"The best music biopic of the year." - Rolling Stone - "Every one of the relationships depicted crackles with history, tension and love. This is a film about how we tell stories about the dead, and who gets to craft these legends." - The Observer - "A chance to hear the songs of the unsung." - New Yorker - "Ethan Hawke's fourth and best feature as a director; immensely touching." - Boston Globe -
Sundance grand jury nominee 'BLAZE' is inspired by the life of Blaze Foley (Ben Dickey), the unsung songwriting legend of the Texas outlaw music movement that spawned the likes of Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. The film weaves together three different periods of time, braiding re-imagined versions of Blaze's past, present and future. The different strands explore his love affair with Sybil Rosen (Alia Shawkat of 'Arrested Development') his last, dark night on earth; and the impact his songs and his death had on his fans, friends, and foes. The braided storyline terminates in a bittersweet ending that acknowledges Blaze's profound highs and lows, as well as the impressions he made on the people who shared his journey. Rated R, 127 minutes.
"A film that rambles, scrambles, fights its way to the finish line, exactly the way its subject would have wanted it to be." - The Playlist
"Hawke's fascinated by the tug of war between artistic freedom and domestic responsibility, and he's found clever ways to deal with that theme while zigzagging through Foley's life of music, alcohol, cocaine and women." - Chicago Tribune
"A true passion project, an engine running on Hawke's endless supply of enthusiasm for his subject." - AV Club
"Mr. Hawke is clearly motivated by nothing but affection for Blaze, Townes, Sybil and the state of Texas. He doesn't so much scramble biopic conventions as allow himself and the audience to be distracted from them." - New York Times
"Hands down the best movie of its kind since Inside Llewyn Davis." - rogerebert.com
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