Blue Moon (2025, R)

Like Train Dreams, I went into this film not really sure what to expect but wound up enjoying it quite a bit. It’s another Richard Linklater/Ethan Hawke collaboration, a one-night-in-the-life biopic about lyricist Lorenz Hart. It’s well-written, an intimate story about a friendship breakup that’s equal parts moving and cynical.

It’s the opening night of Oklahoma!, the first Broadway musical Richard Rodgers did not write with his longtime partner Lorenz “Larry” Hart. Larry leaves the show at intermission to bolster his spirits at Sardi’s: talking the bartender’s ear off, promising he isn’t going to drink, and preparing himself to congratulate Richard and his new collaborator, Oscar Hammerstein II.

As far as troubled geniuses go, Larry feels both familiar and specific. He’s an alcoholic whose work is often misunderstood by the critics, whose ideas about musical theatre are out of step with a lot of the general audience (not to mention his own writing partner.) He likes incisive satire and distrusts honest sentiment, and he’s of the unfortunate opinion that Oklahoma! is a piece of trite drivel that will be far more popular than anything he and Richard wrote together. He’s deeply insecure and desperate not to show it. He’s brimming with ideas for a new four-hour-long musical epic, but Richard just wants him to commit to showing up when he says he will. 

I really like the different connections we see throughout the night. Larry and Richard are the big one, of course, but theirs isn’t the only relationship we see in the film. Larry and Eddie, the bartender, know each other well and have an easy back-and-forth together. It’s clear that Eddie cares about Larry’s well-being and worries about his drinking, even as it’s Eddie’s job to serve him. While waiting, first for the arrival of his young lady friend Elizabeth and then Richard and his entourage to show up, Larry gloms onto a young GI playing the piano at the bar and a fellow drinker/writer who turns out to be E.B. White! And when Elizabeth finally comes? We already know Larry’s obsessed with her—he’ll tell anyone who’ll listen about her being 20 and him being 46, and that he’s pretty sure “tonight’s the night.” When she gets there, she asks almost immediately when he’s going to introduce her to Richard Rodgers, and yet it’s clear that they do have a special connection. Their repartee is effortless, and there’s just something about the way they interact with each other.

The film got two Oscar nominations: Best Original Screenplay and Best Leading Actor, for Ethan Hawke. The screenplay nod is self-evident. The dialogue sparkles in ways that stories about theatre writers often do, with a nice mix between witty banter and revealing monologues. The characters and their relationships depend just as much on the script as they do on the acting. As for Hawke, he’s very effective as Larry. It’s quite an “actorly” performance, and the movie loves using forced perspective/other film magic to show how short Larry is, but behind the hooks, there’s a lot of honesty here too. Larry is a man who’s deeply in pain and doing everything he can to distract from it—that comes through loud and clear in Hawke’s performance.

I enjoy the other performances too. I’ve loved Bobby Cannavale since The Station Agent, and he’s great as Eddie, playing very well off of Hawke. It took me a while to place Elizabeth, but she’s played by Margaret Qualley of The Substance—she’s wonderful in the role. I also like seeing the always-welcome Andrew Scott pop up as Richard.

Warnings

Sexual references/discussion, language (including homophobic slurs,) drinking/smoking, and strong thematic elements.

Joel Fry-days: Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 1 – “The Wars to Come” (2015)

*Major spoilers for the end of season 4*

After a brief foray in season 4, we’ve jumped ahead to season 5, where the majority of Joel Fry/Hizdahr’s screentime is. The premiere episode resets the board after the shakeups of the previous season finale, dealing with the fallout from some of the big twists and introducing some of the new stories we’ll be following.

At the end of last season, Varys helped Tyrion flee Westeros before his scheduled execution (but not before Tyrion killed both Shae and his father.) They arrive in Pentos, where Varys is ready to make plans and Tyrion is ready to drink himself to death. In the wake of Tywin’s murder, many of the remaining players in King’s Landing are trying to figure out what that means for them, and Cersei and Margaery are both circling each other. Stannis has set up shop at the Wall, and he comes to Jon with a request: convince the wildlings to bend the knee and fight for him. Daenerys is still in Meereen, where an Unsullied soldier has just been killed by the Sons of the Harpy, a radical group opposed to her rule.

Highlights:

• Once again, Cersei and Jaime find themselves standing over the body of a deceased close relative. This scene, fortunately, is far less horrifying than the one from “Breaker of Chains.” Cersei is furious with Jaime for helping Tyrion escape, telling him, “Tyrion may be a monster, but at least he killed our father on purpose. You killed him by mistake, by stupidity.”
• We get the first glimpses of the Sparrows, a fanatical religious sect that will play a major role this season.
• Personally, I prefer Tyrion’s storylines in Westeros to his ones in Essos, but Peter Dinklage and Conleth Hill do well with Tyrion and Vary’s interactions here—I especially like Tyrion’s dismissal of Varys’s plans, saying, “The future is shit, just like the past,” and Varys informing Tyrion, “You have many admirable qualities. Self-pity is not one of them.”
• Jon Snow and Stannis are two interesting characters to put in a scene together, because they’re both pretty black-and-white in very different ways. While Stannis is fastidiously pedantic to the doom of others, Jon is quite firm in his ideals and loyalties. When Stannis insinuates that Jon is too close with the wildlings (despite relying on that to convince them to join his army,) Jon doesn’t back down or equivocate—“They were born on the wrong side of the Wall, doesn’t make them monsters,” he replies simply.
• I forgot how much I like Podrick as Brienne’s squire! In this episode, Brienne’s confidence is shaken after failing in her mission to help Arya last season. While Podrick points out that Sansa is still out there, Brienne just tries to push him away, lamenting how her ambitions have soured.
• By this point in the Meereen storyline, Grey Worm and Missandei have started their very tentative, reserved flirtation, which I love—both characters consistently leave me wanting more for them. Here, Missandei is intrigued/confused by the revelation that the murdered Unsullied soldier was found in a brothel, and she shyly tries to ask Grey Worm about it. While I suppose I understand why an allosexual would think this way, it is a little frustrating that a lot of Missandei’s questions about pursuing a relationship with Grey Worm revolve around what he (as a eunuch) is capable of doing/feeling sexually. It often feels like she thinks romantic feelings are contingent on sexual feelings, even though it’s pretty clear to the viewers by now that Grey Worm likes Missandei.
• Unsurprisingly, Dany is ready to go scorched-earth on the Sons of the Harpy—she says, “[The murdered Unsullied] did not risk his life fighting for his freedom so cowards in masks could take it away, and I did not take up residence in this pyramid so I could watch the city below decline into chaos.”

