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"Ethan Hawke is at his very best in Born to be Blue, a deeply felt and profoundly moving depiction of the relationship between art and addiction." – We Got This Covered
In what critics are hailing a career-best performance, Ethan Hawke plays legendary jazz trumpeter and singer Chet Baker in Robert Budreau's free-form sophomore feature. Resisting traditional biopic tropes, Born to Be Blue weaves together a blend of factual and fictional events from Baker's life in the late 1960s, creatively improvising in a way that befits its subject matter. It begins with a film-within-a-film – Baker playing himself in the movie version of his already tumultuous life. Addicted to heroin, Baker must struggle to learn his trumpet technique again after a brutal bashing at the hands of a drug dealer leaves him near paralysed.
Hawke portrays the immortal musician with both intensity and vulnerable sensitivity, also lending his wistful vocals to the soundtrack. He's ably accompanied by Carmen Ejogo playing Jane, who is both an amalgamation of Baker's various lovers in the film-within-a-film, and his real-life devoted partner, who spurs her man to get off the junk and back up on stage.
"Much like the lilting melodies that curl around it like cigarette smoke, Robert Budreau's film is jazz, not gospel." – The Telegraph