Me and Orson Welles (2009)

I wanted to hate this movie because it gave me a bitter aftertaste that I couldn't put my finger on. I admit, the praise that others have heaped upon this film is true: acting is superb, the entire production is authentic, and Christian McKay's rendition of Orson is very convincing, particularly that voice. So why did it leave me with a feeling like I had just ingested a triple salami sandwich with extra onions and pimentos?The key is staring us all in the face; it's in the title. "Me & Orson Welles" (notice the audacity of putting "Me" before "Orson Welles") is a scathing portrayal of the unapologetic one-upmanship and venomous diva mentality which apparently dominates the entertainment industry and always has. Orson Welles is shown to be arrogance personified, and understandably so, but far more unsettling is the way every member of the stage community, from the leading lady all the way down to the lowly set designer, is equally self-centered and demanding "me me me". What's very clever about this movie is that it's very subtle. This is not a thick satire like "Catch-22" or a society-deprecating fable like "Edward Scissorhands" which immediately shows us the fault in the human condition. No, this is so subtle that most people may not even catch the sarcasm at work.Aside from good looks, not a single character is likable. Claire Danes with her breezy smile and undeniably cute face plays a theater gold-digger so adept with her ladder climbing you'd think she was a firefighter. Always on her way to rendezvous with the latest producer/celebrity du jour, you start to wonder if she has a soul behind those dark eyes. Hats off to Claire for being able to play such a destestable character with grace, elegance and charm that makes us overlook her selfish agenda and instead become captivated by her. Other characters are more obvious with their self-serving natures, demanding more lines, special lighting, and everything short of a bowl of m&m's with all the brown ones removed. (Any 80s hair band fans out there? That's a reference to Van Halen's bizarre demand/prank at every concert.)Ironically, and brilliantly, the one character whom I found to be thoroughly likable despite his selfishness was Orson Welles himself. This is simply because he openly and unapologetically makes himself the despotic king (much like Julius Caesar, the play they are performing), while all the other characters are toadies and yes-men who hypocritically assume their subservient roles in the pecking order. But Orson is shown to be probably how he was in real life: a master manipulator and Machiavellian stage tyrant whom you gotta love because he lets everyone know exactly what they're in for, should they choose to join his bizarre circus known as the Mercury Theater.Now enter Zac Ephron's wide-eyed, idealistic and naïve character "Junior" who is thrown into this bizarre food chain, full of ridiculous notions like giving credit where credit is due, respect for others, and of course the most doomed concept to enter a theater since Abraham Lincoln, "love". Zac Ephron's monologue near the end when he recites a verse in class is chilling, and the sinister stare he gives as he delivers the last line is indicative that he has learned a thing or two about theater. Pay attention to that monologue because it sums up everything I'm saying here.I think if you're intrigued by dark (yet subtle) themes like this, then you'll have a great time. I have to strongly disagree with a few other reviewers' descriptions using words like "charming", "nostalgic" and "wonderful". That's like saying Beethoven's 5th symphony was a real toe tapper in "Clockwork Orange". Knowing director Richard Linklater's body of work including muckraking films like "Fast Food Nation" and even the insidiously disturbing teen flick "Dazed and Confused", I have no doubt that "Me & Orson Welles" was a deliberate anti-romance. And I don't mean romance between two people; I mean the romance of a young lad and his first "kiss" with the theater. Definitely check out this flick if you're up for a challenge and not afraid to get a little dirty.

