''Get Real'' is a 1998 British romantic

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by Simon Shore, based on the play '' What's Wrong with Angry?'' by screenwriter

Patrick Wilde Patrick Wilde is an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, and director for television, film and theatre. Early work Most of Wilde's early work was centred on the classics. He played Hamlet, Mark Antony for ATC and Amnon in Tirso de Molina's ...

. The plot centres the coming of age of a gay teen while growing up in rural Britain during the

Cool Britannia Cool Britannia was a name for the period of increased pride in the culture of the United Kingdom throughout the mid and second half of the 1990s, inspired by Swinging London from 1960s pop culture. This loosely coincided with John Major's conse ...

era of the late 1990s. The film was shot and set in and around

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

, England. ''Get Real'' has since become a cult classic among fans of queer cinema.

Plot

Steven Carter (

Ben Silverstone Benjamin Maurice Silverstone (born 9 April 1979) is an English barrister and former actor. Silverstone's appeared in the 1998 Paramount Classics feature film, '' Get Real''. Early life and education Silverstone was born in Camden, London, the s ...

) 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 fat 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 he 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 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 Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

, Steven breaks up with him, wishing him happiness.

Cast

as Steven Carter * Brad Gorton as John Dixon * Charlotte Brittain as Linda *

Jacquetta May Jacquetta May is a British writer, actress and theatre director. She co-founded the award-winning new-writing theatre company Plain Clothes Productions, commissioning, producing and directing for the company. She directed ''Her Sister Tongue'' at ...

as Steven's Mother * David Lumsden as Steven's Father *

Richard Hawley Richard Willis Hawley (born 17 January 1967) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. After his first band Treebound Story (formed while he was still at school) broke up, Hawley found success as a member of Britpop band Longp ...

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 Judith Catherine Buxton (born 7 October 1949) is an English actress best known for playing Nurse Katy Shaw in ''General Hospital'' (1972–1973), Susan Protheroe in ''By the Sword Divided'' (1983–1985) and Ruth Carpenter in '' On the Up'' (199 ...

as John's Mother * David Elliot as Glen * Charlotte Hanson as Glen's Wife * Louise J. Taylor as Christina Lindmann *

Steven Elder Steven Elder is an English actor and screenwriter, known for his roles in the feature films ''Good'' (2008) and '' The King'' (2019), and the BBC television series '' Apple Tree Yard'' (2017). Filmography Films Television Audio drama ''H ...

as Bob the Driving Instructor * Leonie Thomas as Aunt at Wedding *

David Paul West David Paul West is a British theatre and film actor. He was born in Thornaby-on-Tees and trained at the Academy Drama School in London. Career In 1998, David was the voice of Audrey II in the Lost Theatre production of '' Little Shop of Horr ...

as Bridegroom * Andy Rashleigh as Policeman LocationsMap

Production

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

Reception

The film ranked number 34 on ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

s list of the 50 Best High School Movies. The film was well received by many critics, and subsequently nominated for eight awards, and won six. In the ''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was foun ...

'', 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.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

commented "Certainly this film has deeper values than the mainstream teenage comedies that retail aggressive materialism, soft-core sex and shallow ideas about "popularity." Steven Holden from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' 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." In the '' Daily Record'', Siobhan Synnot criticised the film as being like a "preachy episode of ''

Grange Hill ''Grange Hill'' is a British Children's television series, children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical Comprehensive school (England and Wales), comprehensive school. The show began its ru ...

'' with cardboard cut-out characters" and also criticised the John character 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."

References

External links