Who gets to be remembered? How do we determine whose stories are worth passing onto others? And who was Blaze Foley?
In actor Ethan Hawke’s fourth directorial effort, we find the tale of country singer Blaze Foley, a giant of a man with a bad temper and a drinking problem, but also one of great musical talent. Blaze is a dreamlike film told in vignettes across three or four timelines. Fortunately, you can place the time by the length of Foley’s beard. With an excellent supporting cast, lovely imagery, and a script co-written by Foley’s widow, Hawke is able to keep this from feeling like just another “troubled artist” film.
The film’s resistance to plot may be a dealbreaker for some, but I think it fits quite well with the man Blaze Foley was. He traveled from place to place, never quite settling, always playing music at new dive bars with his friends. One of the timelines features two of Foley’s bandmates, Townes Van Zandt and Zee, played by Charlie Sexton and Josh Hamilton, talking about their time together to an unseen interviewer played by Hawke (This device did not work for me; it was too distracting and tongue-in-cheek). They try to describe Blaze as a man, but find they can only tell drunken stories. Between these sequences, we watch Blaze play house in the woods with Sybil (Alia Shawkat, phenomenal) and grow restless. We even watch Blaze’s final 24 hours, including the last show he ever plays.
It’s a hard film to describe! Half the dialogue doesn’t matter, and you just get entranced by the actors delivering these monologues. It’s really more of a mood piece, which can easily be said about Hawke’s other narrative films, Chelsea Walls and The Hottest State. However, Blaze has far better performances and cinematography than those efforts. Blaze is worth seeking out on the big screen, if only for the magical trio of Richard Linklater, Sam Rockwell, and Steve Zahn as cowboy record producers who make an ill-fated deal with Blaze.
The screening I attended featured Hawke himself, answering audience questions and talking further about why he made Blaze. He deeply believes in this film, Blaze Foley, and filmmaking as a language and medium. For that reason alone, you should support this film. We should also be supporting small-scale storytelling like this. It shouldn’t take a name like Hawke’s to get a small film off the ground, but Blaze deserves every penny it makes. I want to support this kind of storytelling as long as it is available, and clearly Hawke believes the same, going on a cross country tour with Blaze like this.
Once more I would like to direct you to my podcast Hawke Cast, focusing on the works of Ethan Hawke. Thanks.
P.S.: I did meet Ethan Hawke, but I didn’t mention the podcast. That’s a totally different conversation from getting him to sign my Before Trilogy blu-ray.
Blaze
2018
dir. Ethan Hawke
127 min.
Now playing at Coolidge Corner Theatre – Click here for showtimes and ticket info
