Were the World Mine
2008 · Directed by Tom Gustafson
Original language: English
- fantasy
- romance
The story
If you had a love-potion, who would you make fall madly in love with you? Timothy, prone to escaping his dismal high school reality through dazzling musical daydreams, gets to answer that question in a very real way. After his eccentric teacher casts him as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he stumbles upon a recipe hidden within the script to create the play's magical, purple love-pansy.
What it’s like
Saturated stage-lit color bleeds through a small-town high school in this musical fantasy, where Timothy's daydreams burst into big, glossy production numbers set against drab hallways, cafeteria fluorescents and flat suburban daylight. The camera mostly sits still and frames people head-on, so the musical sequences feel theatrical and deliberately staged, with bright costumes, painted backdrops and a bouncy pop-musical score carrying much of the emotion. Its vibe is playful and wistful, a bright fantasy with a bruised undercurrent. The pacing is brisk and song-driven, and the emotional register moves between giddy escapism and the sting of being bullied and misunderstood for being gay. The central arc follows a shy, imaginative teen who gradually gains the nerve to claim his own desires. Intensity is low to moderate: there is teasing, verbal cruelty and some bullying, with no gore and only mild, non-explicit romance, though the homophobia is present and felt. It suits a rainy afternoon, a comfort watch, or a lighter evening with someone who likes musicals, and it is for viewers who want queer teen romance wrapped in fizzy, stage-bright fantasy.
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