Review of Born to Be Blue (2016) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

First off, it didn't take me long to notice that the dialogue was frustratingly hushed almost from the get-go. Some dialogue I couldn't quite catch - it almost warrants subtitles at times, as the speech is so both quiet/subdued and spoken somewhat fast - thats something thats a bit of a bugbear with me.

Its a somewhat understated film but I suppose due to that, I felt the plot seemed a little thing at times. The main performance by Ethan Hawke as Chet Baker is pretty good, although I wouldn't say any of the other performances stood out especially. The music is pleasant enough - what you'd expect, I suppose, of jazz music from the 50s and 60s or thereabouts. I guess you could say it has a bit of style in terms of some of the flashback scenes of Chet performing at shows in the past, presumably during his heyday, appearing in black and white. Its not a bad watch as such but it didn't entirely work for me, personally.