For the second week in a row, Bakersfield serves as the backdrop for an eagerly anticipated feature film. After Ethan Coen shined a spotlight on the town with his noir “Honey, Don’t!” the city gets additional screen time from director Ethan Hawke, who decided to explore the streets of Bakersfield himself.
Hawke’s “Highway 99: A Double Album” is a three-hour documentary about the life and music of Bakersfield’s own poet laureate, Merle Haggard. The film premiered last week to rave reviews at the Telluride Film Festival.
The actor-turned-documentarian first garnered acclaim and attention as a filmmaker for his HBO Max documentary miniseries, “The Last Movie Stars,” exploring the complex lives of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, which debuted in the summer of 2022…