Monday Night Big Load

 

Bad Bunny at the Superbowl

Saturday PM Big Load

 

Were the World Mine

I re-watched this last night. Fun fantasy. Tanner Cohen is first-rate as the protagonist but this time I was also impressed with his co-star, Nate Becker, who plays the love interest and transforms from rugby jock to sexy nice guy.

The trailer . . .

https://youtu.be/9sH-ro9JkG8

And a fairly recent review . . . 

By Cameryn Barnett | Published Feb 9, 2025

 

Wicked may have recently reminded audiences just how powerful a musical with queer undertones can be, but it's far from alone in the annals of LGBTQ+ history. From classics like The Rocky Picture Horror Show to more recent adaptations of shows like Rent and The Prom, Hollywood has long used musicals to platform underrepresented sections of society, and one film in particular deserves additional attention from the genre. Directed by Tom Gustafson, Were the World Mine is a 2008 coming-of-age film that blends elements of fantasy and lyricality alongside an adaptation of Shakespeare unlike any that you've ever seen, culminating in a thought-provoking exploration of teenage sexuality as cathartic as it is relevant today.

 

A full-length feature version of Gustafson's 2003 short film, Fairies, Were the World Mine centers around Timothy (Tanner Cohen), a gay high school student attending the private, all-boys Morgan Hill Academy, where he is bullied relentlessly for his sexuality. Despite the support of best friends Frankie (Zelda Williams) and Max (Ricky Goldman), Timothy's personal life is also bogged down by a fractious relationship with his mother, Donna (Judy McClane), who herself struggles to support her son while financially reeling from a recent separation from his intolerant father. Coupled with a seemingly hopeless crush on the captain of Morgan Hill's rugby team, Jonathon (Nathaniel David Becker), Were the World Mine subsequently provides Timothy with a bleak portrait of early 2000s angst, making the film particularly poignant for viewers who experienced growing up queer at the start of the century.

 

Everything changes for the lovestruck boy, however, when Timothy is convinced to try out for Morgan Hill's production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by his emphatic English and drama teacher, Ms. Tebbit (Wendy Robie). After members of the rugby team paint a slur on Timothy's locker, he uncovers the power to brew Puck's love potion in real life while practicing his lines. Timothy then uses this power to upend the conservative conventions of his daily life, spraying Jonathon, the rugby team, and countless other authority figures around Morgan Hill with a concoction that sees them fall madly in love with the first person they see. Soon, queer pairings begin popping up everywhere where Timothy was once alone, and the joy of watching this reversal makes Gustafson's film a refreshing piece of wish fulfillment for a genre that often goes hand in hand with heartbreak.

 

Wicked may have recently reminded audiences just how powerful a musical with queer undertones can be, but it's far from alone in the annals of LGBTQ+ history. From classics like The Rocky Picture Horror Show to more recent adaptations of shows like Rent and The Prom, Hollywood has long used musicals to platform underrepresented sections of society, and one film in particular deserves additional attention from the genre. Directed by Tom Gustafson, Were the World Mine is a 2008 coming-of-age film that blends elements of fantasy and lyricality alongside an adaptation of Shakespeare unlike any that you've ever seen, culminating in a thought-provoking exploration of teenage sexuality as cathartic as it is relevant today.

 

A full-length feature version of Gustafson's 2003 short film, Fairies, Were the World Mine centers around Timothy (Tanner Cohen), a gay high school student attending the private, all-boys Morgan Hill Academy, where he is bullied relentlessly for his sexuality. Despite the support of best friends Frankie (Zelda Williams) and Max (Ricky Goldman), Timothy's personal life is also bogged down by a fractious relationship with his mother, Donna (Judy McClane), who herself struggles to support her son while financially reeling from a recent separation from his intolerant father. Coupled with a seemingly hopeless crush on the captain of Morgan Hill's rugby team, Jonathon (Nathaniel David Becker), Were the World Mine subsequently provides Timothy with a bleak portrait of early 2000s angst, making the film particularly poignant for viewers who experienced growing up queer at the start of the century.

 

Everything changes for the lovestruck boy, however, when Timothy is convinced to try out for Morgan Hill's production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by his emphatic English and drama teacher, Ms. Tebbit (Wendy Robie). After members of the rugby team paint a slur on Timothy's locker, he uncovers the power to brew Puck's love potion in real life while practicing his lines. Timothy then uses this power to upend the conservative conventions of his daily life, spraying Jonathon, the rugby team, and countless other authority figures around Morgan Hill with a concoction that sees them fall madly in love with the first person they see. Soon, queer pairings begin popping up everywhere where Timothy was once alone, and the joy of watching this reversal makes Gustafson's film a refreshing piece of wish fulfillment for a genre that often goes hand in hand with heartbreak.

 

The music of Were the World Mine similarly bolsters the underlying passions that lie at the heart of Timothy's story. There's a raw, delicate quality to Timothy's voice that reinforces his adolescence, and Were The World Mine's ending similarly reaches for that mix of a grunge and hard rock aesthetic popular in the late 90s and early 2000s. Even before Timothy and Jonathon break out into full-fledged romantic ballads, Gustafson teases his film's score in the background of Timothy's daydreams to emphasize his longing. When Were the World Mine does embrace its full musicality, Gustafson further heightens the movie's romantic tension by having the soundtrack's lyrics go hand-in-hand with Shakespeare's dialogue, though this inspiration is far from the only way Were the World Mine takes advantage of The Bard's wordplay.

 

 https://collider.com/were-the-world-mine-movie/