In Conversation: Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon

The following conversation is transcribed from the Above The Line episode discussing Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon. The conversation has been slightly edited for readability.

Ian: For those who haven't seen it, first of all, go see it. It's a lovely movie… it's a pretty straightforward film. Ethan Hawke plays Lorenz Hart, who was the first writing partner of famed composer Richard Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein. If you don't know, Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote Oklahoma!, which this movie centers kind of around the premiere of that musical. They also wrote the King and I, they also wrote The Sound of Music, a very successful songwriting duo. But before there was Rodgers and Hammerstein, there was Rodgers and Hart. And this movie is about Hart dealing with the fact that his former writing partner has moved on to another partnership and he's feeling a little lost and he's feeling a little left behind.

This movie takes place in one bar over the course of one evening. At a party celebrating that opening night of Oklahoma! and Lorenz Hart is dealing with the loss of his partner and also the fact that he's unsatisfied and unfulfilled in other areas of his life as well. McKenzie, I think it's no secret that we both really love this movie. I think we both went into it knowing we were going to love it and we were satisfied to find out that we both really loved it. 

I think the first thing to talk about honestly is this Ethan Hawke performance is just fantastic. I do agree with what some people are saying, that the gimmick of making him appear shorter than he is in real life—I think maybe they're using some compositing or…? 

McKenzie: I think so.

Ian: To basically superimpose him down a foot or something. I don't know exactly how it works. It's not forced perspective, I can tell you that it—looks a little janky sometimes.

McKenzie: Well, it's just in those wide shots because most of the film he is sitting or standing next to someone, and I have to assume they have those other actors just on boxes. I have to assume Margaret Qualley, in heels, who's already a tall statuesque woman is probably on a little apple box. Andrew Scott, he's an average sized dude, I'm sure he's on a couple boxes.

Ian: Ethan Hawke might be taller than Andrew Scott, to be honest.

McKenzie: Yeah! So I've assumed that in the scenes where they're walking or standing, they have platforms built where the other actors are walking on or standing on. 

Ian: There are times when he shuffles over to the piano where I was like, “what's going on here?” But honestly, it didn't take me out of the film as much as some people have said, and even the people who are noting it are still focusing on the fact that his performance is quite astounding.

McKenzie: It's really, really good. I mean, I had a terrible audience for this one. Did not ruin my enjoyment of the movie… I love the movie and Hawke. He completely fades into this character in a way that is really, really astounding. I was reading a lot about how long this has been like percolating for Linklater and Hawke and how long they've been discussing wanting to do this. I don't know if you saw that interview where Ethan Hawke said 10 years ago he was like, “hey, when do we want to do Blue Moon?” And Linklater said something along the lines of, “women still want to fuck you. We can't do it until you're a little older,” and Ethan Hawke is like, “I don't know how to feel about that. Do women don't want to fuck me anymore?” and it was just really funny.

McKenzie: I think it makes sense to do it at this point in Hawke’s life because he is a little older. He's a little bit more settled into himself as a human being, as an actor, and I think he's able to tap into this middle-aged melancholy that Lorenz Hart is feeling. And I think that I've seen some people say that they find him to be an annoying character, which is like, yes. But I found a lot of empathy for this very sad man, right? The movie begins—this is not a spoiler—begins with his death. He died just seven months after the night that the film is tackling. I think as we watch this night, everything he says is tinged with this knowledge that we know he's going to die in less than a year from this night.

Ian: This is the last major evening of his life. The most consequential evening he'll have before he dies.

McKenzie: Yeah, and I think that that brings a level of melancholy that is intended. I think that I just fell totally in love with Hawke's performance. How completely he just transforms into this character. I've never seen him give a performance like that in my life. It is so transformative and it's not even a ton of makeup. Like, yes, he shaved his head and they added some makeup and they gave the comb over. But really it's the physical, the physicality of the way he as he's talking and the beautiful script. I loved this script. It was written so poetically and it feels reminiscent of the lyricism of Lorenz Hart. You probably heard Blue Moon, one of the most famous songs he ever wrote. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,  Isn't It Romantic, My Funny Valentine. You may not know his name, but you've probably heard his words and they were all very poetic.

The highlights for me were Hawke’s phenomenal performance, the beautiful, poetic script and then the really immersive, gorgeous, sound design and underscoring of these old school standards that just kind of play lightly underneath the whole movie. I was so swept up in it. It's like a play and I love that shit. I'm a theater kid. Ian and I are staunch defenders of Come Back To The Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, which is essentially a play filmed by Robert Altman. And I love it. I love movies that feel like plays.

