Get Real (1998)

A tenderly romantic coming-of-age story as two boys in a British school fall in love.

Director:

Simon Shore

Writers:

Patrick Wilde (play), Patrick Wilde (screenplay)

Stars:

Ben Silverstone, Brad Gorton, Charlotte Brittain

6 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ben Silverstone	...	Steven Carter
Brad Gorton	...	John Dixon
Charlotte Brittain	...	Linda
Stacy Hart	...	Jessica (as Stacy A. Hart)
Kate McEnery	...	Wendy
Patrick Nielsen	...	Mark
Tim Harris	...	Kevin
James D. White	...	Dave
James Perkins	...	Young Steve
Nicholas Hunter	...	Young Mark
Jacquetta May	...	Steven's Mother
David Lumsden	...	Steven's Father
David Elliot	...	Glen
Morgan Jones	...	Linda's Brother
Richard Hawley	...	English Teacher

Storyline

This tenderly romantic film tells the story of Steve, a young boy in a at secondary school, as he struggles with coming out and falling in love with John, the top athlete at school - who, amazingly, falls in love with him as well.

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Plot Keywords:

gay lead character | homosexual jock | smelling someone's clothes | falling in love | public lavatory | 

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Taglines:

School's out, so is Steven Carter

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and sexual content

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 April 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Comme un garçon

Filming Locations:

Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$54,254, 2 May 1999, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$1,200,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arts Council of England, British Screen Productions, Distant Horizon

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

In the scene in the school newspaper office, when Mark discovers the anonymous article "Get Real", he reads aloud from the article: "The assumption that your children are heterosexual may be causing them pain." The close-up on the computer screen shows that sentence as: "The assumption that your children are heterosexual may be destroying their lives."

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Quotes

[first lines]
Steven Carter: I came late to sex. I was nearly ten. That's when my friend Mark Watkins told me how babies were made.
Young Steve: Really? Are you sure?
Young Mark: Yeah. Honest. I saw it on one of my dad's videos.
Steven Carter: For over a year after that I thought babies were made when two women tied a man to a bed and covered his willy with ice cream.

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Connections

Spoofed in Another Gay Movie (2006)

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Soundtracks

If You Want It to Be Good Girl (Get Yourself a Bad Boy)
Written by Robert John Lange (as Robert John 'Mutt' Lange)
Performed by Backstreet Boys (as The Backstreet Boys)

User Reviews

Ben Silverstone rules!

If "Get Real" chronicles anything, it is that messed-up jumble of a time that gay men have as teenagers, trying to be true to themselves without giving too much offense to those who abhor them. The mixed-up measures they take to express themselves and give expression to their feelings of desire and adolescent lust, suppressed by community morality and repressed by personal fear and self-hatred, unfolds over the London suburb of Basinbroke where a stick figure of a 16-year-old--Steven Carter--sits in or outside a public bathroom, trying to make contact with someone. He finds it unexpectedly with the big man on the high-school campus who garners immeasurable pleasure from their private meetings, but cannot bear the thought of being outed. The story passes through a grist mill of situations that leave the viewer with the simplistic notion that everything will be fine, if you just have the courage to be yourself with others. If it were that easy, I'm sure Brandon Teena would still be alive today.

Adapted from Patrick Wilde's play "What's wrong with being angry," "Get Real" sends a manifesto to parents and teachers about the supposed pressures they may be putting on their children, gay or otherwise. If you're willing to accept it on this level, the movie functions as an emotional release for all those pent-up gay teenagers who couldn't vent their anger and frustrations at the forces that impose on their burgeoning dreams. But if you try to take it any deeper, then you'd have to consider the internal struggles of John Dixon, the object of Steven's desire, because that is one of the few places in this movie where something is at stake. Johnny (as Steven likes to call him) travels a thornier road, and although Brad Gorton doesn't quite seem up to the challenge, his self-conscious jock does not seem so much a coward in the end as someone saddled with all the trappings of his gentrified upbringing who doesn't want to let go of them. Johnny Boy's smart, but like all teenagers, he's thwarted by desires that defy his good sense.

And that is a shame, because if there ever was reason to give up everything for love, Ben Silverstone would be it. He is the real find in this picture. He's the most elegantly constructed scarecrow to touch the silver screen (Seeing him, Conrad Veidt and "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" come to mind.), and it's amazing what calm he brings to the center of this movie. Unlike newcomer Gorton, the camera loves Silverstone, and it takes him in as if he were born to be in front of it. If that weren't enough, this young actor (He is about the same age that Steve should be.) has a voice that rivals Jeremy Irons for expressiveness and majesty. Imagine him as Hamlet or Edward II or in a remake of "Brideshead Revisited" and that sultry sound pouring forth in velvety plenitude. Why, it's enough to make you stand up and salute the Queen Mother.

With Stacy Hart as the iridescent Jessica whose dance with Steve is probably the sexiest scene in the entire movie.