Skip to main content
film review

Ethan Hawke as Chet Baker in Born to Be Blue.

Chet Baker, in his prime the James Dean of jazz, is shown as a musically gifted junkie, a childlike outsider and a needy jerk in a dreamy bio-drama from the Canadian writer-director Robert Budreau. The trumpeter is played by Ethan Hawke, who intimately and sensitively portrays a musician who always played it softly himself. We see an artist humbled and pained – only comfortable within his own blue notes and an accompanying heroin-based haze. Budreau constructs with imagination and pleasing fluidity, painting a portrait with a soft, sympathetic focus while steering clear of worship.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe