Were the World Mine

Obsession is such a strange thing. I remember when I discovered U2 and listened to I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For about 500 times. Or when Moulin Rouge came out and Aurelia and I watched it over and over until we could recite along with Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor as well as sing all the songs in perfect imitation. Now, this phenomena is not simply enjoyment of a thing. Obsession, in this case and in others I suppose, is utter devotion to this thing to the exclusion of anything else. You think about it constantly, if it has music it's perpetually stuck in your head, etc...  I love Field of Dreams, The Princess Bride, and Ella Enchanted more then anything, and yes, I can recite them by heart, but it was a slow learning of lines developed over years of watching and reading again and again. In the obsessive case, I read or watch or hear the thing once and my world blows. I become completely absorbed and immerse myself until eventually, I can breath evenly without that thing always near me. Funny enough, while I currently sound creepy and stalkerish, I never do this in relation to another person. It always involves a work of fiction. I'm not exactly sure what the criteria for my obsession is exactly, but it usually involves magic and music of some kind. Actually that's not true. I do know what it is. I become enthralled with depictions of a fantastic world. A world that I will never be able to access because it isn't real or fathomable outside of the written word or the TV screen. That's why I love TV shows. The fantasy can go on for years instead of two hours or only a few minutes of some singers heavenly voice. Well, it's happened again!

Anyway. That was basically a very long and slightly sketchy introduction to a movie review. I was on Netflix the other day and saw the preview to Were the World Mine. I thought, oh that looks campy and sort of cute, I'll give it a go. It was the middle of the night and my room mate was out cold so my various reactions over the next two hours went unnoticed. I probably sat there for the whole time with my mouth open and my eyes glazed over. So. Timothy is an out gay teenager at a preppy boy's school with two hippy rebel friends (who don't go to his school) and a monster crush on the straight star player of the rugby team. His pixy-like drama teacher decides that the senior class play is going to be A Midsummer Night's Dream and that all the boys will be in it dressed in drag and that Timothy will play the part of Puck. While learning his lines Timothy stumbles upon the recipe for the love potion Puck uses to confuse the lovers in the forest and promptly makes it himself. The rest of the movie is spent in a tangled mess of sexual confusion as Timmy goes around spraying love juice in people's eyes and turning them gay. Yay! The hole town becomes gay, everyone starts marrying each other, the rugby team all starts sleeping together, and Timmy gets his man. Everything gets straightened out in the end (haha. pun.) except rugby boy who is not actually as narrow as we thought. This movie also includes wonderful things like the term "heteroflexable," a Mika song, and a line presented by a recently married woman in response to the question, "But what about family values?" The answer is "We're a family and we have values."

But I have left out the most fantastic part of this incredibly catchy and low budget film. IT IS A MUSICAL!!!!!!!! Timothy's daydreams are musical numbers and involve half dressed rugby players doing ballet and him wearing wings and singing about fairies. Basically, I have struck gold. I have seen this movie (or select parts of it) at least 6 times in the last 3 days, and I've had the theme song stuck in my head just as long. When I have a free moment, I re-watch my favorite parts and have now downloaded that song so I can listen to it ALL THE TIME. Thankfully the crazy stage of this obsession is waring off and I can return to sleeping and eating and going to the bathroom once more. You really must watch this movie. It is a representation of the way the world should be (gay and a musical, duh).