Review of Born to Be Blue (2015) by Steven K — 18 Apr 2016

Confession time: although I am a musician, write songs, and am a major music junky the name "Chet Baker" was nebulous to me. I kind of lumped him in within a category I would describe as "Hard-living musicians and jazz artists my dad might have appreciated more than me". Until I saw this movie, he only occupied a room that included artists whose names I have heard, but whose music I was only marginally interested in: Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, etc. watching this movie brought the man and the artist into focus. Ethan Hawke does a fantastic job of playing Chet Baker; the movie is very well done and lovely to watch. However, there is no getting around the fact that the whole "talented musician as heroin addict" genre has been done so many times that there is a sense of "been there, seen this before" to the story, which alternately elates with the man's music and talent while frustrating with the familiarity of yet another major musical talent self-destructing on screen. The movie manages to avoid over-working the cliched element of such a story, and does not come across as either boring or stale. If you're into movies about musicians this one is, in my humble opinion, "Fresh", a cinematic gem even. Were the field of such movies not so over-crowded, especially as "Oscar bait" for seasoned actors and actresses, it would even be worthy of a nomination for Hawke. I don't know if Chet Baker was "born to be blue"; the man didn't let drugs or alcohol obliterate him in his youth like Amy Winehouse or Jim Morrison; he at least survived his addiction long enough to have a more extended career. However, he obviously had a lonely, rural childhood (the trumpet was like a friend to him), a cold and bitter father who had apparently given up on his own musical talents, and other elements to his life that set the stage for the life of a man who just wanted love and to be loved like anyone else. I can always tell a movie had at least some effect on me when the first thing I do when the credits fade is go online to check out the artist's music, reviews, etc. Chet Baker was obviously a beloved musician; there was pure heart-ache and honesty in his both his trumpet playing and his vocal work. Check this movie out if you love movies about musicians and especially if you like that kind of smoky, late night, laid back jazz; it will take you right there.

R.