BLAZE

Director: Ethan Hawke

129, R

Screenwriter: Ethan Hawke, Sybil Rosen.

Cast: Benjamin Dickey, Alia Shawkat, Josh Hamilton, Charlie Sexton, Sam Rockwell, Wyatt Russell, Steve Zahn, Kris Kristofferson, Richard Linklater.

 

2018 might easily be called the Year of Ethan Hawke: he’s starred in two Oscar-worthy roles (in First Reformed, and Juliet, Naked). Not to mention he’s directed a musical bio-pic so authentic there’s not a nano-second of auto-tuning on the excellent soundtrack. Blaze Foley was a real country-blues singer/songwriter who lived on the road, and was killed by a gunshot at age 39. Until today, his gritty, melancholy songs have only lived on in recordings by Merle Haggard, Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett and Willy Nelson. Hawke’s film – and a charismatically shambling performance by Benjamin Dickey – remembers a musician who keeps going even when fame and fortune have long-vanished in his tail-lights.

“Hawke argues movingly that creative success has everything to do with how an artist grows as a person and impacts the people around him.” – Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader.