To start is necessary to say that this movie wouldn't be half as good without Robert Budreau's vision. Otherwise, it would be just another bio-pic about a musician that people kinda forgot.
Burdreau's bold decisions, like using the black and white "footage" of the movie Chet was staring as flashbacks, and by that, having one actress, the lovely Carmem Ejogo, playing two parts, both as Jane and Elaine, or having two actors on one row, like Dick, by Callum Keith Rennie and Joe Cobden.
If half of the success was on the decisions of the director, the other half it has to be on Ethan Hawke's performance. He incorporated completely the character of Chet. Everything, from the body language, the gestures, the expressions, the pantomime at the trumpet and the voice. The way of talking was pure Chet Baker, part smooth and romantic, part cynical and hopeless. The insistence with the fake teeth. All of that was pure Chet. Hawke is a hard actor to lose on the character, there's always something that identifies Hawke, that makes you remember "Training Day", the "Before Trilogy" and even "Sinister", that common thing to his performance in those otherwise completely different movies. But in "Born To Be Blue" Hawke vanishes inside the character, maybe for being as cool as the actor, but in no moment I could see other person but Chet Baker. For me, that will be his image, more than any other actual footage of the musician.
Talking performances, the co-star Carmem Ejogo was just delightful. And even both parts not being superficially much different, there was nuance. Elaine and Jane had different dynamics with Chet, and most of it pass under the radar, but to make it work as it did in the final cut, it was great. And there was Callum, the eternal Great Ashby, but here he delivers a solid performance as the producer Dick Bock, sometimes a worried friend, sometimes a guy that is tired to trying to save someone who don't want to be saved.
The story. Well, that's an unauthorized bio-pic, and its synopsis state already that this is "A re-imagining of jazz legend Chet Baker's musical comeback in the late '60s". How much of what we see in the movie is factual? How accurate is Budreau's script? Does it matters that much? Born to be blue is engaging, not 'cause its a bio- pic, but 'cause it's a good movie, with a good script, a good directing and good performances. What's true or not, we may let it to the next documentary on Chet Baker.
This is a must watch!!!
Burdreau's bold decisions, like using the black and white "footage" of the movie Chet was staring as flashbacks, and by that, having one actress, the lovely Carmem Ejogo, playing two parts, both as Jane and Elaine, or having two actors on one row, like Dick, by Callum Keith Rennie and Joe Cobden.
If half of the success was on the decisions of the director, the other half it has to be on Ethan Hawke's performance. He incorporated completely the character of Chet. Everything, from the body language, the gestures, the expressions, the pantomime at the trumpet and the voice. The way of talking was pure Chet Baker, part smooth and romantic, part cynical and hopeless. The insistence with the fake teeth. All of that was pure Chet. Hawke is a hard actor to lose on the character, there's always something that identifies Hawke, that makes you remember "Training Day", the "Before Trilogy" and even "Sinister", that common thing to his performance in those otherwise completely different movies. But in "Born To Be Blue" Hawke vanishes inside the character, maybe for being as cool as the actor, but in no moment I could see other person but Chet Baker. For me, that will be his image, more than any other actual footage of the musician.
Talking performances, the co-star Carmem Ejogo was just delightful. And even both parts not being superficially much different, there was nuance. Elaine and Jane had different dynamics with Chet, and most of it pass under the radar, but to make it work as it did in the final cut, it was great. And there was Callum, the eternal Great Ashby, but here he delivers a solid performance as the producer Dick Bock, sometimes a worried friend, sometimes a guy that is tired to trying to save someone who don't want to be saved.
The story. Well, that's an unauthorized bio-pic, and its synopsis state already that this is "A re-imagining of jazz legend Chet Baker's musical comeback in the late '60s". How much of what we see in the movie is factual? How accurate is Budreau's script? Does it matters that much? Born to be blue is engaging, not 'cause its a bio- pic, but 'cause it's a good movie, with a good script, a good directing and good performances. What's true or not, we may let it to the next documentary on Chet Baker.
This is a must watch!!!
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