Even though we didn’t see Hizdahr in season 4 again after episode 6, he got a later namedrop when Daenerys had some use for him offscreen, and that’s where we pick up with him here. He and Daario have just returned from Yunkai, where Hizdahr acted as Dany’s emissary, trying to convince the Masters to relinquish power peacefully to avoid her bloodier brand of justice.

As with “The Laws of Gods and Men,” Hizdahr only has one scene of note, again an audience with Dany. This time, he reports on his “resounding success” in Yunkai, then broaches the subject of the concessions the Masters have asked for. Naturally, Daenerys isn’t prepared to give them anything they want.

Hizdahr remains something of a slippery character—not openly shifty or nefarious, but he has a knack for pushing the wants of the former Master class while staying deeply aware of how easily Dany could have him killed. Joel Fry does some nice work with his vocal delivery here. Hizdahr often speaks in light, lilting tones, attempting to keep the atmosphere pleasant even as he proposes things he knows Dany won’t like. As their back-and-forth continues and it becomes clear that she isn’t swayed by his assertion that “politics is the art of compromise,” he starts to sound a little more forceful as he tries to keep a handle on things.

Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 1, Episode 5 – “The Colombian Connection” (2018)

*A few episode spoilers.*

It’s fitting that we’re now officially halfway through season 1, because episode 5 marks an important turning point in the story. It also initiates the show’s ties with the original Narcos, and while I think this series is terrific in its own right, it’s still neat to get these callbacks.

After a harrowing experience in the last episode, Félix has decided it’s time for a big move: he travels to Colombia in the hopes of securing a deal to expand into cocaine trafficking. While he’s away, the Tijuana plaza has to deal with retaliation from the local cocaine smuggler, and the DEA thinks they’ve found a new way into his organization.

Kiki is especially out for blood here. He’s been recklessly gung ho about this whole thing from jump, but at the moment, he’s incensed with the cartel. One of DFS officers in Félix’s pocket pulls over his wife at the start of the episode, intimidating her in a deeply twisted way. The encounter makes Kiki more determined than ever to take Félix down, and that resolve only gets more and more personal as the episode goes on.

In Tijuana, pretty much all the cocaine passes through the hands of Falcón—Félix had to meet with him in a previous episode to assure him that setting up a plaza there wouldn’t intrude on his turf. But now that Félix is looking to get into coke, Falcón doesn’t take too kindly to the thought of sharing his suppliers and his business. While Félix is out of the country, Falcón makes his opinion heard loud and clear.

As I said, we go back to Colombia here, placing the current timeframe somewhere within season 2 of that show. We see some of the heads of the Cali cartel, along with Pablo Escobar and some notable members of his operation (plus hippos!) I haven’t revisited Narcos since my first watch, but it’s neat to see these characters again—especially seeing how they interact with Félix.

The big question throughout this episode is why? Why, when Félix has the marijuana trafficking corridor completely sewn up and is making more money than he could ever spend, would he want to start trafficking cocaine? Why would he want those additional complications, that notoriety and heat? Why would he want to get into bed with dangerous Colombian cartels? Numerous people ask him, and he gives a simple answer—“If I don’t, someone else will.” And that answer may be true as a statement of fact, but it’s not the actual reason that’s driving him, and waiting to hear Félix’s real motivation lends plenty of tension to the episode.

All things considered, Félix’s first trip to Colombia goes pretty well (barring some light abduction.) As usual, it’s so interesting to see how he tailors his approach to whoever he’s pitching to. He’s told that Cali is headed by someone who’s “shrewd, a real businessman,” and he’s appropriately professional. He’s deferential while still touting the success of his operation, and he brings along his friend Isabella to vouch for him.

But it’s in Félix’s (involuntary) meeting with Pablo that Diego Luna really shines. Félix has just been brought very forcefully to Pablo, when he’d intentionally planned to avoid Medellín altogether—he’d been told that Pablo “has very strong emotions” and decided that was more mess than he wanted to get into. But now he’s face-to-face with the temperamental man he snubbed. He can feel how dangerous this is. But Félix keeps steady, unflinchingly truthful. He doesn’t try to flatter or placate Pablo. He shoots straight, and he doesn’t blink. It’s an impressive scene, and it’s such a treat to see Luna play off of Wagner Moura here. They worked together before in Elysium, but even though they only share a single scene in this episode, it’s a meaty, actorly scene that allows both of them to show off their talent.