Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Born to Be Blue Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 15, 2016

Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Robert Budreau's "Born to Be Blue" (2015) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios UK. The only bonus feature on the disc is an exclusive feaurette with cast and crew interviews. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The good times

Robert Budreau’s second feature film, Born to Be Blue, speculates that Chet Baker, played quite spectacularly by Ethan Hawke, was a drifter who spent his time in two very different worlds. In the first, he fell in love with jazz music and for a short period of time felt invincible. It was a special relationship and he offered everything he had to preserve it -- even his life.

In the second world Chet was a lonely and vulnerable man. He did not get along with his parents and had no real friends that he can count on. A lot of people used and abused him. Chet knew it, but he did not care because he had his music. It was the only thing that mattered in his life.

It seems like everything changed when he met Elaine (Carmen Ejogo, What's the Worst That Could Happen?) and fell in love again. Elaine helped him recover when an angry drug dealer and his goons beat him up so badly that he lost his front teeth and the doctors told him that he will never play again. He kicked his heroin habit and then slowly started practicing again.

The film shows that it took a long time for Chet to get back to the big stage. He had to once again start from the bottom and play the small clubs with the wannabes before the big cats decided that he deserved a second change. This was when he was hurting the most and the pain was almost unbearable. Even with Elaine next to him, the realization that no one trusted him and believed that he could come back nearly destroyed him.

Eventually, Dizzy Gillespie (Kevin Hanchard, ) agreed to let Chet play at Birdland and prove that he was still legit. This was all that Chet wanted -- a chance to play in front of Miles Davis (Kedar Brown) and all the other big timers who doubted him. At the time he had already fully recovered and even started recording again. He was ready. The only doubt he had was this: Can he be as good as he was back in the days without touching the needle?

Hawke plays the struggling jazzman to perfection. It does not really matter if writer/director Robert Budreau embellishes his story a bit because the transformation – from a brilliant but naïve musician with a dangerous addiction into a man who wants to be in love with a beautiful woman but cannot suppress his passion for music finally and into a man who is willing to risk his life for music -- actually makes it possible to understand how music can essentially make everything else in one’s life look absolutely irrelevant. Truly, there are not a lot of films out there that can offer such a simple yet incredibly persuasive summation of the beautiful yet dangerous power of music.

The narrative is broken into multiple episodes that constantly overlap and offer glimpses of different phases from the musician’s unstable life. It was a smart decision to shoot the film this way because the fluid nature of the narrative actually makes it very easy to understand how incredibly brittle his reality was and then get a sense of the pressure he had to endure.

The film has a highly stylized look -- different fonts are used for different segments and light and colors are managed in specific ways to create the dreamy period atmosphere -- and arguably one of the best soundtracks for a project of this caliber. Hawke sings on a couple of tracks with Canadian jazz pianist David Braid, who also did new arrangements for classics like My Funny Valentine, Over the Rainbow, and Born to be Blue.

Born to Be Blue Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Robert Budreau's Born to Be Blue arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios UK.

The film looks gorgeous in high-definition. It has a highly stylize look that favors soft color, soft light, and various nuanced shadows that are wonderfully reproduced. There are a few segments where depth fluctuates, but these fluctuations are very much intended. Also, there are minor contrast shifts and even some elevated highlights that further enhance the dreamy period atmosphere. Overall image stability is excellent. Finally, there are no purely transfer-specific anomalies to report. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

Born to Be Blue Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (with one very small exchange in Italian). Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track offers terrific depth and a great range of nuanced dynamics. Needless to say, experiencing this and its beautiful soundtrack on Blu-ray is a very, very special treat. The dialog remains clean, sharp, and wonderfully balanced with the music. There are no pop, cracks, or digital distortions to report.

Born to Be Blue Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Featurette - in this featurette, director Robert Budreau, Ethan Hawke, Carmen Ejogom, and Callum Rennie discuss Born to Be Blue and the real life story of Chet Baker. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles. (8 min).

Born to Be Blue Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Robert Budreau's Born to Be Blue is probably the best new film that I have seen this year. It recreates a large portion of jazz legend Chet Baker's fascinating life with such impressive style and passion that I had to see it twice in a row. The film probably does not get all factual details right -- and is it even possible to know exactly what Chet did or felt while he was creating beautiful music? -- but I think that it truly gets what Chet's music was about and where it came from. Also, Ethan Hawke might have delivered his best performance to date -- it is pure perfection. Born to Be Blue is currently available on Blu-ray only in the United Kingdom, but Universal's release is Region-Free. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.