A Midsummer Night's Rave
A Midsummer Night's Rave | |
---|---|
Directed by | Gil Cates Jr. |
Written by | Rober Raymond |
Produced by | Summer Forest Hoeckel Leslie Bates Steve Eggleston |
Starring | Corey Pearson Lauren German Andrew Keegan Chad Lindberg Sunny Mabrey |
Cinematography | Tom Harting |
Edited by | Jonathan Cates |
Music by | Peter Rafelson |
Distributed by | Velocity Home Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 85 minutes |
Language | English |
Budget | ~$1,500,000 |
A Midsummer Night's Rave is a 2002 American film
Plot and setting
A Midsummer Night's Rave transposes
Reception
Among the few professional reviews is Joe Leydon's for Variety in 2003. The review is generally negative, but highlights some actor performances and the directorial choice to omit the original Shakespearean dialog. Overall he thinks it "... plays less like witty romantic comedy than a watered-down (and dumbed-down) version of ...Go. [The director] goes for cheap laughs by encouraging actors to chew on the scenery—and each other—without worrying about such niceties as narrative logic and character consistency."[3] His summary of its viability as a film is that "[it] isn't likely to be a fave-rave with critics or auds."[3] Mark Jenkins, in a review for the Washington City Paper, sums it up as: "Although rendered in suitably neon hues, the movie is not a visual triumph; its low-budget seams show, and an attempt at a Trainspotting-like aside is weak. The film's principal virtues are its attractive cast, sprightly pace, thumping soundtrack, and happy-face take on young romance. The love drug is not required for viewing, but any cynics in the audience will probably wish they had taken something."[4]
A more positive take appears in the book Visual Media for Teens (2009), which in its chapter on "'Issues of Identity' Films" recommends A Midsummer Night's Rave with the description "This film really manages to stick close to the original story in a delightful retelling of a classic play that appeals to teens."best night of your life subset of 1990s culture, this is your Shakespeare adaptation."[8] In 2016, Kristen Stegemoeller, writing for Paper, listed it as number 8 in a list of "Shakespeare's Teen Movies" based solely on a plot description found on Wikipedia.[9] And in a 2015 article "In Defense of Go As A Rave Movie" (referring to Go (1999)), Genna Rivieccio describes A Midsummer Night's Rave as among the "classics" of rave movies.[10]
A Midsummer Night's Rave and the "McShakespeare"
A "McMovie"—the application of McDonaldization to movies—is, according to Greenberg, characterised by "[dogged] imitation and allusion rather than experimentation, even within narrow genre confines[.] ... Uninspiring prototypes [that] have spun off sequels, which have birthed still drearier successors—a Barthesian chain of replication unfolding into ever-declining signification."[11] Jess-Cooke adds that "[the] McMovie fundamentally draws attention to the ideological assertions and determining factors of a fast-food chain of film production. ... film rip-offs that champion loose endings, weak, cartoonish characters, inconsistent screenplays, stale narratives, fast pacing, loud music and soundbite dialogue ...".[11]
Analogous to this, Jess-Cooke creates the concept of the McShakespeare as a commodification of Shakespeare adaptations.
In the McShakespeare, the Bard is used—like the golden arches [of the McDonald's logo]—to localise cultural concerns within a global economy and, conversely, to signify the global within the local. The tension between the local and global is at the heart of the McShakespeare, largely in terms of the use of the plays to articulate experiences of displacement and to re-work social rituals, indigenous identities, traditions, languages and cultural codes for popular consumption. ... [The] McShakespeare suggests contemporary Shakespeare appropriation as a signifying practice instead of a point of textual origin[:] ... Shakespeare serves less as an originating text or a cultural icon than as product placement, a secondary position of intertextual engagement that classifies, or legitimates, the often blatant registers of a McDonald's ideology.[1]
In that context she assesses A Midsummer Night's Rave. She finds that it "[acknowledges] Shakespearean cinema's main audience as teenage"
Cast
- Corey Pearson—Damon (Demetrius)
- Lauren German—Elena (Helena)
- Lysander)
- Chad Lindberg—Nick (Nick Bottom)
- Hermia)
- Jason Carter—OB John (Oberon)
- Nichole Hiltz—Britt (Titania)
- Glen Badyna—Puck (Puck)
- Olivia Rosewood—Tami (Snug)
- Chris Owen—Frankie (Peter Quince)
- Will McCormack—Greg (Francis Flute)
- Greg Zola—Snout (Tom Snout)
- Keri Lynn Pratt—Debbie (Robin Starveling)
- Jamie Anderson—Amanda
- Jennifer Crystal Foley—Lily
- Jolie Summers—Rose
- Jennifer Foy—Violet
- Sara Arrington—TP Fairy
- Terry Scannell—Doc
- Jennifer Rebecca Bailey—Jennifer
- Dinah Lee—Jessica
- Sean Whalen—Gil
- Jason London—Stosh
- Charlie Spradling—Stosh's Babe
- Matt Czuchry—Evan
Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e Jess-Cooke 2006, p. 169.
- ^ Lanier 2006a, p. 31.
- ^ a b Leydon 2003.
- ^ Jenkins 2004.
- ^ Halsall, Edminster & Nichols 2009, p. 45.
- ^ White 2016, p. 85.
- ^ a b Rabb & Richardson 2014, p. 83.
- ^ Schnelbach & Zutter 2016.
- ^ Stegemoeller 2016.
- ^ Rivieccio 2015.
- ^ a b Jess-Cooke 2006, p. 164.
Sources
- Halsall, Jane; Edminster, R. William; Nichols, C. Allen, eds. (2009). ""Issues of Identity" Films". Visual Media for Teens: Creating and Using a Teen-Centered Film Collection. Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides for Young Adult Librarians. ISBN 978-0-313-39128-6.
- ISBN 978-0-7486-3008-0.
- Jenkins, Mark (30 July 2004). "A Midsummer Night's Rave". Washington Citypaper. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
- Lanier, Douglas (2006a). ""That You Have but Slumbered Here": A Midsummer Night's Dream in Popular Culture". In Bourus, Terri; Holland, Peter (eds.). A Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakespeare Sourcebooks. ISBN 978-1-4022-2680-9.
- Leydon, Joe (29 April 2003). "Review: A Midsummer Night's Rave". Variety. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
- Rabb, J. Douglas; Richardson, J. Michael (2014). "Shakespeare and Popular Culture: Uses and Echoes of the Bard in the Whedonverses and Ours as Well". Joss Whedon as Shakespearean Moralist: Narrative Ethics of the Bard and the Buffyverse. ISBN 978-0-7864-7440-0.
- Rivieccio, Genna (24 February 2015). "In Defense of Go As A Rave Movie". Culledculture.com. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
- Schnelbach, Leah; Zutter, Natalie (1 January 2016). "Shakespeare Adaptations That Best Speak to Teens". Tor.com. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
- Stegemoeller, Kristen (23 April 2016). "Shakespeare's Teen Movies: Ranked". Paper. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
- White, R. S. (2016). "Dreams in the forest: romantic comedy". Shakespeare's Cinema of Love: A Study in Genre and Influence. Oxford: ISBN 978-1-5261-0782-4.
Further reading
- Lanier, Douglas (2006b). "Film Spin-Offs and Citations". In Burt, Richard (ed.). Shakespeares after Shakespeare: An Encyclopedia of the Bard in Mass Media and Popular Culture. Westport, CT: ISBN 978-0-313-33116-9.