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.

SnoopyStyle It's 1937. On a trip to NYC, high school student Richard Samuels (Zac Efron) befriends artistic Gretta Adler (Zoe Kazan). Then he accidentally run into Orson Welles (Christian McKay) at the Mercury Theatre. Orson offers him the role of Lucius in his Julius Caesar. Orson is a dictator and Sonja Jones (Claire Danes) takes him under her wings.Zac Efron starts off completely self assured. I think it would better if he starts off unsure with Gretta and Sonja. He should be more like a green youngster that the movie wants him to start off as. He is too much of a big movie star right from the start. Other than that, these are great performances from everybody especially Christian McKay. Director Richard Linklater allows the actors to flourish in this.

jjnxn-1 Enjoyable period combination coming of age and backstage comedy/drama. Efron acquits himself well, he still has a way to go before he breaks away totally from the teenyboppers but he's trying and will get there if he continues to do interesting material like this. Claire Danes is miscast, the character she plays is supposed to be an ethereal dream girl and fine actress though she may be she is not that type of woman, and that hurts the film a bit but the rest of the cast is good. The period details are well presented and the story interesting. However McKay dominates this with an amazingly accurate portrayal of Welles, he owns this movie and really should have been a presence at awards time.

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.