Zac Attacks
Thursday, December 21, 2017 at 11:07AM by Jason Adams
The Greatest Showman is out in theaters now and word seems to be... mixed, let's used the word "mixed." If any of you have seen it feel free to chime in with thoughts in the comments! I haven't seen it, nor do I plan on seeing it, but it was never gonna be my cuppa anyway. Much more my cuppa, at least in theory, is Zac Efron's next pair of projects - he's entering his Risk Taker phase, y'all...
Announced last spring but yet to film is Extremely Wicked, Shocking and Vile, director Joe Berlinger's movie about the serial killer Ted Bundy and his longtime girlfriend (played by Lily Collins) who was unaware of her paramour's extracurriculars.
And just announced last week is The Beach Bum, which will reunite Zac with his Paperboy co-star Matthew McConaughey's, this time for no less a director than Harmony Korine. This is Korine's first film since James Franco deep-throated a pistol in Spring Breakers and this sounds like a similar twist on McConaughey's persona - he's playing a stoner named "Moondog" who goes on a journey; Efron will play someone named "Flicker" that meets Moondog along the way. (I can't believe I just wrote that sentence.)
So what do we think about Zac's upcoming projects? Is he smart to take risks like this? Or should he just lean into his many surface pleasures?
Reader Comments (16)
Get his roid rage off my screen.
Happy to see him take risks, but ecstatic about news of a new Harmony Korine movie! Spring Breakers was bonkers, and Mister Lonely is a personal fave.
Efron (generally) leaves me cold; he and Justin Bieber, who seem to have come to pop-culture "preeminence" around the same time, are like two sides of a dirty coin. That said, he does look less plastic and is playing to his musical strengths in The Greatest Showman, so hopefully he moves away from the Baywatch/dude-bro phase of his career into a more natural, palatable but still edgy cinematic range of motion.
I truly feel Zac has a lot of talent... unfortunately, he has chosen very poor venues to show his acting chops.
Moving into auteur-driven films has done wonders for his contemporaries (Pattinson, Stewart, even Radcliffe to an extent), so I think it's a great choice for his career. Efron has charisma and talent but it hasn't always been brought out in the best ways. The right director in the right role could do wonders for him and show off a piece of his personality we never knew existed.
It was nice seeing him in The Disaster Artist.... He would've been great as the lead in Boogie Nights if that were filmed today.
I don't think much is there there with Efron, u know? But Pattinson has pleasantly surprised me post-"Twilight," and everyone deserves a chance to mature without the public fixation and high expectations. Not into "The Greatest Showman," and the Ted Bundy role seems way out of his league. Only time will tell.
I'm somewhat irritated by his utter willingness to get stuck in a casting rut. He has made the same frat movie about 6 times in a row, and yet returning to his breakout success it was clear that he was a triple threat. Why in the hell he didn't go and do something like How To Succeed In Business on Broadway and flex his acting muscles, rather than the other kind, is quite beyond me.
He has strong charisma and presence, and I do rate his timing, so it's a relief to hear he'll be doing something - anything - else.
Mr Effrom should do a gay romantic comedy and keep away from Harmony Korine
Zac Efron is most watchable when he is moving. He does dance and sports better than other actors his age.
I understand that he might want more than choreography but his acting is not exceptional (so far).
I loved The Greatest Showman. Songs and sequences had a lot of heart. And that's where it got me. The Korine film could be another version of dude bro. Neighbors got good reviews so he kept going for that area. The Bundy flick could stretch his muscles. It was nice to see him back to singing in Gretest Showman. The comment about him doing Broadway (How To Suceed) was a great idea.
Zac was very good in "Hairspray"
He's handsome, but that's it. I never remember him from a movie, and several of his I've avoided like the plague. I don't think he has the natural artistic proclivities of Kristen Stewart or Robert Pattison.
He has charisma. I've only seen him in Hairspray and The Paperboy. Plenty of actors have made less of an impression than him in their earlier films and gone on to do strong work.
Zac Effrom would have a better career in the studio era specially if he had worked for M.G.M but as his fame faded he would have ended up in AIP beach party movies
I think Zac is an actor that just needs a chance to shine, I'm happy to know he's going for this "dark route"
And he seems to be perfect to play Ted Bundy, he already kind of looks like him, and Bundy was nothing but a creepy, charming and manipulative guy
I think he have manners to be like that