Review by Victor Olliver - Zac Efron embarks on the painful business of dumping tens of millions of fickle female hearts in this surprise movie.

It's not a complete dumping. He plainly wants to stay friends with his emotional High School Musical fans.

He still looks like a Ken doll. He can still be ogled. But in a film that will appeal as much to theatre luvvies as hyper-ventilating pop scream queens.

Director Richard Linklater's Me And Orson Welles is one long love letter to the stage and his hero Orson Welles.

Brit actor Christian McKay easily upstages an otherwise promising Zac as the young director Welles, yet to make his classic movie Citizen Kane.

Set in New York's Mercury Theatre of 1937, Welles rehearses Julius Caesar. This truth is diluted by the fictional character of Richard Samuels (Efron).

McKay's Orson is awesome - the look, the voice, the arrogant genius. This is more psychic possession than acting.

For many it will be an introduction to the creative tornado Welles was before the girth expanded and great talent was drowned in TV ads for a certain sherry.

Efron's teen actor Samuels is plucked as if on a whim by Welles, 22, to play Lucius in Julius Caesar: stardom and love interest (Claire Danes) beckon.

"Consonants, consonants, consonants - and don't forget the vowels," the wily Welles commands his cast.

And it's not every commercial film that gives a lesson in Shakespearean verse - Samuels learns painfully from Welles that "more" must be pronounced "mo".

The story is told by ingenue Samuels who dreams of "wealth, travel, fame". He is our eyes into the improvised hothouse of Welles' mind and work.

Efron is winning because his Samuels is not so different from HSM's Troy - it's just he's been relocated to a grown-up, more ambitious world.

The 30s theatrical sets are a joy, as is Danes as Welles PA and on/off lover Sonja - whose character assessment of her master is subtle and spot on.

The rehearsal sections by far offer the most fun as we watch a crazed tyrant put on a show. Verdict 4/5