User reviews

Were the World Mine may not be perfect, but it is inspiring, with a brilliant and durable concept (a queer interpretation and extension of A Midsummer Night's Dream). Like a previous reviewer, I just saw this at the San Francisco Int'l LGBT Film Festival, where it was indeed a solid crowd pleaser and one of my three favorite features in the festival. The film grew from the director's short film "Fairies" (which was also memorable) and I dare say that the music and lyrics, and certainly the lead performers, deserve to have him tighten it up a bit, somehow get lots more money, and carry this forward to a remake a la Baz Luhrmann ("Moulin Rouge") or Julie Taymor ("Across the Universe"). In a way, the material is both weighty and fanciful enough to really need that level of realization to be properly appreciated. As is, though, "Were the World Mine" moved me to tears, made me laugh many times, and made me want to listen to its few songs again, more closely!

This utterly adorable fantasy musical is one of those tiny movies made simply in a small town and without pretensions other than to enchant... and if you see it in a crowded cinema keen to enjoy then you are really in for a magical experience. I know I am blathering on about this funny whimsical film in the tone of the title and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM terminology, but as I am having fun here with my descriptions, you will as well if you take the time to see and enjoy it as I described above. With it's heart tight in its lovable hero's hairy teen armpit, this DEAD POET SOCIETY locker room version of MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM has more than a whiff of the teen spirit from Baz Luhrmann's Leo/R&J and HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL for teenage boys. If it can be remade with a bigger sound and image quality and retain the hilarious tone and charm then WERE THE WORLD MINE might just cross into mainstream teen and young adult affection with its funny fairy charm intact and actually get world wide applause. Tanner Cohen can certainly sing, Nathaniel David Becker is an ideal love interest for him, and Zelda Williams makes the most hilarious and adorable English teacher with a very keen awareness of what when tweaked will want untold. I loved it and will happily get Pucked again even just for fun.

I just saw this movie at the San Francisco LGBT festival with a packed house at the Castro Theater, where it provided one of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments that sometimes happen at film fests. Yours truly is a cynical old curmudgeon of a film-goer, and when a movie can win me over this way (along with the rest of the audience) it's like a gift from out of the blue; I found myself not questioning or analyzing the experience, just letting myself give in to pure enjoyment. I'm not surprised that it keeps winning audience awards at festivals; people are grateful when a movie sweeps them up into its own world.

How the magic happens here, I don't know, especially since this is a movie by such a relatively inexperienced director. But I think I can put my finger on a few elements that make this mix happen. First, Wendy Robie as the drama teacher. I previously knew her only as crazy Nadine ("silent curtain rollers!") on "Twin Peaks." She's every gay boy's dream teacher from high school, and only gradually do we begin to realize that she must be more than she seems. Second, though the film is called a musical, and there are indeed songs, the use of music is surprisingly sparing. We don't get a big musical number every 15 minutes; instead the songs are used to capture certain states of mind and to introduce magical elements in the story. I actually left the theater wanting more music (a rare experience!). And third, the ugly homophobic elements in the movie at first seem almost jarringly realistic; this serves to heighten the magic of the wish-fulfillment.

Magic doesn't always work in movies or on the stage; not every production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" can capture Shakespeare's whimsy. But for me, it does work in this movie, and I'm a little awed by the experience.

Though it may be labeled as a gay/lesbian film, this is a witty and lovely takeoff on "A Midsummer's Night Dream." The acting by all the principals, particularly by appealing lead Tanner Cohen, Judy McKane as his mother, and Wendy Robie as the school drama teacher, is first-rate. The art direction, music and especially the cinematography help create a magical quality as the story enters the realm of Midsummer fantasy. Director Thomas Gustafson skilfully develops believable characters, manages complicated plot twists, and never loses the thread of "what if" that is essential to a retelling of Shakespeare's timeless story. Like the characters, you'll be enchanted by this small-budget but high-quality film.

Were the World Mine is set in an all male private school where the entire senior class is required to participate in the senior play, a production of "A Midsummer Nights Dream"---even the members of the rugby team.

But the events in the town start to take on a surreal gay twist, as the interactions of all the folks in the town start to mirror those in Shakespeare's original script.

As you may know---the comedy of the Shakespeare play centers around a device where a fairy named Puck can sprinkle a magic elixir into someone's eyes, causing that person to fall madly in love with the first person they lay eyes on.

Timothy, who is picked on by all the members of rugby team, and is playing Puck in the play, manages to get his hands on the elixir for real. But as in Shakepeare's version, not everything goes as planned.

Along the way, there are lots of shirtless hot rugby players, and amazing singing.

I saw this at the Santa Barbara GLBTQ film-festival and was captivated. After seeing the film, now when I play the clips of the trailer I get goose-bumps. During the film I was so transported into the world of the characters that I didn't even notice all the amazing cinematography that I see now in the trailer. The film seems to move effortlessly between realistic scenes and those that are surreal and fantastic---in all senses of that word.