Ian: I love the way that Hawke does kind of make himself diminutive because it's not just some of the wacky visual effects, which honestly, again, didn't take me out of the movie, but I really love the way that he kind of shrinks himself down. There's a bunch of times where he's talking to Bobby Cannavale's character who plays the bartender, in which he just feels small. It reminded me, there's this amazing moment in the Mr. Scorsese documentary where Isabella Rossellini is talking about Marty and she calls him a, “minuscule man.” And I was kind of thinking about that the whole time I was watching Ethan Hawke embody Lorenz Heart. 

And he changes his voice. His mannerisms are slightly more effeminate. Ethan Hawke doesn't really play macho guys. He plays kind of cool guys think like, you know, Quentin Tarantino lead kind of. He's got that side of himself, but then he's got the very sensitive, soft side a la Linklater's Before Trilogy, which he embodies a lot. But there's something completely different to me about this performance. I really thought he keyed into  a different wavelength for this role, which I really appreciated. I hadn't seen him do something this restrained in a long time and I'm a fairly big Ethan Hawke fan. I like him as a person. I think he's a lovely personality. I adore his documentary on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. That side of Ethan Hawke I absolutely love and there's so much in that guy who cares so much about the method and cares so much about the craft of acting being channelled through this historical figure who, while not an actor, is a member of that world. I absolutely love his performance.

I also really love this script. I know you just bought it. You just got like a $10 copy of it and we're kind of bummed that you don't have it yet because we wanted to reference it. But I went and saw it again just so I could take some notes and thankfully I was completely alone in that screening, so I whipped out the old cell phone and I just wrote down a bunch of lines. There's just so much beautiful language in this film, which makes total sense because this is a movie about writers. Not only is it about Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein and Lorenz Hart, obviously, but E.B. White—the author of Stuart Little—makes an appearance in what is probably my favorite 10 minute stretch of the movie. Robert Daniels wrote about this performance specifically, and I could not agree more with him that this performance is essential to the movie because this is the only guy that ever listens to him and sees him. My favorite line in the movie is said by E.B. White and it's in the trailer. McKenzie, I'm sure you know what I'm going to say is, “I think she recognizes that she's being adored by one of the great appreciators of beauty,” which I mean, that just sums up the man, right? I love this tiny little bisexual man who just loves, loves all genders and loves everybody. McKenzie, I could see you getting excited.

McKenzie: Ian, can I embarrass myself?

Ian: I mean, please. That's what the show exists for.

McKenzie: I did not know E.B. White wrote Stuart Little. So when they do [the] thing about Stuart Little, I just thought it was a coincidence. I was like, “that's weird!” I will say, again, does not ruin my enjoyment of the movie, but I can see someone maybe finding it a little hokey how many references there are like that.

Ian: Well, there's Stevie Sondheim.

McKenzie: Stevie Sondheim, which I did not clock until after the movie, that there's a little kid who was supposed to be Stephen Sondheim. I did not realize that him telling a story about this mouse was supposed to be inspiring the book Stuart Little—over my head completely. There's oh, the director, what's his face?

Ian: George Roy Hill.

McKenzie: Yeah, George Roy Hill kind of makes an appearance.

Ian: The director of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting gets told by Lorenz Hart to focus on “friendship stories.”

McKenzie: I think it's a little hokey, but I don't care.

Ian: I don't care at all.

McKenzie: I don't care, but Ian, I did not know he wrote Stuart Little. So I was sitting there like, “this is kind of weird but okay…” I feel like such a dumbass that I did not know that guy wrote Stuart Little. Look, I love Stuart Little. I love that little guy.

Ian: I'll embarrass myself and admit that I did not know it until my second viewing and I accidentally did confuse him with the author of Charlotte's Web.

McKenzie: He did write Charlotte's Web. He did both, yeah.

Ian: Then never mind, I'm not embarrassed. I fucking knew I nailed that shit.

McKenzie: You just nailed that shit, Ian.

Ian: I've also read The Elements of Style because I took a bunch of English classes in college and you kind of have to. So I know E.B. White and but I was just like, I thought it was like a really smart choice actually to bring in this famous author who would have been frequenting the same bars that Lorenz Hart would have been frequenting. And it's this amazing moment where they just get to talk about the way we speak and the way we write and they get to talk about language, which is something Linklater, Hawke, and obviously the script are obsessed with. It's the one moment in the movie that they get to talk about his craft, which is, you know, this movie is mostly about his lack of a love life, like his lack of meaningful relationships with anybody. And also this movie is also about how his most meaningful relationship is fraying, is coming to a close.

McKenzie: And the thing is, I also have a lot of sympathy for where Rodgers is coming from because it's hard to love someone who is so unable to take care of themselves.  Andrew Scott is probably the most subdued I've ever seen him in a performance. And because I kind of associate him with being—I watched his Hamlet, I think of him as kind of like very funny, a little bit weepy, a bit big.

Ian: “That’s what people DO!” Moriarty.

