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[tab title="Movie Review"]
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Born to Be Blue is the film in which Ethan Hawke goes for the extraordinary and more than saves what is largely a pedestrian experience. It is the story of Chet Baker turned junkie and the lengths he went to in order to save his career and become relevant to an entirely new audience. You know how these tragedies go; drugs, drugs, and more drugs. It is a formula that, for this reviewer, tends to get old quick in spite of how much I enjoy the subject at the center of the movie.
Yet Born to Be Blue – thanks to Hawke’s anguished performance and willingness to GO THERE– rises past all that familiarity to be something more in tune with its audience.
This biographical reimagining – as it is being marketed as semi-factual and semi-fictional tale – of Baker’s career resurgence in American jazz and his passion for the fictional actress Jane Azuka (Carmen Ejogo) simply doesn’t disappoint. And, frankly, its probably more honest with its audience than those other “autobiographical” pictures of musicians and their lives. Hawke is simply on fire. And his passion ignites the woeful tale of an artist who – after failing to pay off a huge drug debt – gets his teeth knocked out and his life shattered.
Teeth and trumpet playing; you kind of need one to do the other. And Baker, turned actor, gets to relive the days when he – after already establishing himself as a jazz great – was no better than a newbie. For someone as needy and narcissistic as Baker, this sudden fall from grace was a devastating loss and he, thanks to his opioid dependence, must overcome a lot of obstacles.
Hawke – who sings like Baker and patterns his trumpeting after Kevin Turcotte (who recorded the soundtrack because – SHOCKING – none of Baker’s original recordings are used) – is exceptional as the wounded artist. It is a performance that should not be forgotten (but probably will) come awards season time. For anyone rooting for Hawke, this is the film NOT to miss, as he will leave you devastated. The actor has talent and his abilities here transcend the usual limitations; you will feel Baker’s need to be adored; it practically seeps through the screen and on to the floor.
And then there is the music…
Written and directed by Robert Budreau, this portrait of a trumpeter as an addict is not without problems. Budreau has nailed as many clichés to the ground beneath Baker’s feet that sometimes the whole blat-footedness of the script threatens to undue the whole thing. Thankfully, Hawke and Ejogo step it up and become the emotional centerpieces they need to be to make Baker’s enigmatic charisma and sheer doggedness become something memorable to moviegoers.
With Don Cheadle's film about Miles Davis and Zoe Saldana's film about Nina Simone and now Ethan Hawke as Chet Baker, it seems Millennials are finally getting their chance to catch up on some really cool vibes this summer.
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[tab title="Film Details"]
MPAA Rating: R for drug use, language, some sexuality and brief violence
Runtime: 97 mins
Director: Robert Budreau
Writer: Robert Budreau
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Carmen Ejogo, Callum Keith Rennie
Genre: Biography | Music
Tagline: Born to Be Blue
Memorable Movie Quote: "Hello death"
Distributor: IFC Films
Official Site:
Release Date: March 25, 2016 (limited)
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: No details available.
Synopsis: Ethan Hawke lights up the screen as jazz legend Chet Baker, whose tumultuous life is thrillingly reimagined with wit, verve, and style to burn. In the 1950s, Baker was one of the most famous trumpeters in the world, renowned as both a pioneer of the West Coast jazz scene and an icon of cool. By the 1960s, he was all but washed up, his career and personal life in shambles due to years of heroin addiction. In his innovative anti-biopic, director Robert Budreau zeroes in on Baker's life at a key moment in the 1960s, just as the musician attempts to stage a hard-fought comeback, spurred in part by a passionate romance with a new flame (Carmen Ejogo). Creatively blending fact with fiction and driven by Hawke's virtuoso performance, Born to Be Blue unfolds with all the stylistic brio and improvisatory genius of great jazz.
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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
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