Exhilarating, enchanting and fully entertaining, indie director Richard Linklater’s latest is an appealing coming-of-age comedy set 1937 NYC during the week before the premiere of the newly founded Mercury Theatre Company’s production of Julius Caesar. British actor Christian McKay completely embodies the role of the young, already imperious director Orson Welles. Filled with loving period details, the story, based on a real photograph taken of the genius actor director and a young man with a ukulele, follows a teen-aged actor (Zac Efron) who lands a job at the new company and becomes involved with an older theatre assistant (Claire Danes). Romantic rivalries and backstage crises arise as opening night approaches.