Ethan Hawke gives an extraordinary performance as legendary trumpeter Chet Baker, the ‘James Dean of jazz’, in Canadian filmmaker Robert Budreau’s unconventional biopic, which charts his tumultuous life and career.
In the 1950s, Baker was one of the most famous trumpeters in the world, renowned as both a pioneer of the West Coast jazz scene and an icon of melancholic cool, with a languorous mystique. But by the 1960s, his career and personal life were in shambles following years of a profound heroin addiction.
Similarly to Don Cheadle’s recent Miles Ahead, Budreau’s innovative anti-biopic riffs off its subject’s artistry and creativity rather than sticking exclusively to the facts of his existence, and reimagines a key moment in Baker’s life as the musician attempts to stage a comeback spurred in part by a passionate romance with a new flame (Carmen Ejogo).
Creatively blending fact with fiction and driven by Hawke’s tender, virtuoso performance – including music, as Budreau has chosen not to use Baker’s original recordings – Born to Be Blue unfolds with all the improvisatory genius and stylistic brio of great jazz.