Born to Be Blue

Born to Be Blue (2015) is a Canadian-British drama about jazz trumpeter Chet Baker that you can watch online on iFILM. Director Robert Budreau built the film around a meta conceit: Baker (Ethan Hawke) is playing himself in a biopic being shot about his own life — and the line between the character and the man keeps dissolving.

It's the late 1960s. Baker is out of prison, years deep into heroin, and trying to rebuild a comeback nobody else believes in. He meets Jane (Carmen Ejogo) on set, and she becomes the closest thing he has to a reason to finish. The practical obstacle is physical: his teeth were knocked out in a fight, his embouchure is gone, and every attempt to play the trumpet ends in pain. The psychological obstacle is the same as always.

Hawke learned to play for the role, and it shows — there's no cutaway fakery. Budreau keeps the film inside Baker's perspective without excusing him, which is harder than it sounds. The result sits somewhere between a love story and a document of what it costs to try again. Stream Born to Be Blue online on iFILM.