Sonnet 16 is another in the series which suggests to the young man that he put his energy into having a child to ensure that his youth and beauty continue, rather than relying on paintings or poems to do it in a lesser way. In this case the sonnet is the second in this series to get a hip-hop inspired delivery as it is basically a hip- hop performance from Devon Glover, who, as Google informs me, is known as The Sonnet Man and performs Shakespeare as hip-hop shows. His is a worthy endeavor and it is a shame then that this is not one of the better films in this series.
As a film it is really just a filmed performance; okay we have a few edits around the trio, and the occasional shot of people standing by watching. This maybe allows you to focus just on the performance but the downside is that it gives you little to focus on but the performance. In terms of Glover's delivery I am a little conflicted. On one hand, the style and rhythm of the delivery is very familiar to me trough hip-hop, so it did feel more accessible in terms of words presented, but on the other hand I'm not sure the delivery did much to delivery meaning. The pattern and tone of the delivery didn't really change through the sonnet but rather kept the same beat all the way through; fine for making it rhyme but not for bringing out any nuance or meaning in the words. In the other film which had used hip-hop (sonnet #135), I will not say it was perfect, but it did bring some energy and 'performance' to the words, whereas this is surprisingly straight.
It does score points for being clear and for appealing to an audience who love language, word-play and poetry (albeit in an art form not really given credit for these) but who would maybe not give Shakespeare a chance, but for me it felt too functional and the set delivery tended to be one thing rather than make the most of the words and their meaning.
As a film it is really just a filmed performance; okay we have a few edits around the trio, and the occasional shot of people standing by watching. This maybe allows you to focus just on the performance but the downside is that it gives you little to focus on but the performance. In terms of Glover's delivery I am a little conflicted. On one hand, the style and rhythm of the delivery is very familiar to me trough hip-hop, so it did feel more accessible in terms of words presented, but on the other hand I'm not sure the delivery did much to delivery meaning. The pattern and tone of the delivery didn't really change through the sonnet but rather kept the same beat all the way through; fine for making it rhyme but not for bringing out any nuance or meaning in the words. In the other film which had used hip-hop (sonnet #135), I will not say it was perfect, but it did bring some energy and 'performance' to the words, whereas this is surprisingly straight.
It does score points for being clear and for appealing to an audience who love language, word-play and poetry (albeit in an art form not really given credit for these) but who would maybe not give Shakespeare a chance, but for me it felt too functional and the set delivery tended to be one thing rather than make the most of the words and their meaning.