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Parting ways from the better-known collaborator in a entertainment double act is a dangerous endeavor. Comedian Larry David went through it. So did Andrew Ridgeley. Now, this witty and profoundly melancholic small-scale drama from scriptwriter the writer Robert Kaplow and director Richard Linklater narrates the nearly intolerable story of songwriter for Broadway Lorenz Hart right after his split from composer Richard Rodgers. He is played with flamboyant genius, an unspeakable combover and simulated diminutiveness by actor Ethan Hawke, who is regularly digitally shrunk in stature – but is also occasionally recorded standing in an off-camera hole to gaze upward sadly at more statuesque figures, confronting Hart’s vertical challenge as José Ferrer in the past acted the diminutive Toulouse-Lautrec.

Complex Character and Themes

Hawke earns large, cynical chuckles with Hart’s riffs on the subtle queer themes of the movie Casablanca and the overly optimistic musical he’s just been to see, with all the lasso-twirling cowboys; he acidly calls it Okla-queer. The orientation of Hart is multifaceted: this picture skillfully juxtaposes his queer identity with the straight persona invented for him in the 1948 stage show the production Words and Music (with Mickey Rooney acting as Lorenz Hart); it intelligently infers a kind of bisexuality from the lyricist's writings to his young apprentice: young Yale student and budding theater artist the character Elizabeth Weiland, portrayed in this film with carefree youthful femininity by actress Margaret Qualley.

As part of the famous Broadway composing duo with musician Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart was in charge of unparalleled tunes like The Lady Is a Tramp, the tune Manhattan, My Funny Valentine and of course the titular Blue Moon. But annoyed at the lyricist's addiction, undependability and depressive outbursts, Rodgers ended their partnership and teamed up with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II to compose Oklahoma! and then a multitude of stage and screen smashes.

Sentimental Layers

The movie envisions the profoundly saddened Hart in the show Oklahoma!'s first-night Manhattan spectators in 1943, observing with jealous anguish as the show proceeds, despising its insipid emotionality, hating the exclamation mark at the end of the title, but soul-crushingly cognizant of how devastatingly successful it is. He knows a success when he watches it – and feels himself descending into unsuccessfulness.

Even before the interval, Lorenz Hart unhappily departs and makes his way to the pub at the establishment Sardi's where the rest of the film occurs, and anticipates the (unavoidably) successful Oklahoma! cast to appear for their after-party. He realizes it is his performance responsibility to praise Richard Rodgers, to act as if things are fine. With polished control, Andrew Scott acts as Rodgers, obviously uncomfortable at what each understands is Hart's embarrassment; he provides a consolation to his self-esteem in the guise of a brief assignment composing fresh songs for their current production the musical A Connecticut Yankee, which simply intensifies the pain.

• Actor Bobby Cannavale portrays the bartender who in traditional style listens sympathetically to the character's soliloquies of acerbic misery
• Actor Patrick Kennedy plays EB White, to whom Hart accidentally gives the concept for his kids' story the book Stuart Little
• The actress Qualley plays Weiland, the impossibly gorgeous Ivy League pupil with whom the movie envisions Hart to be intricately and masochistically in love

Hart has already been jilted by Rodgers. Undoubtedly the cosmos wouldn't be that brutal as to have him dumped by Elizabeth Weiland as well? But Qualley pitilessly acts a youthful female who wants Hart to be the giggly, sexually unthreatening intimate to whom she can confide her experiences with young men – as well of course the showbiz connection who can advance her profession.

Acting Excellence

Hawke shows that Hart to a degree enjoys spectator's delight in listening to these young men but he is also authentically, mournfully enamored with Elizabeth Weiland and the picture tells us about a factor seldom addressed in films about the world of musical theatre or the cinema: the terrible overlap between occupational and affectionate loss. Yet at one stage, Lorenz Hart is defiantly aware that what he has attained will endure. It's a magnificent acting job from Hawke. This may turn into a stage musical – but who would create the songs?

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