet philosopher as a filmmaker who builds worlds out of conversations, ideas, confessions, and the delicate space between people. With Blue Moon (2025), he returns to the zone where he feels most at home: intimate dialogues, restless characters, and time suspended in thought. Blue Moon is a 2025 American biographical comedy-drama directed by Linklater and written by Robert Kaplow, inspired by the letters of Lorenz Hart and Elizabeth Weiland.
The film follows Lorenz Hart as he reflects on his life and artistic identity on the opening night of Oklahoma! — the blockbuster musical created without him by his longtime collaborator, Richard Rodgers. Premiering at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, the film earned Andrew Scott the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance before releasing in U.S. theaters on October 17, 2025, and on Digital VOD on November 25, 2025.
Blue Moon Is Intimate, Layered, and Performed to Perfection
In all honesty, I expected Blue Moon to be my movie of the year. The conversational, bottle-film genre is among my top three favorite kinds of cinema — and when combined with my favorite director, the expectations were sky-high. As it turns out, I ended up liking Nouvelle Vague (review here) a bit more, but Blue Moon is still a flawless which makes it a 2/2 bullseye for Linklater in 2025.
The signatures are here: brilliant writing, thoughtful commentary, quietly explosive performances, and that unmistakable conversational flow seen in Before Sunrise, Waking Life, Tape, Slacker, and more. Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott, and Margaret Qualley deliver performances that don’t just shine but actually breathe proving themselves worthy of every single word of praise they are being showered upon with. The microexpressions, the restraint, the intellectual rhythms… everything feels lived-in.
Hawke’s depiction of Lorenz Hart, who is not exactly a loveable character, adds so many layers to the musical giant. His intellect is wrapped in anxiety, his chattering wrapped in insecurity, and all his greatness wrapped in loneliness and need for love. It’s easily one of the standout performances of the year, right up there with Joel Edgerton in Train Dreams and Paul Mescal’s work in The History of Sound and Hamnet.
The supporting cast is equally magnetic. Bobby Cannavale and Patrick Kennedy bring the necessary gravitas and emotional counterweight to Hart’s spiraling psyche. Many of my favorite lines come from the sharp, witty, philosophical exchanges between Hart (Hawke) and E.B. White (Kennedy). Credit here goes squarely to Robert Kaplow’s writing which is philosophical, humorous when it needs to be, deeply observant, and rich with character insight.
Yet, despite so much that works, there’s an intangible element missing… something that holds the film back from being a perfect score or my personal #1 of the year. Still, it’s a guaranteed Top 10 for me.
Craft, Aesthetics, and the Allure of 1940s Broadway
The production design, costumes, makeup, and hairstyling transport you convincingly into the 1940s. Linklater isn’t known for grand sets, but much like Me and Orson Welles, the aesthetic work here is understated, elegant, and immersive. Ethan Hawke’s transformative makeup deserves special note as he becomes Lorenz Hart. Margaret Qualley’s styling also fits the era beautifully, enhancing her enchanting on-screen presence without ever overwhelming the narrative.
The runtime is just 1 hour 40 minutes, short for a usual feature film but could be long for a film built entirely on conversations. Yet surprisingly, it never drags. The pacing is nimble, the writing gripping, and the emotional tension carefully managed. The “will-they-won’t-they” dynamic between Hawke and Qualley adds romantic intrigue, while the simmering friction between Hawke and Andrew Scott creates an undercurrent of anticipation, making their interactions electric when they arrive.
Final Thoughts – Blue Moon is classic Linklater: a film where “nothing happens” and yet everything does. It’s a quiet storm of ideas, regrets, longing, humor, and the aching need to be understood. It is nearly perfect, beautifully crafted, superbly performed, deeply thoughtful, and unquestionably one of the year’s standout films.
HOC Rating – ★★★★1/2
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