Get Real (1999)

Get Real begins with a couple of hedgehogs having sex, and deals with a topic just as prickly: gay love in adolescence. Steve (Ben Silverstone) is a student at a British school where everyone wears classy uniforms, knows he's gay, and is pretty comfortable being so. John (Brad Gorton), a top athlete and all-around admired guy, is just getting an inkling and isn't sure how he feels about it. This, cleverly, is how the movie manages to explore coming-out issues and be over them at the same time. In fact, the whole movie is pretty clever--witty dialogue, deft direction, nimble pacing, and clean editing--in exploring the seriousness of adolescent life without taking it too seriously. The key is in Silverstone's performance; he's a completely convincing mixture of hesitation and recklessness, all the conflicts of high school in one sweet-faced package. As the movie follows Steve and John's relationship--their evasions at school, getting picked up by the police in a park, goofing around in a heated swimming pool, grappling with coming out to the world at large--it lays out a bit of contrast with Steve's best friend Linda (Charlotte Brittain), who's as unapologetically fat as Steve is gay, and who's having an affair with her driving instructor. Excellent performances all around, funny, sexy, charming--if only straight teen comedies were half this good. Get Real even demonstrates the proper etiquette when soliciting sex in public restrooms; what more can you ask for? --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

Get This! It is very good, makes you smile, makes you think, makes you want more!

Let's not muck around - this is excellent cominig of age stuff. Some of the acting needs work but get over that. It is a story of unrequited love with an impossible outcome becoming suddenly a reality with infinite possibilities. Steven spends time in public toilets seeking gay encounters and he finds them...school uniform and all. He gets more than he bargained for when John, the school hottie turns up...talk about awkward. You could suspect a trap, gay bashing, gay outing...but no, John is emabarrassed and awkward. The relationship starts and stops and stutters. John wants to pusue Steven but he is the geek, the target of bullying by John's set of friends (the tossers, no that is not what they call themselve it is what they are). Steven knows who he i (smart, gay, not into sports) , and so does his best friend Linda - played very well. She is the comic counterpoint for the deep and meaningful pathos of the lead characters. The relationship between the boys develops in secret but it looks set to fizzle into obscurity. However, the night of the school dance, when Steven has lost all hope John surprises him and the relationship, in all it's glory, begins. It is a secret of course, only Linda knows, but Steven's mother is becoming aware of the difference and the signs, realising he is gay. The relationship develops and Steven wants more, he wants equal billing with John's official girlfriend. There is a cute scene where John is holding Steven and says "You need a shave" and Steven replies "I shaved last week"...cute, cute, cute. Steven comes out in an article for the school paper, anonymously. The article is banned. Steven is caught smelling John's clothing by the tossers and John. John deals with Steven by beating him, well so the tossers think. In fact they are staging the beating...and almost end up kissing. As the lips are about to lock the lead tosser comes in and catches them, so the beating becomes real so John can cover the love he feels. Steven then turns up at school assembly, beaten and bloody and outs himself - he does this while accepting a prize in front of dignitaries, staff, parents and the whole school. Shock, horror, acceptance and rejection ensue. By outing himself he has severed the relationship with John because John cannot face the shame and say he is gay - his parents and friends and the world have expecations of their bright light and he doesn't have the courage to say "That is not all there is to me, I am gay as well...not instead of, but as well". Steven did. There is no happy ending between the boys. John looking into the empty future without Steven, instead he has accolades and academia waiting...but not the love of a good boy... And Steven goes off into a future where he looks strong and as though the weight has been lifted. He is out and he is proud and he is who he is, no apologies. I recommend this...whatever age you are. It makes me smile...it reminds me of Beautiful Thing, I recommend you look at that too:-) Beautiful Thing February 3, 2008

One of the Best Gay Coming Out Movies

The first time I watched this movie, I immediately got emotionally attached to the characters, especially the main character Steven (played by an excellent Ben Silverstone). Like the title suggests, this movie is "real"--a believable tale of what it's like being gay in a school where it's not accepted and everyone is 'in the closet'. No spoilers here, but the ending is very emotional, realistic, and will probably make you cry.

