6. Born to Be Blue
Box office: $830,129
Ethan Hawke plays trumpet legend Chet Baker in Robert Budreau's indie jazz film. Baker was known for having a lighter West Coast sound than the New York beboppers. The movie depicts his visits to New York when Miles Davis (Kedar Brown) and Dizzy Gillespie (Kevin Hanchard) would come check him out; Davis was not too enamored with the attention Baker, who was white, received. But Baker's biggest problem was his heroin habit, which led to a terrible beatdown in Los Angeles where he lost his front teeth. It takes years for Baker to recover and got back to his trumpet. Hawke is terrific in the role of the humble horn man.
