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Parting ways from the more prominent colleague in a performance partnership is a dangerous affair. Larry David did it. Likewise Musician Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this humorous and profoundly melancholic intimate film from screenwriter Robert Kaplow and helmer the director Richard Linklater recounts the almost agonizing story of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart just after his breakup from composer Richard Rodgers. The character is acted with flamboyant genius, an notable toupee and artificial shortness by Ethan Hawke, who is frequently digitally reduced in height – but is also sometimes recorded placed in an off-camera hole to stare up wistfully at taller characters, confronting Hart's height issue as José Ferrer once played the petite Toulouse-Lautrec.

Multifaceted Role and Themes

Hawke earns big, world-weary laughs with Hart's humorous takes on the subtle queer themes of the classic Casablanca and the cheesily upbeat musical he just watched, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he sarcastically dubs it Okla-gay. The sexuality of Lorenz Hart is multifaceted: this film effectively triangulates his gayness with the non-queer character created for him in the 1948 theater piece the production Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney acting as Lorenz Hart); it shrewdly deduces a kind of bisexual tendency from Hart’s letters to his protege: young Yale student and would-be stage designer Weiland, played here with uninhibited maidenly charm by actress Margaret Qualley.

Being a member of the famous New York theater composing duo with musician Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was in charge of unparalleled tunes like the classic The Lady Is a Tramp, the number Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course the song Blue Moon. But exasperated with the lyricist's addiction, undependability and melancholic episodes, Rodgers severed ties with him and joined forces with Oscar Hammerstein II to write Oklahoma! and then a raft of live and cinematic successes.

Psychological Complexity

The film conceives the profoundly saddened Lorenz Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s first-night Manhattan spectators in the year 1943, looking on with jealous anguish as the production unfolds, despising its insipid emotionality, hating the exclamation point at the conclusion of the name, but dishearteningly conscious of how lethally effective it is. He realizes a smash when he views it – and perceives himself sinking into unsuccessfulness.

Prior to the break, Hart miserably ducks out and goes to the pub at the venue Sardi's where the balance of the picture occurs, and expects the (inevitably) triumphant Oklahoma! troupe to appear for their following-event gathering. He realizes it is his entertainment obligation to praise Rodgers, to act as if things are fine. With polished control, the performer Andrew Scott acts as Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what each understands is the lyricist's shame; he offers a sop to his self-esteem in the form of a short-term gig writing new numbers for their current production the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which just exacerbates the situation.

• The performer Bobby Cannavale portrays the barman who in conventional manner attends empathetically to Hart's monologues of acerbic misery
• The thespian Patrick Kennedy acts as writer EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart inadvertently provides the notion for his children’s book the novel Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley acts as Weiland, the unattainably beautiful Yale student with whom the picture imagines Lorenz Hart to be complicatedly and self-harmingly in affection

Lorenz Hart has earlier been rejected by Richard Rodgers. Surely the universe wouldn't be that brutal as to get him jilted by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Margaret Qualley ruthlessly portrays a young woman who wishes Lorenz Hart to be the laughing, platonic friend to whom she can disclose her adventures with guys – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can further her career.

Acting Excellence

Hawke demonstrates that Lorenz Hart somewhat derives voyeuristic pleasure in hearing about these guys but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Weiland and the movie reveals to us a factor seldom addressed in films about the world of musical theatre or the films: the dreadful intersection between career and love defeat. Nevertheless at a certain point, Hart is rebelliously conscious that what he has accomplished will survive. It's a magnificent acting job from Hawke. This may turn into a live show – but who shall compose the songs?

Blue Moon premiered at the London film festival; it is out on 17 October in the United States, the 14th of November in the UK and on 29 January in the land down under.