The cast is terrific---and the music is transcendent. I highly recommend this film.

Usually I resent anything that stereotypes homosexuals. I resent it even more when gays stereotype gays. As gay as this movie definitely is (fairies... guys wearing wings... rugby players doing pirouettes), I am -surprisingly enough- completely enamored with it. I am glad that I watched it, then watched it again, and... watched it again.

There is something about this movie that moves past being just a story about fairies - literal and otherwise. Cohen has a strong and beautiful voice. Both he and Becker play their characters way beyond stereotypes. It didn't hurt to have them both be such total hot-ties, either.

It's really too bad that so many people will be put-off by anything to do with same sex relationships. (BTW: this movie is about more than just that.) They are missing a film that inspires the audience to have the courage to be oneself and the courage to let go of what you love, because of that love, at the risk of losing it. -- 12/08/09 Before Puck (Cohen) sings "Sleep Sound" there is a brief moment when the viewer sees Cole's mother obviously disgruntled by her son's apparent homosexuality. She breaks into a gargantuan smile when Cole return to his heterosexual self. Many gays and lesbians live their entire life knowing that, when all is said and done, our parent's continue to feel that we have failed them by not (at least) pretending to be heterosexuals. When it comes to sexuality, it is not uncommon to find our parent's and our friends' love to be very conditional.

Taking the concept of a "love potion" (the elixir which, painted on the eyes of a sleeper, will cause the "victim" to become enamored with the first he or she sees on awakening) from Shakespeare's MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (being done in a high school production at the behest of a strangely "arty" teacher), but eschewing all the other substance of the play, WERE ALL THE WORLD MINE is a semi-musical whose healthy but overly optimistic premise is that bigotry will not survive experiencing the object of the bigotry first hand. It is only a semi-musical although it would seem to like to be more. Nearly all Shakespeare's plays had music in them, but seldom more than the two or three passing songs that the play-within-a-play in WERE THE WORLD... indulges in, and more to the pity, none of these are set to the Bard's lyrics. While somewhat shaky in construction, the cast and physical production of WERE THE WORLD... make it a mild pleasure, but it would be far *more* pleasurable had the author/director incorporated more of Shakespeare and less of well meaning contemporary farce.

Damn, I wanted to love this movie and I did. Well, parts of it. It's based on a short film called "Fairies" by Tom Gustafson, and starring some of the same actors. I think some positive feedback for that 24 minute movie, encouraged Gustafson & Co. to go back and expand it to a full-length production. Too bad. It WANTS so badly to be a musical, but there aren't nearly enough songs to make it one. The Midsummer Night's Dream mash-up is quite wonderful, but the plot veers off into the ridiculous when it should have stayed in the charming and touching world in which it begins. I love Tanner Cohen's voice; he's the absolute star of this movie, but he's sinfully underutilized. The choreography is so bad I really shouldn't call it that. It's unlikely to happen, but I hope director/writer Tom Gustafson rewrites this one more time for live theatre. This belongs on the musical stage.

I was lucky enough to see this film at the official youth screening at the Vancouver Queer Film Fest. Liked it so much I walked in and stood for the second, sold out, screening that followed. Beautiful scenes, good acting, great concept / plot, absolutely rapturous music... this movie made my heart melt, made me fall in love with the two main characters. This is what movies are supposed to do, and Were the World Mine did this beautifully.

This film realizes many a gay boy's high school fantasy, and does it with style and grace. It's poignant, moving. The actors who play Timothy's two best friends nail it. The drama teacher is a woman to be reckoned with. And the two male leads are both gay in real life. I will be buying this one as soon as it comes out. In the meantime I will be listening to music from the film on their MySpace page.

Our hero recreates the love potion from Midsummer Night's Dream. By amazing co-incidence, the first person each of his victim's sees after having the potion squirted in his eyes is of the same sex and age, and they fall passionately in love.

These newly created gays do not behave like ordinary gays. They have no fear of being open about their sexuality. The cannot understand when their love is not reciprocated. They are as persistent as horny dogs. They don't give up and try someone else. They are also manic blissed out of their minds.

The movie improperly conflates being gay with being a drag queen, plastering on makeup like Adam Lambert, and prancing about doing ballet steps like Ulyana Lopatkina. Nobody actually has sex, though they do kiss.

The action takes place in an all-boys school. The actors are all hunky, good dancers, good athletes and good singers. There is quite a bit of music and singing. I wish there were even more. It is haunting and beautiful.

It has a bitter-sweet ending as everyone returns to normal, with a heart- warming twist.

Every young gay male flipped for some resolutely heterosexual male and had to watch from a distance as the girls pawed over him, feeling totally left out. This movie is the fantasy cure. Warning: much of the movie does not make any sense.

