A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Too Much Glitter or Just Enough?

Is it worth your time?

If you like your Shakespeare with a side of bizarre, shimmering 1935 spectacle, you’ll probably find this fascinating. If you prefer your plays kept on a stage where people talk normally, this might feel like a fever dream you can’t wake up from. It’s definitely a lot.

Honestly, watching this feels like falling into a vat of glitter. The forest is so dense with fog and sparkles that you start to wonder if the actors can even breathe, let alone deliver lines about love and magic.

Mickey Rooney as Puck? He’s basically bouncing off the walls the entire time. It’s a lot of energy for one screen. Sometimes he’s charming, other times I just wanted him to sit still for, like, five seconds.

The forest is the real star

The sets are these huge, sweeping, misty things that don't look like any woods I've ever walked in. It feels deliberately fake in a way that’s actually kind of charming. It doesn’t try to be real; it tries to be a dream.

• The wings on the fairies look incredibly heavy.
• The lighting makes everyone look like they’re being watched through a thick piece of stained glass.
• James Cagney as Bottom? Yeah, he’s in here. It’s weird.

There’s a moment where the actors are just running around in circles and I realized I had stopped listening to the dialogue entirely. I was just watching a moth flutter near a lamp on the set. The movie is so busy that you end up looking at the background more than the people talking.

It’s not as stiff as other adaptations I’ve seen, like Your Obedient Servant, which felt like it was trapped in a museum. This thing is alive, even if it’s a bit messy and over-the-top.

I’m not sure anyone really knows how to act around the fairies, so they mostly just look confused. Can you blame them? There’s a guy in a donkey head and everyone is just trying to keep a straight face.

It drags in the middle, around the time the lovers are chasing each other for the third time. You start to feel the weight of those costumes. It’s a big, loud, strange piece of work that doesn’t quite fit into a tidy box. That’s probably why I kept watching it.

It’s definitely not perfect. Some scenes go on for an eternity, and the dialogue feels like it’s competing with the sheer volume of the background noise. But it’s got this weird, shiny soul that most movies lack today. 🧚‍♂️