McKenzie: Oh, I've never seen that.

Ian: He plays Moriarty in Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and all he does is yell. Like there's this, there's this very like seminal part where he's confronted by Sherlock and Sherlock just is like talking about death and Moriarty just screams, “that's what people DO!” It's a meme at this point.

McKenzie: Oh my gosh. Well I knew him as Hot Priest first in Fleabag, which he's kind of snarky and funny in that. And then I watched him play Hamlet and he's very weepy and big and expressive in that. I was just surprised by how cold and subdued and especially next to Hawke, he really is playing the straight man in this, both literally and figuratively, I guess. I just found it to be a really fascinating performance from Andrew Scott. You just see so many wheels turning in his head as he is trying to navigate this, the discomfort he's feeling with Hart while also trying to experience what is at this point the biggest night of his career. While also feeling this weird guilt because there's this ghost hanging around him, reminding him of his past and the things he doesn't feel like he can go back to anymore. I just felt like Andrew Scott was doing a lot with a little. And even then he has a decent amount to do, but he's doing so much with his eyes and with his face and you see those wheels turning as he has these, I would say really tense conversations with Lorenz where you see that they both just want different things from each other. And I think that Andrew Scott plays the love and the anger very well together.

This idea of like he tells me like you were the most important man in my life. You were, you have always been so important to me. I cannot have the same relationship I've had with you for 20 years. Like he's trying to set a boundary really and it's just kind of sad. I just was really fascinated by Scott. I think it's just something to like again, like both him and Hawke are giving something I've just never seen from them before.

Ian: Yeah, I think it's an incredibly unshowy yet complicated performance because as you say, he's playing so many different emotions that are conflicting and existing alongside each other. I love that he's not just a villain. I love that he's just not mean to him. The most touching moment in the film to me is when Lorenz asks Rogers if he can send over some pages about this Marco Polo idea. And Andrew Scott just looks kind of astonished and says, “you have to ask that?” Then he tells him, “You are the reason I have a career. I owe you my professional life.”

Hawke is obviously amazing. But Andrew Scott, yeah, is maybe the stealth MVP of this movie, although everybody is kind of the stealth MVP of this movie. I love Cannavale as the bartender and the actor who plays E.B. White, Patrick Kennedy. But the last person who I think we should talk a little bit about—this is the second movie of hers this year that we've both really loved—is Margaret Qualley as this real life person in Lorenz Hart's life. But a lot of what we're seeing in the film did not actually happen, as far as we know. All we know for a fact is that Hart and this character, Elizabeth Weiland, wrote letters to each other. I was reading a little bit about this. We don't even know if they ever met in person, but we know that they wrote these letters together and that he admired her greatly and she let him. This is what makes this movie so sad to me, is this relationship.

McKenzie: Yeah, I've been seeing some people say that she is the weakest link of this movie. And I can definitely see that she's the youngest, she's the least experienced of all these actors. But she, I think that almost to me, enhances the role she is playing here because she is playing such a young sort of, not naive—

Ian: I think she's playing somebody giving a performance… I think that this is a person who is young, who is a little naive, a little bit out of her depth and really trying to make in ways and is projecting something out into the world that maybe is not true to her. I think she's excellent though.

McKenzie: The moment you've kind of got to get on her wavelength is the closet. That's her highlight scene and it's the highlight of that relationship. And I feel like that was the moment I really locked into I think what she was doing and also like why she was there in the first place. I saw some reviews that kind of irritated me that were saying like, “oh, this old man is sexualizing this 20 year old girl,” and I think that's just a total misunderstanding of what that relationship is because to me, yes, he is admiring her and he kind of says he's in love with her, but to me it feels more like he wants to live vicariously through her.  I think he wants to be loved. I think that no matter the gender of the person, he wants to be loved in some capacity. And the idea of being loved by someone as beautiful and as talented and as youthful as her is an exciting thing to him.

But I think that when he's listening to her talk about this like sexcapade essentially that she had he's titillated, I think, not just by her, but by Cooper, by this unseen man. I think he sort of wants a life partner he can sort of be with and live through and I think that's what he wants from her. And when she, you know, similarly turns him down to his as such as his previous lady in his life, Vivienne, you know, I think it breaks his heart. And I think that scene is so sad and interesting. I don't know, I just think this relationship is more than an old man being a lech. Like, I think there's a lot more going on here.

Ian: He's also a messy gay bitch who lives for the drama. He is so excited. I'm like this. I love to hear about my friends and what kind of fucked up shit they're getting into and like what not. I think it's great. I think that that is just such a bad faith interpretation of what is going on here and we see a lot of that these days with Zoomers—and I'm a Zellenial. I'm a part of that crowd, I bridge the generation gap. But there's a lot of younger people who see anything that's not exactly perfect or “right” or “correct” and take some kind of moral issue with it when that's not the point. This movie is about a man who was so sad and never had his life together and also lived in a world where he could not be openly gay. And I don't actually know if Lorenz Hart was a bisexual. The movie is like half heartedly kind of painting him as one, but the man clearly is queer. At least.

