Me and Orson Welles (2008)

In 1937, a teenager is cast in the Mercury Theatre production of "Julius Caesar", directed by a young Orson Welles.

Director:

Richard Linklater

Writers:

Robert Kaplow (based on the novel by), Holly Gent (screenplay by) (as Holly Gent Palmo)

Stars:

Zac Efron, Claire Danes, Christian McKay

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 5 wins & 26 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christian McKay	...	Orson Welles
Zac Efron	...	Richard Samuels
Zoe Kazan	...	Gretta Adler
Megan Maczko	...	Evelyn Allen
Simon Lee Phillips	...	Walter Ash
Patrick Kennedy	...	Grover Burgess
Shane James Bordas	...	Conspirator
Alessandro Giuggioli	...	Conspirator
Harry Macqueen	...	Conspirator
Rhodri Orders	...	Conspirator
James Tupper	...	Joseph Cotten
Thomas Arnold	...	George Duthie
Aidan McArdle	...	Martin Gabel
Simon Nehan	...	Joe Holland
Claire Danes	...	Sonja Jones

Storyline

In November 1937, high school student and aspiring thespian Richard Samuels takes a day trip into New York City. There, he meets and begins a casual friendship with Gretta Adler, their friendship based on a shared love and goal of a profession in the creative arts. But also on this trip, Richard stumbles across the Mercury Theatre and meets Orson Welles, who, based on an impromptu audition, offers Richard an acting job as Lucius in his modern retelling of Julius Caesar, which includes such stalwart Mercury Theatre players as Joseph Cotten and George Coulouris. Despite others with official roles as producer John Houseman, this production belongs to Welles, the unofficial/official dictator. In other words, whatever Welles wants, the cast and crew better deliver. These requests include everything, even those of a sexual nature. Welles does not believe in conventions and will do whatever he wants, which includes not having a fixed opening date, although the unofficial opening date is in ...

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Plot Keywords:

inspired by true events | based on real person | theatre | new york city | 1930s | 

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Taglines:

All's Fair in Love and Theater.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual references and smoking

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK Isle Of Man USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 December 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Me & Orson

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$63,638, 29 November 2009, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$1,186,957, 21 February 2010

Company Credits

Production Co:

CinemaNX, Isle of Man Film, Framestore

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min 107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

As an independent feature, the production needed to make creative use of every penny of its limited budget and found a solution in basing the production in London, where a combination of Pinewood Studios and some imaginatively chosen locations brought New York to life. And thanks to some visual trickery, the imposing scale and distinctive architecture of the bustling city was vibrantly recreated on a comparative shoestring.

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Goofs

Richard accompanies Orson to 485 Madison Ave (CBS) for a "recording session" for a radio show ("The First Nighter" program). At this time (1937) and until the late 40s network programs were broadcast live, never recorded. Most programs were produced live twice, once for the East Coast and three hours later from the West Cost.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Dr. Mewling: By the year of 1592, Shakespeare was already an actor, and a playwright. Records of how his stage career began have not survived. We do know that in 1594 he joined a theater troupe. Called... anyone remember? Not everyone at once now. The Lord Chamberlain's Men.

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Crazy Credits

Gilson Lavis is listed as "Drumer" instead of "Drummer".

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Connections

Featured in The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Post-War Cinema (2011)

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Soundtracks

Spring is Here
Written by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart
Published by EMI Music Publishing Ltd.
Performed by Maxine Sullivan
Courtesy of Sanctuary Records Group Ltd.
Under License from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Great portrayal of Welles in a charming film

Considering the fanatic cult following that Richard Linklater has developed with films like Waking Life, Before Sunrise/Sunset, and A Scanner Darkly, let me preface this review by saying that I'm not a Linklater devotee. If Linklater is endowed with a species of genius, I must confess complete ignorance to it. Indeed, my favorite Linklater film was School of Rock, and he has always impressed me more by the breadth of his work and his willingness to challenge the conventions of film than by any individual film. It's perhaps this maverick spirit that drew him to do a film about Orson Welles.

Me and Orson Welles, based on a novel by Robert Kaplow, tells the story of a teenager, Richard Samuels (Zac Efron), who is swept from learning about Shakespeare in the classroom to the fast paced world of the Mercury Theater on Broadway when he lands a role in Orson Welles famous 1937 production of Caesar. As Orson Welles struggles to get the production ready for the premier, Richard falls for the theater's resident hottie, a charming and ambitious aspiring actress played by Claire Daines, and finds himself growing up quickly to the realities of show business and the real world.

The movie is entirely carried by it's acting, and the actor generating the most buzz is the British born Christian McKay who plays Welles. I'm very uneasy about praising portrayals of real life figures, because it seems any time an actor plays any historical figure (from Gandhi to Capote and Idi Amin) they receive excessive attention. I think it has less to do with the "acting" involved than it has to do with the fact that most audiences feel much more comfortable passing judgment (and bestowing praise) on mimicry than actual acting. That said, McKay does a masterful job in capturing that mythical image of a young Orson Welles that all of us film geeks have in our head, from the striking resemblance in appearance to the pitch perfect intonations in his voice. Welles is charming and maddening, endearing and brutal, and always larger than life... and McKay captures it all perfectly. It's clearly a role that McKay has been mastering for a long time, as he was doing a one-man-show about Welles on Broadway before being snatched for the role in Me and Orson Welles. From the Q&A session (at the Toronto international film festival), McKay seemed intelligent and passionate about his work, and I truly hope he doesn't get pigeon-holed into spoofing Welles for his entire career.

Unfortunately the other acting foot that the movie stands on, isn't nearly as good. Zac Efron is just so pretty (and I say this as a heterosexual male) that it becomes distracting. Watching Efron act, it feels like he's trying to make women orgasm in every scene he's in, which works well in enough in the many scenes he's trying to court Claire Daines's character, but doesn't work in any other scene. Efron's acting makes it hard for the audience to emotionally connect and prevents the movie from achieving the emotional punch it might otherwise. The audience is never drawn in and they remain spectators, which, fortunately, isn't such a bad thing since the movie is so fun and nostalgically charming. Perhaps even the flighty and ethereal feeling the film gets because of it's lack of punch can be forgiven, since it's a movie about youth and growing up and so much of that involves tempestuous passions that end up being quite meaningless in retrospect.

8/10