BORN TO BE BLUE
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS D: Robert Budreau. Canada/UK. 97 min. Sep 13, 2 pm Winter Garden Sep 14, 9 am Bloor Hot Docs. See listings. Rating: NNN
Win tickets to the opening night here.
Writer/director Budreau (That Beautiful Somewhere) dramatizes a few years in the life of Chet Baker, charting that period from the late 60s to the early 70s when the jazz trumpeter was forced to stay clean and re-learn his instrument after a brutal beating.
Born To Be Blue doesn’t really do anything new within the tormented-artist genre, but Ethan Hawke is absolutely compelling as the flailing Baker, finding reservoirs of anxiety and desperation in the tilt of his head or the angle of his smile.
Carmen Ejogo and Callum Keith Rennie do a lot to fill out the roles of enabling lover and disappointed manager, but it’s Hawke’s picture, and he carries the hell out of it.
