Jack Black Kills Shirley MacLaine for Richard Linklater

Richard Linklater was able to do what no one else has: Mine the sort of performance out of Jack Black that requires no forgiveness for the fact that he's Jack Black. When Black tries to step outside himself, it almost always fails. When directors let him do too much of his own thing, he takes it too far. The only other movie I can think of that comes close in that regard is Orange County.

Linklater tapped into the right stuff for School of Rock, and he thinks he can do it again. The Hollywood Reporter says Black has been cast opposite Shirley MacLaine in Linklater's dark comedy called Bernie, which begins shooting in October. I would suggest a name change, because the synopsis runs a little too close to the only other popular film with "Bernie" in the title. However, that's just a real-life coincidence; Linklater's film is based on a true story.

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Trailer - The Documentary 'Great Directors'

This month, the documentary Great Directors arrives in a few theaters around the country, and it's exactly what you'd think it would be about: Filmmakers, discussing their craft, their own work, and their influences.

The film features some very influential names and a few that, for American audiences, are probably yet to be discoverd: Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Stephen Frears, Agnes Varda, Ken Loach, Liliana Cavani, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater, and John Sayles. We've got the trailer as well as separate discussions with Todd Haynes and David Lynch, who talks candidly about the failure of Dune. And I hear if all goes well, I hear documentrix Angela Ismailos will make a sequel about second-rate hacks like Stephen Sommers, so that's exciting. (Actually, she is working on a sequel, which will feature more Euro directors and Asian filmmakers as well).

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Movie Review - 'Me and Orson Welles'

Me and Orson Welles Starring Zac Efron, Christian McKay, and Claire Danes Directed by Richard Linklater Rated PG-13

Orson Welles was 25 when he directed Citizen Kane. It’s hard to fathom how anyone could make a film with such bravura at 25, to say nothing of doing it the first time he walked behind a camera or without acknowledging that this little feat - creating a cinema landmark still cited by many as the best film ever - was undertaken in 1941. Prior to Kane, Welles worked in radio and theater, shocking the country with War of the Worlds while only 23, and staging legendary adaptations of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Julius Caesar when he was even younger. Me and Orson Welles presents The Man Who Would Be Kane during rehearsals for his Mercury Theatre’s Caesar, which he updated as an allegory for Mussolini’s Italy. By this time (1937), Welles was already a well-paid radio personality, contributing his voice to any number of weekly radio dramas and serving as a voice of the classic crime fighter The Shadow. One of his earliest productions, a kind of mini-series take on Les Miserables Welles adapted in 1937, indicates quite clearly his facility with voices (often portraying multiple characters within scenes) and the red pen. Welles' edits were and are controversial. For example, this version of Julius Caesar, a play that runs about 20,000 words, was 100 minutes on stage with no intermission. Some critics hailed the new approach as well as the modernity of the presentation, while others thought it was akin to sacrilege. And behind it all was a kid, a 22-year-old kid. If this film does one thing wrong in its depiction of Welles it is not addressing the character's age, worth noting since the “Me” in Me and Orson Welles is portrayed by Zac Efron, who is also 22. Behind one of the year’s best performances is British actor Christian McKay, and his is a flawless piece of work. Capturing Welles as equal parts artist, genius, and charlatan, McKay creates a man whose domineering nature barely masks his fragility. It also does not foretell the future, a now threadbare piece of Hollywood lore starring one of its most talented writers, actors, and directors all rolled into one as a cautionary tale, a man who could only find work hawking Paul Masson wine at the end of his career. McKay is in that moment in 1937, though, and never looks to the old, fat Welles, the intermediate Touch of Evil Welles, or even Orson a handful of years later.

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Zac Efron in Linklater's 'Me and Orson Welles' Trailer

I don't often invoke the quotes of other critics when discussing a movie but when Roger Ebert says Me and Orson Welles is "possibly the best movie about the theatre I've ever seen" that deserves a little notice. The upcoming Richard Linklater film stars Zac Efron as a teenage actor cast in Welles' theatrical production of Julius Caesar back in the 1930s. British actor Christian McKay portrays Welles.

Orson is a subject I know more about than nearly anything else, particularly around this time of his life and career. His Caesar was contemporarized to mirror the rise of fascism in Europe and was performed in modern dress. The production was staged about a year before his War of the Worlds radio broadcast and about two years after a then-20-year-old Welles mounted his famous Voodoo Macbeth. That production of Caesar alone would make for an interesting movie (Ian McKellen's Richard III used similar concepts), but this is obviously a behind-the-scenes coming-of-age tale. Here's the new trailer for Me and Orson Welles, which will hit the Toronto Film Festival in about a month:

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McConaughey Talks 'Dazed and Confused' Sequel

Which do you think haunts Matthew McConaughey more, the Ghosts of Girlfriends Past or the Ghosts of His Few Good Movies Past? My hunch is it's the latter. After all, he's fairly recently married, and even if he weren't, getting new girlfriends would probably not be a real problem. However, The Shirtless One hasn't been in a good movie since Frailty back in 2002.

So when the subject of a sequel to Dazed and Confused came up recently, McConaughey sounded intrigued. "That’s a very precious subject, that movie,” McConaughey told MTV. “We made such a gem…I’ve had loose discussions about what would be the next [in]carnation of a Dazed and Confused," added the actor, who so memorably created tail-chasin' stoner David Wooderson in the film. "[Director Richard Linklater is] not going to do it unless it’s done the right way. It’s a good idea, but he’s gotta pick the right way to do it.”

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