Bozeman Magazine

The Bozeman Film Society continues to roll out the best indie, art-house and specialty film events at downtown Bozeman’s Ellen Theatre! On Wednesday, May 18th at 7:30 pm, Ethan Hawke lights up the screen as jazz legend Chet Baker, whose tumultuous life is thrillingly re-imagined with wit, verve, and style to burn in Born To Be Blue. 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 cool. By the 1960s he was all but washed up, his career and personal life in shambles due to years of heroin addiction. In this innovative anti-biopic, director Robert Budreau zeroes in on Baker's life at a key moment in the 1960s, just as the musician attempts to stage a hard-fought comeback, spurred in part by a passionate romance with a new flame (Carmen Ejogo). Creatively blending fact with fiction and driven by Hawke's virtuoso performance, Born to Be Blue unfolds with all the stylistic brio and improvisatory genius of great jazz. Peter Traverse of Rolling Stone states; "Everything that makes Ethan Hawke an extraordinary actor—his energy, his empathy, his fearless, vanity-free eagerness to explore the deeper recesses of a character—is on view in Born to Be Blue." Rated R, the film runs 98 minutes.