After renting this movie, and watching it a couple times after that I decided I had to buy a copy. You will watch this movie many times and not get tired of it!

A bit of a personal opinion: This movie is a UK movie (I'm from Canada), and I'm a huge fan of foreign cinema in general, but the UK setting is great--I love how they talk, both the words and their accents. But that's just my opinion.

I give this movie a 5/5 based on the movie itself, and it definitely deserves it! One thing I didn't like about the DVD is that it lacks in additional features. It would have been nice to see some interviews etc. with the actors and/or directors but so be it.

In summary, I would highly recommend this movie for *anyone* to watch, it's not just for gay people. The issues dealt with are quite serious--homophobic comments/harassments at school, "self-homophobia" (i.e. denial of being gay), and others. At the same time, there is humour injected in just the right places. A prime example is Steven's best friend and next door neighbour, and her dealings with her driving lessons (you'll see what I mean). If you buy one "coming out" movie, make it this one! January 22, 2008

GET REAL--FOR REAL!

This movie was first released in 1999, and I just now got to see it. Kinda' pitiful, but what can I say?

The film is a coming-of-age tale about high school student Steven Carter (played by Ben Silverstone). He is 16 and when the movie starts he can be found cruising of the neighborhood park bathrooms. He has admitted to himself that he is gay, and I suppose "any port in a storm," huh? The only other person he has told his secret to is his best friend and neighbor, Linda (played by Charlotte Brittain). Charlotte chides him for his indiscretions at the bathroom, but he urges her that he is ALWAYS safe. Yes, we all know what kind of safe sex goes on in bathrooms. Durinig one of his trysts, he accidentally hooks up with one of the high school jocks (played by Brad Gordon) who has managed up to this point to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to his jock friends bullying Steven.

I really wanted to like this film. I--and I'm sure many others who read this--went through a lot of what Steven's character goes through; however, I NEVER sought solace in a public bathroom. After the initial tryst, the movie then settles into a very run of the mill visualization of scenes: gay boy falls for jock, who is also gay but VERY closeted, they "frolic," are caught in lies, outted by the school newspaper, jock then hits/leaves gay boy, gay boy makes speech at graduation, ZZZZzzzzzzzzz...

The reason it was difficult for me to like this movie (and I do NOT recommend it) was because the actors--try as they might--could not deliver believable enough performances. Silverstone's attempt albeit feeble at breaking down during his speech was just that--feeble--as was Brad Gordon's attempt to explain his feelings. Both actors managed "sobs" but there were not tears. Steven's coming out speech contained so many pointed questions, but they were not delivered with any real emotion.

The movie is rated R for brief nudity, language, and sexual situations. Run time is 1 hour and 50 minutes. It was directed by Simon Shore, written by Patrick Wilder (based on his play "What's Wrong with Angry?" and was released in 1999.
October 31, 2007

Good Movie

This movie is very cute, and the boys and girls in it are cute. I enjoyed watching Stephen battle within himself the lies that kept his heart distant from the ones he loves. I also thought it interesting that in the movie the mother's intuition is what kept her son from total alienation. This movie is worth watching. October 9, 2007

One of my very favorite movies

I love this movie. It's one of those magical little Brit flicks in which everything just works. It's also one of the very few films that I can watch again and again (with intervals of a few months in between) and still feel the same kind of emotional response.

No doubt much of my reaction is personal, and I suspect this movie is pretty much a gay thing. It may even be more specialized than that -- a gay thing for people who aren't American idiots, which would rule out much of the audience for teen-oriented entertainment, as evidenced by a couple of the more vapid reviews in this thread. So be warned if you are (a) straight, (b) stupid, (c) unable to tolerate non-Hollywood fare, or some ungodly combination of the above. June 30, 2007

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