BEFORE: Now I'm sort of sorry that I worked so hard to catch up on films, because if I'd been 5 days behind, I could have had movie #1776 fall on July 4 - however, I don't think I have anything coming up that appropriately patriotic, so no matter. I've got my movie chain set up to Comic-Con (heck, I've got it set straight through to the end of the year, but it could always change...) so I'm going to stay the course.
We're going to sneak out later today and catch the new "X-Men" film, but I'll hold off on posting that review until I get closer to Comic-Con. This way if I get busy shipping merchandise and packing my bags, I'll only have to watch one movie over the course of four days, and I'll have three reviews all written and ready to post in the third week of July.
Linking from "Cradle Will Rock", Cherry Jones was also in "New Year's Eve" with Zac Efron.
THE PLOT: A teenager is cast in the Mercury Theatre production of "Julius Caesar" directed by a young Orson Welles in 1937.
AFTER: This covers a lot of the same ground as "Cradle Will Rock" - it's funny sometimes how two films will focus on the same thing - by depicting Welles and John Houseman setting up the Mercury Theatre, at a time when Welles was best known for doing radio shows like "The Shadow", and just before famous events like the "War of the Worlds" broadcast, or the making of "Citizen Kane". However, this film dispensed with all the leftist political stuff and got more into the inner workings of a theater company. It's all about how the troubles that go into making a play, and how it all comes together at the last minute, somewhat like what was seen in "Shakespeare in Love".
Which is a valid reference, because the play-within-a-play is Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", in which Welles played the stentorian Brutus, and the actors wore modern dress, and I'm guessing there was more of an overall point to be made about Mussolini or Hitler or something.
We see Welles through the eyes of a high-school student, who impresses Orson with his versatility, music-skills, knowledge of past productions, and an overall drive to work on stage and behind the scenes for no money. (That last part is an under-appreciated skill for anyone starting in the business).
Welles is portrayed as an egotist, a philanderer, a liar and a cheat - you know, a typical director. But he's also got an amazing knowledge of the theater, and a vision of how things should be presented that ends up being right much more often than being wrong. The kind of guy that you want to shadow if you're just starting in the business, because he's going to drop little pearls of wisdom along the way, and everything he does seems to be important, at least at the time. It's been my experience that the most successful directors are supremely confident, filled with vision, and are right even when they're wrong, so I'm inclined to believe this portrayal of Welles.
Now, can we talk about the grammatically incorrect title? Why couldn't it have been "Orson Welles and I", or "Orson Welles and Me"? This is one of the most annoying repeated mistakes I hear time and again - nobody in the younger generation seems to know when to use "me" and when to use "I". Some English teachers must have heard kids saying, "Jackie and me went to the movies" too many times, and drilled "Jackie and I went to the movies" into them a little too strongly, so now kids say things like, "The teacher corrected Jackie and I" instead of "The teacher corrected Jackie and me."
People, it's not difficult. Just remove the other person from the sentence and think about it for a second before you speak. You wouldn't say, "Me went to the movies" or "The teacher corrected I", would you? No, those sound incorrect, because they are. It's not too late, we can turn this around before it becomes acceptable. If it's the subject of the sentence, please use "I", and if it's the object of a verb, please use "me". And whichever it is, it comes AFTER the other person - you always put your own pronoun last, to be polite. "The teacher corrected you, Jackie and me."
The only exception is when you use forms of the verb "to be", like "is" and "are". So you shouldn't say, "It's me!", even though "me" is the object. Technically it's the subject, because "is" is like an equals sign - "it" and "me" are referring to the same thing, so instead you should say, "It is I!" But this sounds a bit too proper and stuffy sometimes, so slowly "It's me" has become acceptable. This is what I worry about at nights, the slow decline of correct grammar. I take a stand and correct everyone in the office whenever I can, because only through repitition can some people change their bad habits.
Anyway, back to the film. I wish I knew more about Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", I think that would have really enhanced my enjoyment. Instead I just sort of have to take things at face value and enjoy the story about a 1930's theater company, which is perfectly fine. I give the edge to this one over "Cradle Will Rock", because by focusing on the small, it didn't get lost in a wave of political propaganda, and therefore it didn't overreach itself.
I'd like to re-watch other people's takes on Orson Welles at some point - I remember being impressed by Vincent D'Onofrio playing him in "Ed Wood" (with voice dubbed in by cartoon actor Maurice LaMarche) and Liev Schreiber playing him in "RKO-281".
Also starring Christian McKay (last seen in "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger"), Claire Danes (last seen in "U Turn"), James Tupper, Zoe Kazan (last seen in "Ruby Sparks"), Ben Chaplin (last seen in "The Remains of the Day"), Eddie Marsan (last seen in "Jack the Giant Slayer"), Kelly Reilly, Imogen Poots, Saskia Reeves, and Garrick "Biggs" Hagon.
RATING: 6 out of 10 bottles of pineapple juice
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