McKenzie: I think it was one of those complicated things where he was probably gay.

Ian: Yes, I think so, too.

Mckenzie: Did you see that story where someone asked Richard Rodgers at a party if [Hart] was gay and Richard Rodgers [grabbed] the guy and was like, “if you print that, I'll kill you,” or something. I think people were defensive over him. I would assume, I don't know what Lorenz Hart’s estate is like, but I assume that it's probably hard for people to explicitly say anything about his sexuality for fear of retribution. I get the feeling that he was in the closet and gay, but like in the closet publicly, but probably in his private life and in his inner circles acting however he wanted to, as we see in this movie.

Ian: What I love so much is how he is telling these very lewd, crass jokes with the bartender who he's clearly close with and how the coat check girl knows him intimately and how he's just kind of, he's an alcoholic clearly, and he's just a regular here. But I just love the interactions and the dynamics between him and the staff at the bar and the young man playing the piano who he nicknames Knuckles. I love that he gives every young man he meets who he's obviously sexually attracted to fun little nicknames. Sven, Knuckles. It's fantastic.

McKenzie: “Sven, you've got to come to my party! It’s going to be an amazing party with the Golden Quartet!”

Ian: I was like, “he wants to fuck you so bad!”

McKenzie: That’s the thing, yeah, but I think I also can see the appeal of having a female life partner who is not only like public, like a lavender marriage, like someone you live alongside and through and with and yeah.

Ian: Yeah, and asking that one woman. He keeps on referencing that. He keeps on asking her to marry him. It sounds like this older patron of the arts is what I'm getting. I don't know who exactly he's talking about.

McKenzie: She was an actress.

Ian: See, a lot of the theatrical stuff, the Broadway stuff, it goes right over my head.

McKenzie: She was Vivienne Segal. She was like an actress in the early 1900s. It looks like she was best remembered for starring in Pal Joey, which was one of Rodgers and Hart's musicals that the song Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, which if you've heard it, you've probably heard Ella Fitzgerald singing it. It was introduced in Pal Joey. So yeah, she was like an actress who I think starred in a bunch of their shows when she was younger.

Ian: This isn't like a big thing McKenzie, but the last thing I wanted to know is just how the language is obviously great, the script is obviously excellent. This movie is so funny. I was shocked by how crass and crude and I guess gaudy the humor was Lots of potty humor, lots of sexual innuendo, and also sometimes just not. I love the moment where he talks about how attractive a half erect penis is, that it's a promise. Where an erect penis is an exclamation point. “Oklahoma—exclamation point!”

McKenzie: As a hater of the musical Oklahoma! — this was a treat because I hate that musical so much. I'm actually really not a Rogers and Hammerstein fan. I just prefer the Sondheim era, if you will, that kind of 60s /70s era of musical theater. And I hate Oklahoma! in particular. I've been in Oklahoma! so I feel like I'm allowed to say that, I was one of the Can-Can girls in the dream ballet. Okay, I'm allowed to say this musical sucks. And so I loved hearing him talk shit about music about Oklahoma! the whole night.

You can listen to the full conversation on our Above The Line podcast.

October 2025 Release Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the inaugural piece for Below The Line and our very first newsletter filling you in on the upcoming releases to check out this month. As we move into cinema’s busiest time, it’s hard to know what to see or when it’s even coming out! We’re here to help, let’s dive in. 

The Smashing Machine

October is beginning with a bang, bringing us the first of two Safdie films for 2025. If you’re not in the know, the brother-directing-duo have split up to pursue their own directorial visions this year — by coincidentally both directing pseudo-biopics of athletes. Unlike his brother, Benny Safdie has leaned towards the classic Safdie move of “cast someone really unexpected and pull a great performance out of them.” Here he’s giving Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson probably his most challenging role in years, particularly after he attempted to change the hierarchy of the DC Universe… IYKYK. Johnson is joined by Academy Award-nominee Emily Blunt, and the shot of her in the trailer where she’s taking a photograph and a single, mascara-darkened tear falls from her cheek lives in my mind rent-free. Blunt is always reliable, she’s one of our great actresses, and I do think that Johnson can be used very well by the right director. From what I’m seeing online, that very well could be the case with The Smashing Machine.

Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri took to Twitter saying, “The Rock is fantastic in THE SMASHING MACHINE. He's the best thing in the movie. He's kind of the only thing in the movie,” following that up with his review titled The Smashing Machine Is Too Soft For Its Own Good. David Sims of The Atlantic and our beloved Blank Check Podcast gave the film 4 out of 5 stars on Letterboxd, writing, “a whole movie about coming down from apex mountain. Safdie's worthy, long-overdue follow-up to Lenny Cooke.” I for one will be sat for the performances alone, and I’m excited to see if the film overall works for me. The best way to find out? Make your way to the cinema the first weekend of October and decide for yourself. 

-McKenzie

The Smashing Machine will be released wide on October 3, 2025. 

Anemone

If you’re aware of this movie at all, it’s probably because you’ve seen the marketing tool of “Daniel Day-Lewis is BACK!” plastered just about everywhere they can get it. The 3-time Academy Award-winner officially announced his retirement from acting in June of 2017, shortly before the release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread. Many fans joked, “eh, we’ll see him again,” after his announcement, but as the years went on it felt less and less likely we’d see him on the silver screen once more. That is, until his son Ronan Day-Lewis decided to helm his directorial debut. The father-son duo co-wrote the script together about, “the complex and profound ties that exist between brothers, fathers, and sons.” Feels apt.

Initial reviews for this film seem to indicate that it has the scrappiness and messiness you’d expect from a debut feature film, regardless of the director’s nepo baby status and the pedigree of the cast which also includes Sean Bean and Samantha Morton. I’m sure many (including myself) will still head out to witness the return of one of our greatest living actors, in spite of the film’s issues.

-McKenzie

Anemone will have a limited release on October 3, 2025.

Roofman 

Every time I go to AMC and see this trailer I have the biggest smile on my face after. This trailer has bewitched me, charmed me, and made me so excited to go check out this movie. Channing Tatum in peak charming rapscallion mode, Kirsten Dunst as the sweet single mother who he falls for - what more could you need?! 

Roofman premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to roundly positive reactions with many critics and several people that we follow on Letterboxd who attended the festival calling it one of the best at TIFF. I’m going to say it now - expect this one to be a big surprise in October. It’s flying under the radar in a very busy month but I think this will be a film that resonates with a wide audience and people really enjoy. My heart is open!!!

-McKenzie

Roofman will be released wide on October 10, 2025.

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Ian is going to laugh at me for including this one, but here I am, including it. I love musicals, and Kiss of the Spider Woman is one I’m not very familiar with. Director Bill Condon is absolutely one of the main pulls for me as a viewer. If you don’t know, Condon wrote Rob Marshall’s Best Picture-winning Chicago from 2002 and directed the 2006 film adaptation of Dreamgirls. As far as movie musicals go, that’s a pretty solid resume as far as I’m concerned. The cast is also excellent helmed by the great Diego Luna, Jennifer Lopez (who is often good when given the right material), and buzzy newcomer Tonatiuh (best known for his television work in Vida and Promised Land).

The early response for Kiss of the Spider Woman is average to good. One of my favorite Oscar pundits on YouTube, The Oscar Expert, saw the film at the Sundance Film Festival and gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars on Letterboxd writing, “The two central characters are complex and well-written…  Jennifer Lopez dances the shit out of her dazzling musical numbers shot in a welcome old Hollywood style… The story doesn’t fully coalesce as it established a lot of layers that don’t all have equal payoff. Never experienced this story before and found a lot to like.” Jourdain Searles gives the film 4 out of 5 stars writing, “jlo… you could have been doing musicals this whole time!!! why did you deprive us???” Many other Letterboxd reviews from Sundance call Lopez out as a powerhouse and scene-stealer. Honestly? That’s all I need to buy my ticket. 

-McKenzie

Kiss of the Spider Woman will be released wide on October 10, 2025.

Tron: Ares

I have never seen the original TRON. If critics and cinephiles I follow online are to be believed, it’s not very good. But I have seen Joseph Kosinski’s TRON: Legacy several times throughout my life. It is, in my family, famously my brother-in-law’s favorite film and I’m quoting him here, “the only film [he] has rewatched and would rewatch again.” It was also very big in my household growing up for its electrifying visuals and its soundtrack, which gave me a life long love for Daft Punk and French house music. It also largely introduced all of us to Kosinski, who has inarguably become one of the most important main-stream journeyman entertainers of the current era with successes like Top Gun: Maverick and F1: The Movie (the latter being credited with saving cinemas at large). 

That all being said, the announcement that Disney was going back to this well with one half of the directing duo behind the worst Pirates of the Caribbean movie and a should-be cancelled star to boot did not inspire much confidence in yours truly. It also would appear to me that whereas the big idea for Legacy was “everything’s blue now”, with Ares Disney has taken a great leap in cinematic innovation with “everything’s red this time”.

