If you have ever considered yourself a movie fan in the least, I have something very special to share with you. Actually, this isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned Were the World Mine. But now that it’s finally arrived on DVD, I wanted to take a second opportunity to implore you to see this fantastic film.
I still have trouble believing this is a feature film debut for Tom Gustafson. The film is so pitch perfect you’d believe it was the work of a seasoned Hollywood heavyweight. Were the World Mine is a re-working of Gustafson’s 2003 short film Fairies. Fairies was a major festival success and repeatedly shown on LOGO. It was this success that inspired Gustafson to try it on a larger scale.
Were the World Mine is like you threw High School Musical, Moulin Rouge, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet into a blender and still managed to achieve something wholly original and emotionally moving. While there’s nothing particularly ‘new’ about Were the World Mine (the story is a few hundred years old) it still feels fresh and groundbreaking, perhaps in its’ ability to finally combine all the queer elements of the films that preceded it then distilling it into a simple-fairy tale-esque story. In its simplicity it will become this generation’s Beautiful Thing.
In terms of plot think High School Musical Does A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Timothy (Tanner Cohen) is begrudgingly but openly gay at an all-boys school in typical small town America. He doesn’t hide who he is but he doesn’t exactly flaunt it either. Nevertheless he still gets teased by his schoolmates. And his mother (Judy McLane) is trying to be accepting but obviously still doesn’t understand. He feels completely alone except for his two best friends from a neighboring school – guitar-toting Frankie (Zelda Williams) and athletic Max (Ricky Goldman). Timothy spends most of his afternoons with Frankie and Max but most of his school hours daydreaming about the jock rugby team player Jonathan (Nathaniel David Becker) – but Timothy’s got plenty of material. Jonathan pats his butt during basketball practice, compliments his singing in a particularly dreamy/flirty scene, and always rises to his defense when the other rugby players start their bullying. So he’s completely annoyed when his kooky drama teacher interrupts his Jonathan-drooling-a-thon one day to insist he try out for the school’s upcoming musical version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Timothy gets cast as Puck, and while memorizing his lines he stumbles upon the recipe for the pansy’s love potion. For the non-Shakespearean among you – in A Midsummer Night’s Dream the impish fairy Puck creates havoc when he sprays a love potion via a pansy into several sleeping eyes one night that causes the sleeper to fall madly in love with the first person he or she sees upon opening his or her eyes. Timothy is skeptical at first, but looses all doubts when he accidentally sprays Max. The next day at school he’s ready when drama practice starts – determined once and for all to get the guy of his dreams. To his delight it works, but his moment is cut short by more homophobic taunting from the rugby team members in the cast. In a moment of anger he sprays his two worst antagonists – who start totally making out! Now anyone who tries to stand in his way will finally see what life is like in his shoes. Soon half the town has had a sudden change in orientation and gay marriages have been legalized! But soon we realize that what was at first laugh-inducing has become heart-breaking. Problems arise – as they will when love is involved.
The cast is fantastic. Relative newcomers Tanner Cohen and Nathaniel David Becker are not only heavenly on the eyes (and I do mean heavenly) but they can both act and sing. Tanner is one half of an emotronic pop (a sub-genre I had never heard of) band called The Guts. He also appeared in The Life Before Her Eyes and “As the World Turns”. As for Becker, you might remember him from a Virgin Mobile commercial (I didn’t). The most recognizable cast members are in the ranks. Wendy Robie might look more familiar to audiences with an eye-patch but her role as the as the ethereal drama teacher is the complete opposite of Nadine from ‘Twin Peaks”. She’s captivating and enchanting – so, completely believable as a captivating and enchanting drama teacher. Another television personality on-hand is Jill Larson, who has played Opal Cortlandt on “All My Children” for the past 18 years. And Zelda Williams may not be a name you know offhand but you probably know her dad, Robin.
The DVD officially hit store shelves June 9th, so if you haven’t been lucky enough to see it at a festival or you have and you have to own a copy be sure to keep your eyes peeled.
No comments:
Post a Comment