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Born to Be Blue
The film is a semi-factual, semi-fictional re-imagining of jazz legend Chet Baker (Ethan Hawke)'s musical comeback in the late '60s while Chet Baker begins a romance with an actress (Carmen Ejogo).
7 October 1978, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
31 December 1951, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
1986, Thornhill, Ontario, Canada
14 February 1988, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
December 05, 2016
What makes Born to be Blue a special film is the phenomenal performance of Ethan Hawke as the addled, wounded Baker.
April 07, 2016
When Hawke's Baker finally slips out of the whiney loser persona and performs "My Funny Valentine," the scene evokes Baker's elusive melancholy and wistful torment, making the earlier fumblings worth the struggle.
November 08, 2016
After the movie, don't be surprised if you find yourself downloading or streaming his music. If you do you will be struck by the haunting similarities of his sound and those from this very evocative and inventive film.
November 17, 2016
Lord know we don't need another biopic of a troubled but brilliant musician, but writer/director Robert Budreau dives into the psychology of a figure like Baker with a depth that such films rarely muster.
April 10, 2016
Born to Be Blue doesn't pretend to have all the answers. What it does have - in addition to an immersive performance from Ethan Hawke as the cool-cat jazz man - is an emotional understanding of who Baker was, or may have been.
October 10, 2016
Born to be Blue is perhaps a too-clever fictionalised take on the life of the jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, although Ethan Hawke's performance as the musician is as compelling as it is painful.
April 07, 2016
The film draws you deeply into Baker's fantasy world, to the point that the entreaty of his famous recording, "Let's Get Lost," almost seems like a good idea.
December 27, 2016
Ejogo makes vivid work of that dread device, the composite character. Hawke, film-star handsome but unable to match the ruined angel looks of his alter-ego, still manages to summon up his lost-boy charisma.
July 25, 2016
Hawke portrays Baker as a little boy lost: selfish, sweet, insecure, arrogant, impossible to live with.
November 23, 2016
For casual fans or people who have yet to encounter Baker, Born To Be Blue is a good place to start, perfectly encapsulating the fragility and self-destructive urges that underlined his uniquely beautiful and melancholic music.