Me and Orson Welles

The infamous 1937 Mercury Theatre staging of Julius Caesar is given a magnificent treatment in director Richard Linklater’s funny and nostalgic film. Linklater approaches the story of one of theater history’s greatest happenings with a surprisingly intimate eye and a true sense of authenticity. This was Orson Welles before he broadcast War of the Worlds or directed Citizen Kane. The sort of things he was pulling off in theater—like staging Caesar with a modern feel (he set the story in then-contemporary Fascist Italy)—were remarkably ahead of their time, and Linklater creates a fantastic, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants portrayal of a theater company not entirely confident in what they were doing. Christian McKay delivers one of the year’s best performances as Welles; it seems like he’s channeling the entertainment-history great. Zac Efron is very good as a high school kid who gets a small role in the play. This is one the best films to come from Linklater (The School of Rock).