BLUE MOON It's about time Ethan Hawke landed an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Twice nominated before in the supporting actor category, over the years he has delivered superb lead performances for directors like Ben Stiller, Sidney Lumet and Paul Schrader. However it's his lead work with Richard Linklater that has really stood out - most notably in the 'Before' trilogy with Julie Delpy. Hawke's first nomination in the category has finally come about working with Linklater on 'Blue Moon' - a biographical comedy drama about the American musical lyricist Lorenz Hart. It's a superb performance of not so quiet desperation, with Linklater setting the mould for Hawke at the start of the film with a quote from Mabel Mercer that Hart was "the saddest man I knew". We hear a radio newscaster also announcing Hart's death from pneumonia as we watch him slump in a drunken stupor in a New York alleyway during a torrential rainstorm. Going back seven...