where: UA EMERY BAY STADIUM 10 in Emeryville, CA
when: Sunday, December 20th, 2009
show: 10:10 p.m.
costs: $10.75 Ticket + $0.00 small Diet ( w/ Cherry flavor ) Coke + $6.00 small Popcorn ( w/ Butter ) + $1.50 Jalapeno-flavored Kernel Season's Popcorn Seasoning + $4.00 Bridge Toll = $22.25
auditorium: 5
seat: 5th row, 11th column
synopsis: Nazi Caesar at the Mercury.
Through a chance encounter, a 17-year old aspiring actor, Richard Samuels ( Zac Efron ), is thrust into the limelight when a then 22-year old Orson Welles ( Christian McKay ) picks him to play a bit part in his theatre's 1937 production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. And Richard comes of age in Orson's imposing shadow.
prediction: Christian McKay's job of channeling Orson Welles might just give him an Oscar nod.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Music store; 2.) Wheaties; 3.) Flyers; 4.) Stafford wife; 5.) Quadruple space; 6.) Catalogue of faults; 7.) Ambulance; 8.) Radio show; 9.) Sprinkler; 10.) Bad luck thing; 11.) Truant; 12.) The museum; 13.) Lute; 14.) Picking partners; 15.) Preview; 16.) The wait; 17.) Advice from an old pro; 18.) A week; 19.) The deal; 20.) Stage fright; 21.) Opening night; 22.) Replacement; 23.) No such thing as luck; 24.) Class act; 25.) Shoe box; 26.) Hungry generation; and 27.) All ahead of us.
audience reaction: None. I was the only one in the auditorium.
recommendation: Go see this movie to know what great acting is all about.
spoiler alert! Sonja ( Claire Danes ) and Greta ( Zoe Kazan ) are not beautiful enough--they're both of the plain vanilla variety-- to play Richard's love interests. But, then again, I was also once 17 years of age and know that guys at that age don't necessarily think with their cranial neurons but are more or less manipulated by their raging testicular hormones!
If Hollywood ever decides to make a movie about former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton, Zoe Kazan would fit the bill just fine!
A self-centered, eccentric, overly confident, extemporaneous, arrogant, manipulative, irresponsible, inconsiderate, brilliant, creative, abusive, opportunistic, unfaithful, cowardly, attention-grabbing and megalomaniacally-insecure consummate perfectionist artiste son-of-a-bitch habitual liar is how this movie portrays the one and only theatrical genius, Orson Welles, is my honest impression of it all. ( Can you say all of that in one breath? I can! And I had better, since I personally wrote it all. ) Was Orson really all these or was his character simply "embellished" upon?
And since this movie is focused more on Orson, himself, the title should have been: ORSON WELLES AND I.
fyi: I didn't know that Converse sneakers were already around back then! I always thought that these sneakers originated in the '50's.
This movie is set about a year before Mercury Theatre on the Air aired "War of the Worlds." And about four years before Orson Welles' movie, CITIZEN KANE, was first shown.
Attention, all of you college student blog readers of mine out there ... if you are taking a Sociology class or Cultural Anthropology class, ask your respective professors if they know of "Shakespeare In The Bush." If they do, and have ready access to it, ask them to make copies for everyone in class. This is a great essay by Laura Bohannan which was first published in 1966. I totally enjoyed reading this essay back in college.
word of advice: You do not sell wine before its time. ( To paraphrase Orson Welles, himself. )
tidbits: I was at my friend Hector's place in Oakland, CA earlier in the day. At one point, I went in the backyard to give their dog two jumbo hot dogs. As I was about to re-enter the house, I noticed that their citrus tree by the back porch was laden with ripe fruit. I picked one. As I stepped into the kitchen, I said, Hey, don't touch this orange 'cause its mine.
He and his wife just laughed. "That's not an orange, you idiot!" Hector said. "That's a lemon."
Upon closer inspection, I noticed that it was a Meyer lemon which I held in my hand. I didn't know that they could get that big!
Later, my friend printed-out my blog on 2012. His printer was acting up. I told him that I still have my printer, which I bought almost two years ago, in its unopened box and doing nothing but taking-up lots of space in my hallway. He told me that he wants my printer as a Christmas present. Sure, when Hell freezes over!
Here's another New Year's Resolution for me: Take the printer out of its box and use it.
At 6:58 p.m. we decided to watch AVATAR online for free via LimeWire 5's website. So we started downloading the total of 700.17 MB. There was no way for us to preview the download so, to pass the time away, we watched their recorded Pacquiao vs. Coto fight. All that time, we were hoping that it wasn't downloading the BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD movie or some other idiotic one. The download ended at 9:51 p.m. So my friend and I, along with his wife and son, gathered around the computer to watch the movie. What came on was a bar-graphed audio only--and, if this was not bad enough, it was in Russian! Ha! What a waste of time that was! And, to think, I could have taken them to the cinema earlier in the day to see the movie, itself, but they said, No.
Upset by the waste of time, I left for home but decided to swing by UA Emery Bay Stadium 10 to see the Orson Welles movie.
On my way home at around 12:41 a.m., just about half a mile before the Highway 4 connector ramp, I saw three highway patrol cars at the shoulder as the officer in the lead car was giving a sports car driver a ticket. But I was surprised that none of the patrol officers chased down the white SUV that was going at least 80 mph on the diamond lane! And I really was hoping that the SUV's idiotic lead-foot driver would get pulled over.
