Spidersecu
Don't Believe the Hype
Maleeha Vincent
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Philippa
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
braddugg
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.
museumofdave
During the viewing of this sweet nostalgic look at backstage life, I wondered how anybody came up with the funding for it! Nobody gets thrown out of a window, no cars explode, there are no scenes of bloody carnage, and there's not even one cute dog. But there is a romanticized slice of honest Americana, a look back at the theatre rehearsals that lead up to a revolutionary production of Julius Caesar, one directed by the 22 year old Orson Welles; framing the tale is also a coming-of-age romance between young Zac Efron and one of two young women he meets as he is hired by Welles to play a bit part in the play--for those with some knowledge of the Mercury Theatre, its fascinating to see a spot-on impersonation of young Joseph Cotten played by Joseph Tupper, but the entire joy of the film is meeting Orson himself in the person of Christian McKay, who seems imbued with the spirit of the man in an uncanny revelatory performance, worth all 107 minutes of the film. This is a film for folks interested in theatre or the cinema, and will doubtless be lost on those in search of realistic action adventures--there's just a hint of early Woody Allen in the film, too--and my hope is that someone is already looking for a another, more complex look at the Boy Genius starring McKay.
earlytalkie
Christian McKay really captures the essence of Orson Welles in this lovingly made film. You really can't call it a biopic, since it covers only a brief period of the man's life, but to see and hear this man play Welles is to see him in real life. Zac Efron does his usual good job playing the starry-eyed youth who is about to get an unpleasant dose of reality. The period stuff is first-rate and really gives you a feel that this is 1937 when you watch it. There is a rich selection of vintage 1930s music, all seemingly correct for the period. The supporting cast are all first-rate as well, and the film's color is bathed in a rich, warm glow that adds to the feel of the piece. This is a worthwhile film for students of theater as well as of cinema.
David Traversa
Wow, this movie is practically perfect!! from beginning to end is a sheer delight to watch! When I rented this film I had my doubts about an actor playing Orson Wells, but after his first introduction in the story, we are seeing Orson Wells in person!Everything has been accomplished, the 1940s, with cars, clothes, colors, etc., the splendid recreation of this theatrical group rehearsing a play that one thinks they will never be able to accomplish (with any POSITIVE result, that's it). The script is perfect. We experience, along with the protagonists of this story, their hopes, their illusions, their disappointments...Achieving successfully the representation of a play is extremely difficult, the pitfalls are countless, especially when there are no backers with sufficient funds behind the project. Watching all these young people so full of energy, ready to sacrifice everything for the success of their project gives you a warm heart feeling for something we did exactly the same way so many years ago.An exquisite piece of nostalgia, I think maybe more appreciated by the elderly set.
