‘Blue Moon’ Arrives On Netflix As Ethan Hawke Battles For Best Actor

The 98th Academy Awards are just over a month away and the key races are all underway. While there are near-locks in some categories — Jessie Buckley for Hamnet appears a lock — and the odds still point towards One Battle After Another taking home the big prize, there’s still much to play for.

One race with a lot of eyes on is Best Actor. The front-runner is Timothee Chalamet for his dedicated turn as a hustling table tennis savant in Marty Supreme. The performance itself is incredibly varied, with deep-seated hunger punctuated with moments of introspection and humility. It ties well into the actor’s reputation as a very serious, highly-driven performer unlike any of his peers.

His Best Actor campaign last year for Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown was punctuated with speeches where he likened himself to the greats (he eventually lost to Adrien Brody in The Brutalist), and Marty Supreme‘s marketing has similarly leant into Timmy’s unstoppable drive. It’s all very Marty, although has rubbed some pundits and potential voters the wrong way: is his ego too large?

Looking at the rest of the field, it’s easy to find more great performances but hard to identify who could topple the 30-year-old. It’s a strong field: Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon, Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent and Michael B. Jordan in Sinners. However, none has the momentum of Chalamet, meaning any win (which would be signaled at the precursor awards such as SAG or the BAFTAs) needs to combat both the actor’s off-screen charisma and on-screen brio.

One such performance that has the qualities and matching star power to challenge Chalamet is now a lot easier to see. While most people have seen DiCaprio and Jordan (both their movies have strong box office performance and are now on HBO Max), a lesser seen Best Actor nominee has just been added to Netflix on February 14: Blue Moon.

Ethan Hawke Gives The Performance Of A Lifetime In Blue Moon

Ethan Hawke plays Lorenz Hart, former playwright partner of Richard Rodgers who has departed to collaborate instead with Oscar Hammerstein II. The movie takes place over the night of the premiere of Oklahoma, the first Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, as Hart comes to terms with his creative loss.

Set at the restaurant where the afterparty is to take place, Blue Moon is an exploration of coping with artistic decline and loss. The center of the story is his relationship with Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), but it extends out to bring in the wider 1940s Broadway scope — including cheeky appearances from Stephen Sondheim and George Roy Hill. Richard Linklater’s nostalgic direction and witty dialogue is a core appeal, but there’s no denying that the real appeal of the movie is Ethan Hawke.

The first thing you’ll notice watching Blue Moon is Hawke’s physical transformation. Hart was 5′ 0″ compared to Hawke’s 5′ 10″, and that shorter stature is a hinge point for the movie. But it’s the way he balances intense, melancholic sadness and wry charm that really sing.

Sony Pictures Classics

Working in the media industry, I’ve found Blue Moon to be one of the most unanumously well-received movies of this Oscar season, with overwhelming praise for Hawke’s performance (something that can’t be said of the other nominees). Zachary Lee gave Blue Moon 4.5/5 in his MovieWeb review, describing Hawke as “a versatile actor of the highest caliber”. Since its release in October, I’ve been hearing rumblings of a legitimate Best Actor play, although at this point that seems unlikely.

Despite its accolades, Blue Moon made only $3 million at the box office. While commercial has no direct bearing on the Oscars, the Academy has increasingly favored movies that show some audience reception (evidenced by One Battle, Sinners and Marty Supreme all vaulting over $100 million worldwide). A late surge on Netflix is unlikely to change that. Current odds put Hawke well behind Chalamet, with different pundit opinions varying.

Hawke has been nominated twice before for acting (Supporting Actor for Boyhood and Training Day), in addition to Original Screenplay nominations for Before Sunset and Before Midnight. He is yet to win, and in another year there could have been a stronger opportunity. Nevertheless, win or no, Blue Moon is a highlight of his career that more people will finally get to see on Netflix.