A Midsummer Night's Dream

Just watched this for the first time and I adore it. The tendency is to take all of Shakespeare's plays seriously as "great literary masterpieces" which is absolutely the exact wrong way to approach his comedies. Just because something is in verse doesn't mean you have to be so decorous about it! Many of his plays were written to appeal to the common man because getting as many Average Joes to part with a half-penny to stand in the gallery as he could in a day was how the company paid the bills. You don't do that with high art pieces, you do it with jokes about farts butts & lady parts, goofy illogical mixups, and making fun of nobility. This interpretation brings that bawdy fun to the 21st century and does a banging job turning ancient Athens into modern Hollyweird.

Is the cinematography groundbreaking? No, but it supplements the storytelling by the actors and design teams very well. The director's choices might not always be traditional but they make sense for the way the story is being told this time around. A suspension of disbelief isn't necessarily required for immersion because we are not being asked to accept a world unlike our curreny reality. We aren't at risk of being taken out of the story by blatant anachronism in a set piece or costume. The choice to stay with the original verse instead of modernizing the script is a vote of confidence from the director and screenwriters in the intelligence of their audience: be happy they're not assuming you need it dumbed down rather than upset modern people in a movie are speaking in iambic pentameter. Theatre has been using verse to establish that "this is a play, you are watching a story" for thousands of years and no one has EVER actually spoken that way on the street! And the Easter eggs of nods to other works through props and inserted asides is FUN. Please can't we have something fun?!

Watch this. Stop taking yourself so seriously, unwad your panties, and let yourself just enjoy this movie for what it is and how it is. Otherwise you're completely missing the point of the original play so why bother with any version of it at all?

"Life could be a dream (sh-boom)" - The Chords

Another smearing of a good play.

Yep, once again someone attempts to apply an iambic pentameter to modern-day dress and vehicles.

As usual, it is a hodgepodge presenting to be someone's (Casey Wilder Mott) artsy-fartsy one up on Shakespeare. A few scenes were shifted. Toss in a little Mozart. Apply sentences from other plays, social media, and even stupp to Star Wars.

There is a plus when Oberon and Titania are placed in music.

Even though the play was meant to be seen (well maybe not this version) you will also want to read it. There are overlapping themes of the misadventures of lovers, enthusiastic thespians, and fairies as part of a Midsummer Night's Dream.

Filming Locations: Topanga State Park, California, USA. The locals will recognize it immediately.

One plus is the characters are displayed upfront instead of ending credits.

Well, Shakespeare gets the last laugh.

You will leave saying "What the Puck?"

There's a wonderful feeling I get as a movie begins to unfold and I sense its taking me to a place I really need to go. MND took me there early in the film and never let me down. Its as magical as Shakespeare originally intended and I've got to believe he would have loved the respect, creative genius, and sheer joy that Mott et al brought to the screen. Simply put: it made me happy. Can't wait to take my wife and share it with her.

I'm not happy giving this film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream only six stars, because much of it is very clever. The film works best when it's remix of the plays themes with modern elements, but at times it is more of a mashup, cutting and pasting elements from other Shakespeare plays into the narrative (such as quotes from other plays appearing on paper weights, a character reciting lines from Hamlet while lacking on the phone). At too many moments, the film becomes self-conscious and cute - which becomes tiresome. Too bad. I really like Shakespeare and much of the remixing here was a kick. But the director lost the play's narrative which drops this film to a six star affair.

Excellent work from Hamish Linklater here. Lily Rabe and Rachael Leigh Cook are strong, as well. And, despite the 6 star review, this is a very talented director - I hope she gets other opportunities.