"Efron and Danes provide eye candy in a somewhat clumsy and misguided execution"

Orson Welles. Born in 1915, died 1985, American, occupied himself with directing, acting, writing and producing as well as being an “accomplished magician”. He worked in film, TV, radio and of course theatre, which is what this film is all about. Oh, and he was voted The Greatest Film Director of all Time.

SO, with all of this in mind, we should applaud Richard Linklater; fair play buddy, you’ve got guts directing a film about one of the best, sorry, THE best, directors of all time. Similar praise to Christian Mckay for playing the man who almost got an Oscar for his staring role in Citizen Kane (he did win one for writing it). Gotta say though, they do look strangely similar and, although relatively unknown, I think the man can act. So all good there.

And now I have to make a confession; my name is Anna Kostyrina and I have never watched High School Musical. Because of this, I don’t really get the Efron mania. Or maybe it’s because I’m over the age of 14. One of those. I therefore don’t understand why he was cast  in an already risky venture, what with it blatantly taking the piss out of one of film’s all time grates…no really, why? Not to bring the girls in, surely, since this isn’t aimed at them? Yes, this is a comedy and yes he does play a young, cheeky budding actor but while he starts off charming enough, his performance was undeniably wooden more the a few times. He kind of ruined it a little for me. But only a little (he is very pretty).

The true diamond in amongst all this is Claire Danes. Lovely, sparkling, gorgeous and she wears the cutest dresses ever – straight out of vintage heaven. She really holds the film together as the object of everyone’s affections, driving the men crazy and showing us just how stupid they all are when there’s a bit of skirt around – and how we’re all a bunch of manipulative bitches trying to survive. Oh, and watch out for the ginger chap, he's awesome.