Despite a great deal of male-to-male affection (bare-chested hugging, kissing, and cuddling), "Were the World Mine" is overloaded with bigots. What's worse is, they win out! This 'fantasy' for open-minded audiences doesn't really have a happy ending at all...in fact, this is the least progressive gay-themed film in a good while. Handsome prep school lad, about to perform in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" along with his classmates, is aided by his music teacher in coming up with an elixir which can turn heterosexuals gay. This naturally leads to confusion and anger when the newfound gays and lesbians (acting like horny pod people) descent upon the straights, begging for their returned affections. An ambitious, colorful production sense (with beautifully scored musical interludes) captivates the attention for a spell; however, the third act (switching the gays back to their hateful hetero selves) doesn't exactly inspire the quirky sweetness director and co-screenwriter Tom Gustafson was probably aiming for. *1/2 from ****

This is a film for the young at heart be you gay or straight or just curious. And did you see that Peter Ustinov 1948 film "Visa Versa"?

If you like modern day fairy tales, musicals and films set in boys boarding schools then enter Shakespeare's Dream for a boy who is different.

After watching it you too may also wonder if this is exactly the sort of film that could be useful to schools since it reverses the idea of what is "normal" when it comes to sexuality.

I particularly enjoyed the way the story unfolds. Very clever. Now you see me now you don't. Like magic!

"All the world's a stage" says the fabulous Wendy Robie between watering her naughty weedy seedlings(no cctv) and standing up to the schools silly head. She's great! If there were more Ms Tebbit's around the world would be a far more enchanting and tolerant place to live. And at the end of the film when she says "Well now that you've had your fun" our dear lovely Puck finds his spell's true implication.

We are left after the curtain goes down resounding like tuning forks! So please watch this film if you haven't already done so and if you have maybe watch it again ... I'm going to.

I don't like musicals. But this movie is just so engrossing, fun and sometimes little too much. The characters are written with so much charisma in every single one of them. Everything about this is so vivid, especially the scenery and it's ambiance. So happy i didn't give up on this.

I watched Were The World Mine this afternoon on DVD and was completely under the spell ! People on the boards have criticized this movie in every way, from every angle and in every detail. Get real folks ! This film is a fantasy, it's sole objective to entertain and to make us dream, to get us away from our dull everyday existences and just enjoy ourselves. As far as I'm concerned, the director ,crew and cast succeeded admirably ! It's never going to be easy for a gay-theme movie to find popularity in main-stream cinema and even more so when things are done on a tight budget, but Were The World has done just that ! Even the gay-clichés made me laugh,as there weren't too many and they fitted into the story-line smoothly. I truly hope that the largely unknown cast go on to long, successful careers !

I gave it a 10, simply because the film entertained me and I couldn't ask for anything more !

I'm all about Shakespeare. Have been since forever. So when my friend told me about this slightly skewed adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, I was all for it. Fairies, lover's quarrels, Puck just in general screwing things up? It's basically and old fashioned Rom Com. Long story short, the main character finds a recipe for this magic love flower from the actual play, somehow makes it, and then uses it as a revenge tool for a town that has bullied him for being gay for forever (incidentally, or maybe on purpose, literally every relationship he makes with this magic lover flower ends up gay). Once you get passed that suspension of disbelief, concept wise I loved it. The idea of taking that one element of the original story and bringing it into the real world is amazing, and I find the havoc he wreaks with it more than amusing. The movie incorporated original lines of the play in too, while at the same time not over flooding the play with these sections or making areas hard to follow or difficult to understand. My problem with this movie? It's a musical. That alone isn't so bad, until you see the execution of it in the film. Some scenes are beautiful. When he sings in order to make the flower, it seems like a magical spell is cast over the whole film. But a lot of the singing sections are awkward. There's no real transition or reason to be singing, but suddenly we go from being alone, in an auditorium, auditioning, to weird ballet rugby players that some from nowhere and this overly dramatic lighting, meanwhile the main character went from simple school uniform to fairy wings, silver shorts, and elaborate eye makeup in two seconds flat with no real connecting context. Don't get me wrong, I think the plot of this movie is fair. While I'm not too fond of yet another gay bullying narrative, his accidental turned purposeful revenge plan is amusing. Not to mention anything involving Shakespeare automatically gets a thumbs up from me, especially modern adaptations or ones that re-envision a classic plot in a new way, as this did. As a ridiculous film, one to smile and laugh at this is a good choice. It's one of those films that originally was meant to be serious, but while watching it there's no way anyone could keep a straight face. But if you're intending to watch a serious or more realistic film, this is not it. There are too many ridiculous dance numbers and odd transitions for that.

It's so hard to find a gay film that is entertaining, cute, and romantic. This one has a Musically talented cast that is also a pleasure to look at. Put it on my list of nice gay movies