Sunday, January 10, 2010

Me and Orson Welles (and Nog)

Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles traces the few days leading up to the Mercury Theater's 1937 opening of Julius Caesar, under the direction/dictatorship of the young Orson Welles. Christian McKay's take on Welles is wonderful fun to watch, fully deserving of a Best Supporting Actor nod. McKay's Welles, despite his egocentricity, is also capable of being a great leader, somewhat akin to a military commander. In fact, he seems to see theater as a battle, where the audiences are "sons of bitches" (a favorite term of his) who must be made to pay attention and where the productions must be "lean and mean," shorn of all unecessary extravagance (he brags of his radio production of Hamlet, in which he cut the "To be or not to be" soliloquy because it didn't tell audiences anything they didn't already know). McKay is such a commanding presence here that the rest of this (arguably somewhat slight) film tends to evaporate around him. Essentially its the well-worn underdog formula, similar to a sports film only here it's a scrappy theater group overcoming the odds to achieve a wildly succesful opening night. One can easily enough imagine a mainstream audience being quite entertained by the film without any real knowledge of Welles whatsoever. And a few younger viewers had indeed wandered down to the arthouse to check it out, no doubt lured by the presence of "tween-dream" Zac Efron who is, in fact, the film's lead. He neither ruins nor enhances things much, but he does come off as a bit dull, though almost anyone would, I suppose, when crossing paths with Welles.

6 comments:

  1. Good review, although I'm afraid I know exactly the sort of movie you mean -- a "slight" film that tends to "evaporate" around the lead. . ."well-worn underdog formula" (which I despise above all else). Was Claire any good? I suspect she was. Though even she can't redeem a lousy movie, as the regretable EVENING demonstrated quite lavishly.

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  2. Danes was fine, not particulary great here (sorry, Beth).

    But I was completely entertained by the film and impressed by this cat playing Welles (and there's a _bit_ of a twist on the expected "happy" ending, actually). Worth a look, I'd say.

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  3. Nog, you're on a roll with these movie blogs! I have two to catch up on!

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  4. I'm going to try to devote more time to Nog on Film these days!

    (will my hipster commentary decline at the LC? we'll see).

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  5. I say keep BOTH going strong, as I am selfish and need to be entertained and informed. 80% of my happiness these days is derived from blog posts by Beth and Richard.

    Danes was really good in THE HOURS. . .like, all of the sudden she bursts onto the screen near the end of the movie and starts kicking ass, and you're like, "Woah!"

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  6. I haven't seen The Hours, but I'm not surprised. Danes is usually disarmingly good.

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