Review of Me and Orson Welles (2008) by Thom H — 03 Jan 2010

An enjoyable -- albeit never brilliant or fully developed -- film from Richard Linklater. Good for him -- I was beginning to have serious doubts that he should be allowed to call himself a director (Bad News Bears, anyone?).

I'm not sure that inclusion of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar was as effective as it could have been, and I'm very sure that the film would've been 100 times better had it been a musical.

.. Zac Efron was nice to look at, as always, but there wasn't much else from him. His charm is on the verge of becoming smug. I respect that he's trying to branch out to more serious films, but I'd like to see him play a different type of character for once.

Christian McKay was very good as Orson Welles, though the screenplay didn't deliver the kind of character depth that I was expecting. All in all, a very good, slightly watered-down, film that I wouldn't mind watching a few more times for the entertainment value, now that I know not to expect anything ground-breaking.