Get Real

Throwback Thursday: Get Real

A huge gay indie hit when it premiered at film festivals and art house cinemas in the late 1990s, Get Real has long been out of print and has easily become the most frequently requested movie by our customers. We’re thrilled it’s soon going to be available again on DVD – for only $8.99, at that!

 

Based on his play “What’s Wrong with Angry?” by Patrick Wilde, who also wrote the screenplay, Get Real is a sharply observed coming-of-age story, infused with charm, humor, emotion and a knowing sense of the difficulties of being a gay teen. Steven (Ben Silverstone) is a thin, pale-skinned, dark-haired 16-year-old living in British suburbia with his upper-middle-class parents. Life changes for the soft-spoken teen when he locks eyes on the school’s strapping and handsome super-jock John (Brad Gorton). The two are attracted to each other, but John’s self-hating and deeply held fears of having his sexuality found out by others threaten to tear apart their tentative relationship.

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Beautiful Thing

Throwback Thursday: Beautiful Thing

Released in 1996, this tender story of two teenagers and their sexual coming-of-age in a working-class development in London is still an inspiring, tender and deeply emotional experience.

 

Jamie (Glen Berry) is a reserved teen, close to his pub manager mom (Linda Henry), who prefers old Hollywood musicals to sports. His friendship with his hunky neighbor Ste (Scott Neal), a fellow student who suffers through a troubled family life, soon develops into a sexual and eventually loving relationship. How the two boys tentatively handle their nascent romantic and sexual drives and how it affects their family and friends is handled in both a fresh and surprisingly upbeat fashion.

 

Directed by Hettie MacDonald and written by Jonathan Harvey based on his own original play of the same name, Beautiful Thing was originally intended for television broadcast only, but it was so well-received that it was subsequently released in cinemas. The atmosphere of the film is heavily influenced by a soundtrack consisting almost entirely of the music of the Mamas and Papas and Mama Cass Elliot.

 

Beautiful Thing still holds a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. A wonderful comedy-drama, it may possibly still be the best “coming out” movie to date.