Norwegian director Joachim Rønning is an interesting choice to helm the project in my opinion. Whereas Kosinski may have his crutches he is undoubtedly an interesting visual stylist for all his workman-like qualities, Rønning is simply the latter. He’s a journey-man who has for all intents and purposes become one of Disney’s in-house guys. Aside from co-directing the last Pirates film he has also directed the sequel to Maleficent as well as the sturdy sports programmer, Young Woman and the Sea, for Disney. I just worry about the finished product (and let’s be real, this one is a product) because the whole exercise feels a little perfunctory. But, what am I even talking about? I don’t really expect Disney to dig any deeper than a half-assed soft reboot of Tron. This is the same studio that this year has also released live action remakes of Snow White and Lilo & Stitch as well as shown it’s spinelessness when it comes to the likes of Jimmy Kimmel vs. FEC. I will see it and I will report back, but I do so under duress.

-Ian

Tron: Ares will be released wide on October 10, 2025.

A House of Dynamite

The word on the ground was that A House of Dynamite is the best film that Netflix has in awards contention this year. It was even being rumored that it was just the best thing they have made all around since maybe The Irishman. That at least was rumored to be the scuttlebutt in-house at the hegemonic streamer as well as the talk amongst industry insiders before it started early previews in NYC and LA just a few days before this piece’s publishing. With the middling reception of both Netflix’s other awards contenders, Frankenstein and Jay Kelly, it is quite disappointing to learn that Katheryn Bigelow’s first film in almost a decade amounts to not much more than “CBS Fridays 8e/7c” as Letterboxd user and host of This Had Oscar Buzz Podcast, Chris Feil, notes.

The very ominous and taut trailer was recently released by Netflix and is very loudly foregrounding the fact this is “from the Director of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty". That teaser captivated me. It felt like exactly what I’ve wanted from Bigelow and eerily prescient during the hair-trigger times we are living in. It feels like an intense chamber drama about the knife edge our nation and government is currently teetering on while I type this up. That said, I’m sure it’s not nearly as political as I am perceiving it to be but I can’t help but think about the people who really are in the positions of power that this film looks like it is going to be depicting. It also apparently depicts the same event three times over in a Rashomon-esque style narrative which sounds like a rather interesting stylistic choice for Bigelow to take on. The negative buzz has absolutely dinged my enthusiasm for this film, but just like I always do I will seek it out if it comes to North Texas and make up my own mind.   

-Ian

A House of Dynamite has a limited release beginning on October 10, 2025 before streaming on Netflix from October 24, 2025.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

I recently rewatched Spy — yes the 2015 film starring Melissa McCarthy that I believe is an underrated comedic masterpiece — and every time I watch that film I think, “when are people going to realize that Rose Byrne is one of the most underrated actresses working today?” Well dear reader, my fingers are crossed that her leading turn in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You will be that moment. 

This film opened to incredible reviews at this year’s Sundance Film Festival with many calling it a harrowing, exhilarating examination of parenthood. Next Best Picture’s Matt Neglia described it as, “An aggressive onslaught of heightened emotions and exceptional craftsmanship, it confronts the uncomfortable but necessary conversations about motherhood that are sure to disturb and spark discussion,” while Roger Ebert’s Robert Daniels echoed a similar sentiment saying, “I love this movie. I’ll probably never watch it again. It’s a harrowing, full-frontal assault on the senses.”

It seems like this is one you’re going to want to buckle up for, but absolutely not miss. I could see a film like this slipping through the cracks this year during a time with a lot of incredible cinema to see, so if this is playing near you check it out and be one of the cool ones who said you saw Rose Byrne’s ferocious starring turn in one of the most unique films you’re likely to see this year.

-McKenzie

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You has a limited release beginning October 10, 2025.

After The Hunt

Julia Roberts was the female movie star of my childhood. She wasn’t in a lot of movies that I could watch, notably Erin Brochovich was on the top shelf which housed all of the R-rated DVDs that I was not allowed to see. That being said, one of the earliest and most formative movie-watching experiences I can remember is that of seeing the first film in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s film series. The way that Julia confidently descended the stairs from the art gallery into the foyer of Tony Benedict’s Bellagio Casino was, and remains, one of the most electric movie star entrances on screen in my mind. Considering the bonafide screen presence that she is, it’s a shame that she works so little and when she does, she has seldom graced the screens of our local multiplexes. That being the case, I was so excited to learn that she was going to be back in the cinema with the new film from Luca Guadagnino and written by Actress and screenwriting newcomer Nora Garrett. And then… I saw the trailer.

