Were the World Mine - Review!

Friday night I was able to catch a DVDrip (US DVD release is June 9th) and I loved it. For anyone that doesn't know, Were the World Mine is a feature film based on a short film called Faeries. It's about this boys boarding school that does a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Puck is played by the (seemingly) only gay kid in the school. During rehearsals he discovers a secret love potion within the pages of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and shortly everyone is falling in love with a member of the same sex. I should also point out it's a musical.

I've had the soundtrack for several months, and I've listened to it so many times I have the whole thing memorized. It helps that the main singer is about my range, so when I sing it (which I do all the time) I don't sound horribly off from the recording. Anyway, many of the lyrics are taken directly out of the original Shakespeare (I didn't actually check, so if it turns out that's not true, then whoops), and the songs themselves are great, I think. A lot of the bigger numbers are played as dream-ish sequences, but that means there also tend to be half-naked boys dancing around as faeries.

The movie itself is pretty good, certainly better than 90% of the gay-themed trash cinema. I like the main character, played by Tanner Cohen, and I was slightly drooling over his love interest Jonathan. Then again anyone with abs who can sing is pretty ok in my book. My biggest complaint about the film is that when some of the characters are "changed" they take on some pretty stereotypical behavior. The gym coach in particular gets a limp wrist and "clutches his pearls," which I find to be kind of annoying. But since he's not on the screen all that often, I'm willing to let it slide. Overall I think it's one of those movies that is fun to sit down and watch as long as you don't put too fine-toothed a comb to it. I'd say the same about Shelter and Latter Days, though, both of which I very much enjoyed.