>Teachout and "Orson Welles and Me" and Me
October 30, 2010
>The mighty Terry Teachout agrees with me! Though his pleasure with the movie is somewhat different. Teachout is the drama critic for the Wall Street Journal and he points out this is probably the closest we’ll ever get to seeing a play produced by the genius Orson Welles:
Enter Richard Linklater, the director of such distinctly un-Wellesian movies as “Dazed and Confused” and “School of Rock,” who last year made a film called “Me and Orson Welles” that was recently released on DVD. Based on a 2003 novel by Robert Kaplow, the movie is a coming-of-age screwball comedy in which Zac Efron, lately of “High School Musical,” plays a stage-struck high-school senior who unexpectedly finds himself playing a bit part in “Julius Caesar.” Don’t snicker: Christian McKay’s Welles impersonation is so accurate as to be spooky, and despite the film’s obligatory (albeit charming) rom-com trappings, I’ve never seen a backstage movie that was truer to the experience of putting on a show.
Read the whole thing then go out and rent the movie. You won’t be disappointed with either.
>Don’t Waste Your Time
October 21, 2010
>Terry Teachout says you shouldn’t waste your time. I agree:
As a professional critic, it’s my job–my destiny, you might say–to spend a fair amount of time experiencing art that I don’t like. Insofar as possible, though, I don’t propose to waste any more of the days that remain to me consuming bad art than is absolutely necessary. Unless I’m being paid to do so, I won’t even finish reading a book I don’t like, or listening to a record that fails to engage me. I have better things to do, and not nearly enough time in which to do them.
Read the whole thing for more about traveling light.
