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NEW FEST: 20th Anniversary NY LGB&T Film Festival: "Were the World Mine" (2008)
southendmd:
Boston critics are so stereotypically harsh! Here's the Globe's review:
'World' has a gay old time with Shakespeare
Ty Burr, Globe Staff
A cross between "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and a gay remake of "High School Musical"? Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show. Well, wonder on while we try to make heads or tails of the swoony, sweethearted train-wreck that is "Were the World Mine." There are times when it is safe to say that a labor of love is love's labor lost, and, reader, this is one of them.
WERE THE WORLD MINE
Directed by: Tom Gustafson
Written by: Gustafson and Cory James Krueckeberg
Starring: Tanner Cohen, Wendy Robie, Nathaniel David Becker, Judy McLane, Zelda Williams
At: Kendall Square
Running time: 95 minutes
Unrated (language, sexuality, gay rugby musical numbers)
The film is a feature-length outgrowth of the 2003 short "Fairies," written by Cory James Krueckeberg and filmed by Tom Gustafson, a Hollywood casting director making his bid to be a force in queer cinema. "Were the World Mine" is nothing if not ambitious. It's the execution that falters.
Set in a tony prep school, the film centers on Timothy (Tanner Cohen), a barely-closeted day student with the singing voice of an angel. Bullied in dodgeball and tolerated by his blue-collar mother (Judy McLane), Timothy pines for the school's king jock, Jonathan (Nathaniel David Becker), drifting into Busby Berkeley-style daydreams in which the two act out their love.
But soft - what plot device through yonder window breaks? The school's drama teacher (Wendy Robie), an enchantress of sorts herself, casts Timothy as Puck in an all-male version of "Midsummer Night's Dream," and in studying his lines he deciphers a hidden recipe for love-juice, just like the one in the Shakespeare play. No sooner has he wielded his passion flower (it's purple and it spurts) on the eyes of his classmates, then each falls for the first person he sees. Soon the entire rugby team is paired off, the coach has declared his love for the principal, and Timothy and Jonathan are officially an item.
What keeps "Were the World Mine" from soaring into the delirious forbidden zone to which it aspires isn't the filming, which is low-budget and clumsy but fully felt, especially in the musical numbers. The culprits, instead, are the script (the dialogue comes in two flavors: Shakespeare and halting), the characters (gay or straight, they're all two-dimensional) and the performances. The soap actress Jill Larson plays the principal's snooty wife as a strident homophobic cartoon; when someone who has survived two decades of "One Life to Live" can't breathe life into her lines, you know a film is in trouble.
Hollywood royalty alert: Robin Williams's daughter, Zelda Williams, plays the hero's best friend, an alt-guitarist type, and she's one of the few people here who seems visibly comfortable in front of a camera. Cohen does too, but only when he sings. A headlong fantasy of gay teen openness and independent filmmaking, "Were the World Mine" requires serious indulgence. You're forgiven if you choose to indulge it, though. Like the man said, "If we offend, it is with our good will."
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2008/12/05/world_has_a_gay_old_time_with_shakespeare/
southendmd:
Have you seen this, John? The trailer for the short "Fairies" from 2003, the inspiration for "Were the World Mine". Interestingly, also stars Wendy Robie, albeit with shorter hair.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvcOeRnMb5A[/youtube]
Front-Ranger:
Dang! Sometimes I wish I could live where you are! But then I'd miss the splendor of the Rocky Mountains. What a choice!!
:-\
southendmd:
Here's another review from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Movie review: 'Were the World Mine'
Reyhan Harmanci, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, November 21, 2008
Were the World Mine: Musical. Directed by Tom Gustafson. Starring Tanner Cohen and Wendy Robie. (Not rated. 95 minutes. At the Opera Plaza in San Francisco and the Shattuck in Berkeley. )
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The phenomenon of teen musicals - beloved by actual teens - is a little perplexing. There is just nothing ... cool ... about breaking into song and dance routines in daily life. Disney's "High School Musical" juggernaut and the popularity of the stage show and film version of "Hairspray" have brought more attention to the teen-centered Broadway hit "Spring Awakening," which will be made into a film as well.
"Were the World Mine" follows the teen musical formula but renders its material with admirable lushness and intelligence. It was a hit as an indie short film on the film festival circuit before director and writer Tom Gustafson turned it into a full-length musical, so irony and self-referral humor are written into its DNA.
"Were the World Mine" tells the story of out gay teenager Timothy (Tanner Cohen), who is attending a boys' private school. He is hazed repeatedly and ruthlessly by his homophobic classmates, but he survives by escaping into fantasy (here come the musical sequences) - mostly, fantasizing about the extremely cute Jonathon (Nathaniel David Becker). He also has to deal with his struggling mother (Judy McLane) and friends Frankie (Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin) and Max (Ricky Goldman).
Life changes abruptly for Timothy when, after being cast as Puck in the school production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by his slightly batty drama teacher (played by "Twin Peaks" actress Wendy Robie), he finds a secret recipe embedded in Shakespeare's famous farce. Timothy, like Puck, has the ability to make people fall in love with the first person they see. Should he use it?
Well, it wouldn't be much of a movie if he didn't. As the action unfolds, with dazzling color and crisp choreography, the homophobic boys get the lesson of their lives.
The weakest part of the movie, besides some rather drawn-out plot machinations, is the musical aspect. The tunes just aren't catchy enough to linger or clever enough to stand in for dialogue. It's a welcome addition to the cavalcade of teen-focused musicals, but like a midsummer night's dream, can hardly be remembered the next day.
-- Advisory: Boys kiss boys often in this film, but nothing truly shocking.
Artiste:
Merci beaucoup:
Let's make the world ours: gay for all humans !![/b]
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