Born to be Blue is a “semi-factual, semi-fictional” biography movie about Chet Baker. He was a jazz musician (trumpet and vocal) and also a drug addict who was in and out of jail frequently and then having career resurgence in late 70’s and 80’s. Film is starring Ethan Hawke (Boyhood, Training Day, Before Sunset) as Chet Baker and Carmen Ejogo (Alien: Covenant, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Selma) as his girlfriend.
Hawke deserves the raves —and Oscar buzz—he’s earned as tragic trumpet maestro Baker—for which he learned how to play the trumpet (for the camera) and perform Baker’s signature crooning. This jazzy romantic biopic gives us a slice of Baker in mid-career, when he gives up heroin for a short period, and tries to make a comeback. Hawkes plays Baker as a charismatic seducer who loves his music more than anything, but needs help keeping his life together. “I’ve got some habits,” he tells the actress (strong counterfoil Carmen Ejogo) he meets in a never-completed black-and-white Baker biopic (in real life it was never shot), who helps him to get back on his feet by nursing his wounds, physical and emotional. She teaches him how to be both a better man —and lover.