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.

 

Ben Silverstone delivers a wonderfully realistic and tender take on the teen who is not ashamed of who he is. It’s been a long while since we’ve seen like (like I said, it’s been out of print for a long time), but if memory serves, there are some failings in this mainly winning story: the plot is quite similar to Beautiful Thing (another gay classic from the United Kingdom, released not long before), there are some unnecessary melodramatic excesses (having an overweight female friend for comic relief was pretty tired, even at that time) and the finale is not without elements of cliche. But complaints aside, Get Real should still be able to charm and captivate any audience familiar with feelings of being an outsider.

 

Not only beloved by our customers, Get Real drew raves from critics when it was released. Richard Rayner said in Harper’s Bazaar that it “Shoudn’t be missed. It mingles laughter and tears, and like its hero, is determined to make love soar above everything.” If you missed it the first time around or if you’re feeling nostalgic for the late ’90s, you’re in luck! Get Real comes back to DVD via Paramount in November!

 

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