Over a dozen actors have played Orson Welles on screen, attempting to nail mercury; a figure equal parts charming conjurer and driven dictator. The latest challenger is Christian McKay, a British stage actor. But McKay doesn't just 'play' the great genius. Rather, like some voodoo priest, he appears to have ensnared and bottled Welles' immortal soul, in order to resurrect every tyrannical tic and mellifluous mannerism of the man who, like Vincent Price in Theatre Of Blood, had the temerity to rewrite Shakespeare. So that's the Orson Welles bit of the title accounted for.
Then there's "Me". Zac Efron's presumably here for the same reason Robert Pattinson was recently cast as Salvador Dali in Little Ashes: honey to the box office bee. In Richard Linklater's period piece he's a high schooler who lucks his way into Welles' famous 1937 production of Julius Caesar at the Mercury Theatre; a once-in-a-lifetime "opportunity to be sprayed by Orson's spit".
Compared with his co-performers, especially shock-haired Leo Bill, who fits the 1930s like a bespoke blazer, Efron's is a face and sass out of time. His is a rite de passage without a passage, a coming-of-age story in which the cocky protagonist comes, but never attains wisdom. Thus the film demands an emotional investment in a character we can't care about. Adventureland tells a similar story much better. But McKay is this film's incredible, all-conquering ace.
Then there's "Me". Zac Efron's presumably here for the same reason Robert Pattinson was recently cast as Salvador Dali in Little Ashes: honey to the box office bee. In Richard Linklater's period piece he's a high schooler who lucks his way into Welles' famous 1937 production of Julius Caesar at the Mercury Theatre; a once-in-a-lifetime "opportunity to be sprayed by Orson's spit".
Compared with his co-performers, especially shock-haired Leo Bill, who fits the 1930s like a bespoke blazer, Efron's is a face and sass out of time. His is a rite de passage without a passage, a coming-of-age story in which the cocky protagonist comes, but never attains wisdom. Thus the film demands an emotional investment in a character we can't care about. Adventureland tells a similar story much better. But McKay is this film's incredible, all-conquering ace.