Me and Orson Welles
2008
**½
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Zac Efron, Christian McKay, Claire Danes, Ben Chaplin, James Tupper, Eddie Marsan, Leo Bill, Kelly Reilly, Zoe Kazan
Richard is a teenager who dreams of becoming an actor. In the fall of 1937, he somehow convinces Orson Welles to give him a bit part in the Mercury Theatre adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Richard is immediately attracted to the company's production assistant, and the next few days with Welles give him an eye-opening experience. Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock used an almost identical setting to paint a portrait of the times. Richard Linklater is happy to use this scenario for a conventional coming-of-age story. His sympathetic but pointless drama comedy takes a behind-the-scenes peek at this chaotic but groundbreaking production, but the resulting film is stagy and soaked in nostalgia. Christian McKay hardly passes for a 22-year-old, but otherwise he makes for a magnetic Welles, who is incidentally portrayed as a grandstanding egomaniac. Adapted from Robert Kaplow's novel, which is loosely based on the experiences of Arthur Anderson, a 15-year-old who played Lucius in the 1937 production.
