ME AND ORSON WELLES with Zac Efron Movie Review

Me and Orson Welles will be released to theaters today Friday November 25, 2009. The movie stars Ben Chaplin, Claire Danes, Zac Efron, Christian McKay, and is directed by Richard Linklater. Me and Orson Welles takes place in 1937 where in a whirlwind week in New York City, a young aspiring actor named Richard is thrown into the middle of Orson Welles Mercury Theatre Company on the eve of the opening of Welles historic staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. During this week he will find romance with a worldly older woman, becomes immersed in a creative experience few are afforded and learn the downside of crossing the imperious, brilliant Welles. If you are planning to go see the movie, here are a few reviews from around the web to help you make up your mind.

Huffington Post
Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles is pure delight, a backstage story set in a romantic period built around a magically charismatic character.
It's also the movie that proves that Zac Efron is a real actor, not just a teen star with a solid singing voice and a dazzling smile. As the 'Me' in the title, he holds his own against the dashing figure of Orson Welles. And this is Welles near the peak of his youthful genius, played with eerie proximity and great humor by newcomer Christian McKay, in what may be the year's most auspicious film debut. Read More

Film School Rejects
Richard Linklater returns to the big screen after a three year absence with Me and Orson Welles, a jazzy backstage coming of age picture. It’s a fast-moving period piece that chronicles the coming together of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre’s 1937 production of Julius Caesar, it’s first. To borrow the Bard’s parlance, the film’s a lark.
The movie’s ultimate insignificance is not, however, a knock against it. While Me and Orson Welles rarely treads below the surface, it brings verisimilitude to its depiction of the New York theater scene and the world surrounding it, and a sort of classical energy to the proceedings. It’s strenuously old-fashioned, valuing personality and wit over clichéd pyrotechnics. Read More

NJ.com
The story of the impressionable young boy who meets a great and powerful man is an old one. But what’s the filmmaker to do when the mentor is a much more interesting character than the protégé?
That’s the problem faced by "Me and Orson Welles," a movie about a high-schooler who somehow manages to nab a role in Welles’ classic 1937 stage production of "Julius Caesar." Read More

Watch the trailer for ME AND ORSON WELLES below