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Parting ways from the better-known collaborator in a entertainment double act is a risky business. Larry David went through it. The same for Andrew Ridgeley. Presently, this humorous and profoundly melancholic chamber piece from scriptwriter Robert Kaplow and helmer Richard Linklater recounts the all but unbearable account of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart shortly following his split from Richard Rodgers. His role is portrayed with flamboyant genius, an notable toupee and fake smallness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is frequently technologically minimized in stature – but is also occasionally shot standing in an unseen pit to look up poignantly at taller characters, facing Hart's height issue as José Ferrer previously portrayed the diminutive Toulouse-Lautrec.

Layered Persona and Elements

Hawke achieves big, world-weary laughs with Hart’s riffs on the hidden gayness of the classic Casablanca and the overly optimistic stage show he recently attended, with all the rope-spinning ranch hands; he acidly calls it Okla-homo. The sexuality of Hart is multifaceted: this movie skillfully juxtaposes his queer identity with the straight persona fabricated for him in the 1948 theater piece Words and Music (with actor Mickey Rooney playing Lorenz Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of bisexuality from the lyricist's writings to his protege: youthful Yale attendee and budding theater artist the character Elizabeth Weiland, portrayed in this film with carefree youthful femininity by Margaret Qualley.

As a component of the legendary Broadway songwriting team with musician Richard Rodgers, Hart was responsible for incomparable songs like The Lady Is a Tramp, Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course the song Blue Moon. But annoyed at the lyricist's addiction, unreliability and melancholic episodes, Rodgers severed ties with him and partnered with the writer Oscar Hammerstein II to compose the musical Oklahoma! and then a series of theater and film hits.

Psychological Complexity

The film envisions the profoundly saddened Lorenz Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s premiere New York audience in 1943, gazing with envious despair as the production unfolds, loathing its mild sappiness, hating the exclamation mark at the end of the title, but dishearteningly conscious of how devastatingly successful it is. He understands a hit when he views it – and perceives himself sinking into failure.

Before the intermission, Hart sadly slips away and heads to the pub at the establishment Sardi's where the remainder of the movie takes place, and anticipates the (unavoidably) successful Oklahoma! troupe to appear for their after-party. He realizes it is his showbiz duty to congratulate Rodgers, to act as if things are fine. With polished control, Andrew Scott portrays Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what each understands is Hart's embarrassment; he gives a pacifier to his ego in the appearance of a short-term gig composing fresh songs for their ongoing performance A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• The performer Bobby Cannavale plays the bartender who in traditional style listens sympathetically to Hart's monologues of acerbic misery
• Patrick Kennedy plays writer EB White, to whom Lorenz Hart accidentally gives the concept for his youth literature the book Stuart Little
• Qualley plays the character Weiland, the inaccessibly lovely Ivy League pupil with whom the picture conceives Hart to be complexly and self-destructively in love

Lorenz Hart has earlier been rejected by Richard Rodgers. Undoubtedly the universe wouldn't be that brutal as to have him dumped by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Qualley ruthlessly portrays a young woman who desires Lorenz Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can confide her adventures with young men – as well of course the Broadway power broker who can promote her occupation.

Acting Excellence

Hawke demonstrates that Lorenz Hart partly takes observational satisfaction in learning of these boys but he is also truly, sadly infatuated with Elizabeth Weiland and the movie tells us about an aspect infrequently explored in films about the realm of stage musicals or the cinema: the terrible overlap between career and love defeat. Yet at a certain point, Hart is boldly cognizant that what he has attained will endure. It's a magnificent acting job from Ethan Hawke. This might become a live show – but who shall compose the tunes?

The film Blue Moon screened at the London cinema festival; it is released on 17 October in the US, 14 November in the United Kingdom and on January 29 in Australia.