A great cast and superb performances, make this film a great treat for acting.A film on Orson Welles the great himself is bound to be something interesting. Now, this film treats Orson in a way that we dare to have known him. The film is based on Robert Kaplow's novel of the same name. And here, our Orson is a psychopath who is hell bent on deriving what he needs from anyone. He uses everyone and to us them , he goes to any extent. Wow, what an acting by Christian McKay as Orson Welles. McKay breathes life into a great character and makes it his own by a stellar performance. Zac Efron, the blue eyed boy plays Richard who is finds his real self, and learns that if he believes in something, he can do it. Now, the writing and screenplay are do well here. And most of all, the art direction is superb, it's clean with hardly any showiness, that is I mean, here the world seems real like the one in 1937. Look at the zooming out final shot from the steps, where we see that it's so very fine and good looking from above. Wish to be at such places in such an era where life was slow paced and more lovely than now. Richard Linklater has given us different kind of movie, from Dazed and Confused to now, and he simply continues to surprise us with this one too. Since I have seen it for first time, I was amused by the ending, coz it simply stops with nothing much happening. Richard has found the True Orson and it end there, no more taking it forward. Yeah, if this had to be the ending, I wish it was more cut down and less in time. As the title line says, "All is fair in Love and Theatre", I say, all is fair for Orson and for his theatre. He is devilishly passionate about his work. He is extremely shrewd and exquisitely specific about everything he does, here he does a play Julius Caesar. He demands respect and he never forgets to ask that either. A complete narcissist you see at times, who loves himself and his job, and yes even a secretary at times. Now, editing would have been more crispier and had the subject been more focused on the objectivity of Orson rather than on how Richard was being treated, this would have been a finer film. Having said that, I like how Richard Linklater and I give it a 4/5 rating. It's kind of a coming of new age feel good film that is set in 1930's,Though it's for you to decide, do see it please for Chrsitian McKay's performance alone.

A very nicely depicted film of the U.S. in the 1930's (centred in New York) with the musical flavour of the era. It's about a young man (still in secondary school?) who finds a small character spot in Orson Welles's theatre reproduction of "Julius Caesar" – it's a sort of fascist rendition. With his employment comes romance, betrayal and more romance –all of this centred on the theatre. The main actor (the young man in search of love, fame and immortality) is played, I felt, rather tepidly by Zac Efron. But, perhaps, this is deliberate as the other actors surrounding him more than make up for this, particularly Christian McKay who plays Orson Welles. And there are a cast of dozens in this film vying for Orson's attention, adulation and fame - and it all works rather well.It has an authentic 1930's feel with relationships made and unmade at great speed. There is comedy and plenty of conflict in the entire theatre production – and an Orson Welles who has more than a swelled ego. It's a fun watch with a tidy ending.

An international cast is assembled for Me And Orson Welles telling about a young aspiring actor gets a part in the Mercury Theater production of Julius Caesar while still in high school. The young man gets quite a few life lessons, most of which revolve around working with the ego of America's theatrical genius Orson Welles.This American story is in fact a British production quite frankly because those folks across the pond have far better diction than our players here for the most part. The trick for them is to get our American speech patterns down and the cast did to a remarkable degree. Christian McKay plays the imperious Orson Welles who was Lord and Master of the Mercury Theater company. McKay got the Welles character down really well so much so you think you are actually looking at a newsreel of young Welles even before he became known to the world with Citizen Kane.To insure some box office for Me And Orson Welles, Zac Efron played the aspiring Richard Samuels who with a stroke of luck gets an impromptu street audition and wins the minor role of Lucius, servant to Brutus in the Mercury Theater production of Julius Caesar. He and Welles kind of bond until of all things a woman comes between them, the ambitious Claire Danes who is looking for all kinds of help and isn't at all concerned about what she has to do to get to the top.Zac Efron is certainly trying his best to escape the restrictions that being a discovery of the Disney Studios can put on a career. He speaks his lines convincingly during the scenes of the Julius Caesar production. Later on in High School English he speaks some dialog from Julius Caesar with real conviction and the experience of a man of the world which he has become. The same might be said for Efron in his professional life.I'm sure that Zoe Kazan who plays the young woman who Zac meets in a record shop and granddaughter of Elia must have heard a lot of stories about the exciting times of the Broadway theater in the Thirties from her grandfather. She brought a lot of that to her role and turned in a winning performance.Me And Orson Welles does a splendid job in recapturing a very special era in the America of the New Deal and that a British production did it, they should rate some special kudos.