Get Real
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySimon Shore
Screenplay byPatrick Wilde
Based onWhat's Wrong with Angry?
by Patrick Wilde
Produced by
  • Stephen Taylor
  • Patricia Carr
  • Helena Spring
  • Anant Singh
Starring
CinematographyAlan Almond
Edited byBarrie Vince
Music byJohn Lunn
Production
companies
Distributed byUnited International Pictures[1]
Release dates
  • August 1998 (1998-08) (Edinburgh)
  • 14 May 1999 (1999-05-14) (United Kingdom)
Running time
110 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.2 million
Box office$1.1 million

Get Real is a 1998 British romantic comedy-drama film directed by Simon Shore, based on the play What's Wrong with Angry? by screenwriter Patrick Wilde. The plot centres the coming of age of a gay teen while growing up in rural Britain during the Cool Britannia era of the late 1990s. The film was shot and set in and around Basingstoke, England. Get Real has since become a cult classic among fans of queer cinema.

Plot

Steven Carter (Ben Silverstone) is a 16-year-old middle-class schoolboy who is intelligent and good-looking, but un-athletic and introverted. Bullied at school and misunderstood at home, his only confidante is his neighbour and best friend, Linda (Charlotte Brittain). Keeping his sexual orientation hidden from everyone else, he cruises in public toilets. He is surprised to find the school jock, John Dixon (Brad Gorton) also cruising, but John denies that he is gay.

At a school dance, Steven gains a friend after he comforts Jessica (Stacy Hart), following her argument with her boyfriend, Kevin (Tim Harris), who is also his bully. When Steven returns home, John follows him and confides about his own sexual orientation. They start a relationship.

Word around the school spreads about someone being gay, and John fears that Steven has been telling people. In order to maintain his status, John beats up Steven in front of his friends. Steven announces in front of the assembly that he is gay, and looks to John for support, who ignores him. John apologizes for beating him up and says he loves him, but as he is too afraid to come out, Steven breaks up with him, wishing him happiness.

Cast

  • Ben Silverstone as Steven Carter
  • Brad Gorton as John Dixon
  • Charlotte Brittain as Linda
  • Jacquetta May as Steven's Mother
  • David Lumsden as Steven's Father
  • Richard Hawley as English Teacher
  • Martin Milman as Headmaster
  • Stacy Hart as Jessica
  • Kate McEnery as Wendy
  • Patrick Nielsen as Mark
  • Tim Harris as Kevin Grainger
  • James D. White as Dave
  • James Perkins as Young Steve
  • Nicholas Hunter as Young Mark
  • Steven Mason as Cruising Man
  • Morgan Jones as Linda's Brother
  • Ian Brimble as John's Father
  • Judy Buxton as John's Mother
  • David Elliot as Glen
  • Charlotte Hanson as Glen's Wife
  • Louise J. Taylor as Christina Lindmann
  • Steven Elder as Bob the Driving Instructor
  • Leonie Thomas as Aunt at Wedding
  • David Paul West as Bridegroom
  • Andy Rashleigh as Policeman
Map of the local area around Basingstoke

Production

Get Real was filmed in and around Basingstoke from the 17th of August 1997, before moving on to the Millennium Studios in Borehamwood on the 22nd of September. (The scenes that were shot in the studio were Steven's bedroom and the inside of the public toilet). The entire movie took six weeks to shoot.[2]

Reception

The film ranked number 34 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.[3]

The film was well received by many critics, and subsequently nominated for eight awards, and won six.

In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Paula Nechak praised the film for allowing the characters to be themselves rather than change to fit in, and praises the treatment of the 'jock' character, John, as being just as bound by the school popularity game as Steven.[4]

Roger Ebert commented, "Certainly this film has deeper values than the mainstream teenage comedies that retail aggressive materialism, soft-core sex and shallow ideas about "popularity."[5] Steven Holden from The New York Times wrote "The movie captures the excruciating paranoia of a situation in which there’s nowhere the lovers can be alone except in each other’s homes on the rare occasions their parents are out."[5]

In the Daily Record, Siobhan Synnot criticised the film as being like a "preachy episode of Grange Hill with cardboard cut-out characters" and also criticised the character, John, for being unbelievable, describing him as "simply a bland fantasy hunk. It's hard to see how this dim bulb is bright enough for Oxford, because all the smart lines go to his smart-alec boyfriend."[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Get Real". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  2. ↑ "Filming Locations – Ben Silverstone". Archived from the original on 27 July 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  3. ↑ "50 Best High School Movies". Entertainment Weekly. 28 August 2015. Archived from the original on 18 September 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  4. ↑ Nechak, Paula (11 June 1999). "Non-judgmental 'Get Real' gracefully allows its diverse characters to 'be'". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  5. 1 2 Ryll, Alexander (2014). "Essential Gay Themed Films To Watch, Get Real". Gay Essential. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  6. ↑ Synnot, Siobhan (14 May 1999). "Gay stereotypes should stay firmly in the closet". Daily Record. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
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