The film looks to be a MeToo/Cancel Culture thriller with the tone of a 90s erotic thriller for adults even if one of the key words in that descriptor (erotic) is likely to be thankfully absent. In his press junkets, Guadagnino would have you believe that to label this film as being “about Cancel Culture or ‘Me Too’” is reductive and not at all true to the core of what the film is about. Yet, it seems like everyone who has seen the actual film disagrees with the Italian auteur, many claiming his comments to be nothing but smug-director-bullshit™. I for one don’t need to have seen the movie to be able to glean from its marketing what so many have noted. That it’s about five years too late, not adding anything new or interesting to the conversation, or that it looks like and indeed is “Temu TÁR” as Letterboxd user and host of Oscar Wild, Sophia, puts it. Even before seeing that very good joke from Sophia, I have been saying to McKenzie for the past month that the trailer is giving me “We’ve got TÁR at home…” vibes. Nonetheless my A-List reservation is already booked and regardless of its quality, I am looking forward to chatting about it on the show with my bestie!

-Ian

After The Hunt opens in limited release on October 10, 2025 before expanding wide on October 17, 2025.

Blue Moon

Calling all theater kids! This is one for us. Richard Linklater’s first of two films releasing this year follows Lorenz Hart reflecting on his life and career on the opening night of Oklahoma, the musical that marks his colleague Richard Rogers’ first collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II. You’ve probably heard of Rogers and Hammerstein, not so much Rogers and Hart. From what I can tell, this film is banking on you having at least that general knowledge of what Richard Rogers became with his second collaborator to enhance your reflection on what failed with his first. 

Ethan Hawke stars as Lorenz Hart and I’ve only heard incredible things about his performance. From what we can see in the trailer, it seems like the script reads almost play-like, taking place almost wholly in a bar after the opening night performance. Chamber-dramas like these can be contentious amongst film fans, but I for one love single setting films that feel like a play, that are focused completely on character and dialogue. The audience for this one is bound to be niche, but those who fit into that niche are going to love this one. Letterboxd’s West Coast Editor Mia Lee Vicino wrote in her review:

“recommended for those who are interested in:

• watching Ethan Hawke and/or Andrew Scott do their thang (acting their faces off in dialogue-heavy scenes)

• those iconic caricature portraits at Sardi’s

• Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! 

• Linklater in talky mode ala Before Trilogy and Tape

• spending way too long trying to figure out how they made a 5’10 man convincingly look 5’0”

What I’m trying to say is that if Blue Moon has one million people in the audience opening weekend, I’m one of them. If Blue Moon has five people in the audience opening weekend, I’m one of them. If Blue Moon has one person in the audience opening weekend, it’s me. If Blue Moon has zero people in the audience opening weekend, I’m no longer alive. 

-McKenzie

Blue Moon has a limited release beginning October 17, 2025.

The Mastermind

I personally think that Kelly Reichardt is probably the most important unrecognized American auteur making movies today. I can say with a certain level of confidence that she is unlikely to be named by even the most seasoned of film fans when asked who their favorite filmmakers are. For my money, she is the most underappreciated of our time. Whereas Paul Thomas Anderson films may not make a lot of money, they are typically canonized instantly and generate a ton of discourse. The same could be said of the likes of Quintin Tarantino and a slew of other male auteurs that started putting work out in the mid to late 90s. Reichardt has never been so lucky and maybe it’s because she is a woman, maybe it’s because she makes movies that are closer to something one might find playing at their local museum of modern art rather than a mall multiplex. I think it's a combination of the two. 

She is an incredibly esoteric artist who makes very specific movies that are hardly commercial. Whereas her male counterparts express their talent in grandiose ways with big statement pieces that announce themselves as "Masterpiece", Reichardt's films are notable for their stillness. So it's no surprise to me that those many film fans who hail Pulp Fiction or There Will Be Blood as the great works of American cinema have not sought out too many of her films let alone sometimes even heard of her. 

Her films are quiet, contemplative, and typically about people on the outskirts of their community who have been dragged under the boot of a country that forgot about them a long time ago. The Mastermind for a minute seems like it aims to break out of this mold. The elevator pitch sounds like it could be just another crime programmer - “an unemployed carpenter turned amateur art thief plans his first big heist. When things go haywire, his life unravels”. However, as soon as the trailer was released in early-September it became abundantly clear to me that Kelly Reichardt had made another Kelly Reichardt movie and that’s just music to my ears! Not only is she back, but she has cast rapidly rising star Josh O’Connor who I would be happy to see in just about anything. She also brings along Alana Haim, of Licorice Pizza fame, and probably my favorite new actor working right now. Also amidst a slew of returning regulars for Reichardt she brings along Hope Davis who I have loved seeing as a recent addition to Wes Anderson’s company, appearing in The Pheonician Scheme as a Mother Superior and in Asteroid City as the mother to a cookie trooper.

