Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a rewatch.
The Fantasy: Get Real
Get Real follows Steven (Ben Silverstone), a handsome, lonesome 16-year-old living in blue-collar Britain. Steven realizes he’s gay, and begins to seek out other men the only way he knows how: by cruising a public toilet. One day he has an encounter with John (Brad Gorton), the popular high school jock. John denies he’s gay, though he soon changes his tune, and expresses his feelings for Steven. The two begin a covert relationship, even as rumors begin to fly about Steven’s sexuality.
We’ll not reveal more than that here, other than to say Get Real has some moving moments (including an excruciating climax), and represents an important historical artifact in terms of queer cinema history. The movie realizes a fantasy of the time: that young LGBTQ kids could undergo sexual awakening, come out and find love at school and win the heart of the popular classmate a-la countless other teen comedies. For a generation of people that came out in their 20s or later, seeing the fantasy come to life must have felt empowering and comforting.
Today, Get Real makes an episode of Glee look like a documentary, musical numbers and all. That doesn’t mean the movie doesn’t have merit. Silverstone gives a winning performance in the lead, and Charlotte Brittain, as Steven’s straight bestie Linda, has some hilarious moments as she tries to protect Steven from bullies. We recommend giving Get Real a watch, if for no other reason but to see how far movies–and the community–have come.
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Selverd
Doesn’t John beat up Steven because he’s afraid of people finding out he’s gay? Don’t really understand the “makes an episode of Glee look like a documentary” bit like it has a fairytale ending.
jayceecook
I think this is a good piece of queer cinema but I would not romanticize the storyline. The title of the film is “Get Real” for a reason. There is no happy ending here though the reasons are actually story driven.
Cam
I thought the good part of the movie was Steven’s strength at the end compared to John.
mg10
I love this movie. It’s got to be one of the top ten gay movies. It doesn’t have a Hollywood ending but it’s not a tragedy. And there’s plenty of laughs. So much of it reminds me of my own high school life in the 90’s.
dhmonarch89
HARDLY blue collar…Steven’s father is a photographer who owns his own shop and sends his son to a private academy. This guy really doesn’t know much about British film, he didn’t like Beautiful Thing last week…American studios weren’t producing much or anything back when this came out…many of us were grateful and enjoyed it tremendously. Today- there’s so much, 75% of it gets lost in the shuffle (and with age- I really don’t care much about the travails of teens any more).
wjhboy73
How does someone not enjoy Beautiful Thing??????
MudgeBoy
I also love this movie. I only wish that I had had 20% of Steven’s courage. I’m 75 years old and I still enjoy this movie, Beautiful Thing, Handsome Devil, Eyewitness, Edge of Seventeen, and of course the Asian BL stories. Of course I also enjoy gay movies with a more mature theme but I hope I’m always able to enjoy the full spectrum of gay movie themes.