In the 1950s, Chet Baker (Ethan Hawke) 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 addiction. Creatively blending fact with fiction and driven by Hawke’s virtuoso performance, Born to Be Blue unfolds at a key moment in the 1960s, just as Baker attempts to stage a hard-fought comeback, spurred in part by a passionate romance with a new flame (Carmen Ejogo).