It also sounds like the filmmaker hasn’t just made one of her best films but maybe one of her funniest as one of my favorite critics, Carlos Valladares, notes on the film’s humor, “She’s actually carrying the bit to its logical conclusion, but taking her sweet ass time”. From the trailer we can see the film has this 1970s patina, a gauzy sheen that gives it an aged quality, as if Kelly has reached into the past and pulled someone’s old Super-8 home footage and assembled it herself to tell us a forgotten story of an ambitious hustler, rearing to just get by. In a year where Josh O’Connor has given several good performances The Mastermind looks to be his very best, playing a deeply emasculated and desperate man who comes up with a cockamamy scheme to make “a lot of money”! He looks to be very out of his depth, asking his mother for that “lot of money” and having no way to go about things when predictably they do not go according to plan. All of which makes for something I am very very excited to see.

I love Reichardt, I love O’Connor, I love Alana Haim, and I love pretty much every other element that I can gather about this film. There are several films at the top of my most anticipated list this year and now that I’ve seen One Battle After Another only Jay Kelly rivals the level of excitement I have for The Mastermind!

-Ian

The Mastermind has a limited release beginning October 17, 2025.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

Bruce Springsteen has to think about his entire life before he heals the hole in himself… and then the world… (this is a joke for people who are also tired of seeing the trailer every time they got to AMC).

Insert the Bernie Sanders meme here because I am once again asking how we have the audacity to put out a music biopic trailer like the one that’s been playing for months for this upcoming Jeremy Allen White-helmed Springsteen biopic in a world where Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story exists. The Shameless alum and Emmy-winner for The Bear stars as the titular Boss in this film that chronicles Springsteen’s conception and recording of his 1982 album Nebraska. 

I’m definitely in the camp of cinephiles that like to doubt the power of a music biopic from sheer cynicism of the genre, but people like me were proven wrong when James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown made waves and collected awards nominations all season long last year. So far, Deliver Me From Nowhere is currently mixed to positive reviews - most of them highlighting Jeremy Allen White as a star in the making. While this is not a film I’m personally racing out to the theater to see, anyone (like me) who are interested in the Oscars would be remiss to write this one off. 

-McKenzie

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere will be released wide on October 24, 2025.

Nouvelle Vague

Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou was the film that introduced me to The Criterion Collection and his first film, Breathless, was the film that made me a long-life committed fan. Granted I have grown as a film lover since the fall of 2020 and my tastes have evolved, there is still something very special about the French New Wave to me and about what Godard was doing for the movement and for cinema at large. Clearly, Richard Linklater feels the same way. 

Linklater is a filmmaker that I am very hot and cold on. I love his talkier films like mentioned in McKenzie’s write-up on his other forthcoming film, Blue Moon, but I struggle with his more kaleidoscopic films such as Dazed & Confused and Everybody Wants Some. The fact that this film, at least on paper, falls in line with the latter vibe does give me some pause. So I’m kind of caught between two poles on this one, somewhat turned off due to my expectations of the film’s general vibe but someone intrigued given that what the film is about is of great interest to me. 

What’s funny about this movie to me is that McKenzie, notorious Godard’s Breathless-hater that she is, expressed to me that she is looking forward to this one. This may just be her general fondness for Linklater but I was surprised given the film’s subject matter. Regardless of how either of us are feeling when we walk out of the theatre after seeing it, I bet the conversation we have will be fascinating!

-Ian

Nouvelle Vague has a limited release beginning October 31, 2025.

Bugonia

Yorgos is back, baby. After creating waves at the Academy Awards with his hit Poor Things and then fading back into his weirdo niche with Kinds of Kindness - Bugonia is shaping up to possibly be the film that lands somewhere in the middle of those two worlds. I wouldn’t particularly call myself a “Yorgos girlie” but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited for this one. The story looks like it will feel quite resonant alongside the madness of our world while giving the incredible Jesse Plemons a complicated, fascinating role to play. It looks like Yorgos’ muse Emma Stone will be delivering another tour-de-force performance under his direction, something that is becoming par for the course with this duo.

Reviews currently are mixed to positive, with Next Best Picture’s Matt Neglia saying, “BUGONIA is a movie of the moment that speaks to our self-destructive nature fueled by conspiracy, lies, pain and anger,” with Letterboxd user and podcast host Kit Lazer saying in their review, “will make a great ‘Oh, we’re so fucked’ double-feature with Eddington. It’s often hilarious, but it’s the sort of rueful chuckle you deliver as you pour another glass of whiskey, knowing that when the sun rises the troubles you’re trying to drown away will still be barreling down upon you like the Four Horsemen.” Sounds like good or bad Bugonia will have us buckling up and ruminating on the rise of fascism in the late-capitalistic experiment that is the good ole U.S. of A. What a way to end our first release newsletter!

-McKenzie

Bugonia opens in limited release on October 24, 2025 before expanding wide on October 31, 2025.

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What will you be seeing this month? Reach out to us in the comments below or on our social media and let us know!