Get Real (film)

Last updated

Get Real
Get Real (movie poster).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Simon Shore
Screenplay by Patrick Wilde
Based on What's Wrong with Angry?
by Patrick Wilde
Produced by
  • Stephen Taylor
  • Patricia Carr
  • Helena Spring
  • Anant Singh
Starring
CinematographyAlan Almond
Edited byBarrie Vince
Music by John Lunn
Production
companies
Distributed by Paramount Classics [1] (through United International Pictures) [2]
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 around 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.

Contents

Plot

Steven Carter (Ben Silverstone) is a 16-year-old middle-class schoolboy who is intelligent and good-looking, but unathletic 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

Production

Development

In 1992 Patrick Wilde wrote What's Wrong with Angry? a stage play about a gay love story between two British schoolboys. Wilde said that he wrote the play because “I was sick of being told by people – even gay people – that it’s easier to be gay now… But I don’t believe it’s easier than it ever was to come out.” [3] What's Wrong with Angry? first opened at the LOST Theatre in 1993 in Fulham, London and was then staged in January 1994 at the Oval House in London, where it sold out and was extended for an extra week at the Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) Studio. After the final performance, film director Simon Shore and producer Steven Taylor approached Wilde about producing a film version of the play. [4]

During the early development of the script the production had the working title of Sweet Sixteen. [4]

During development, director Simon Shore and writer Patrick Wilde, struggled to find a way to make heterosexual audiences understand why Steven was so tortured by staying in the closet. Shore later recalled that he “got Patrick to write a list of 20 reasons why it’s bad to be gay and not come out” and that this list became a template for how they would make Steven’s predicament comprehensible. For example, one item on Wilde’s list was, “Girls fall in love with you, and you don’t know what to tell them,” which prompted a subplot in which a girl at school has a crush on Steven. “I wanted some way of identifying with the way Steven’s being gay impacts everyone in his circle of friends,” Shore says. [5]

Map of the local area around Basingstoke LocationsMap.gif
Map of the local area around Basingstoke

Filming

Filming on Get Real began on 17 August 1997 with shooting taking place throughout Basingstoke, including at Cranbourne School, Alton School, Market Square, Foyle Park, Sorrell's Corpse and the War Memorial Park. [6]

The Vyne Community School which was used as the principal location for the fictional Belvedere School in the film. [7]

Filming in Basingstoke ended on 21 September, with production moving on to the Millennium Studios in Borehamwood on the 22nd of September, where filming took place in the studio of scenes shot in Steven's bedroom and the inside of the public toilet. The entire movie took six weeks to shoot. [6]

Music

Get Real
Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
Various artists
ReleasedJune 1, 1999 (1999-06-01)
Genre
Length50:28
Label BMG
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [8]

Get Real - Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on 1 June 1999, by BMG on CD. Along with John Lunn's score, the album features tracks like Republica's "Ready to Go," the Troggs' "Love Is All Around," Cameo's "Word Up!" and Dodgy's "Staying out for the Summer." The tracks in the film, titled "Respect", "If You Want It to Be Good Girl (Get Yourself a Bad Boy)", "Misunderstood", "Bobby's Girl", performed by Aretha Franklin, Backstreet Boys, Kings of Infinite Space and Charlotte Brittain, respectively, were omitted from the soundtrack due to copyright issues from their record labels. [8]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Performer(s)Length
1."Staying Out For The Summer"
  • Nigel Clark
  • Mathew Priest
  • Andy Miller
 Dodgy 3:11
2."Word Up!"
 Cameo 4:18
3."Shine"
  • Neil Maccoll
  • Calum Maccoll
  • Leroy Danny Lendor
  • Robert Bond
Liberty Horses4:04
4."Ready to Go (Republica song)"
 Republica 5:00
5."Play That Funky Music" Rob Parissi Dave Danger & The Chris Cawte Funk Band3:54
6."Swings" John Lunn Münchner Symphoniker 1:08
7."You Are So Beautiful"
Ian Harrison2:42
8."Love Is All Around" Reg Presley The Troggs 2:57
9."Inbetweener" Louise Wener Sleeper 3:18
10."Realisation"John LunnMünchner Symphoniker1:50
11."El Tranquilandia"Paul GallagherNorth Pacific Drift3:29
12."Beautiful One"Robert White The Milk and Honey Band 3:12
13."OM-23"
  • Steve Dixon
  • Brian Moss
Drug Free America7:35
14."Get Real Suite"John LunnMünchner Symphoniker3:50

Release

Get Real premiered publicly at the Edinburgh Film Festival in August 1998 where it won the Audience award. [9] Paramount Classic then purchased the film for distribution.

Get Real premiered on 30 April 1999 [10] in the United States and on 14 May 1999 in the United Kingdom where the opening took place in Basingstoke where the story is set and the majority of the filming had taken place. [4]

Home media

The film was released on VHS on 22 January 2001 [11] and on DVD on 7 November 2017. [12]

Reception

Box office

In its first weekend, the film earned $54,254 while in the following weekend, it earned $55,752 and in its third $78,100. [10]

Critical reception

The film ranked number 34 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies. [13]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 79% of 47 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.4/10.The website's consensus reads: "An authentic portrayal of homosexuality in high school, Get Real is an engaging dramedy that doesn't sermonize its audience nor trivialize its characters." [14]

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. [15]

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." [16] 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." [16]

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." [17]

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryNomineeResultRef.
19981998 Edinburgh International Film Festival Audience AwardGet RealWon [4]
1999
1998 Dinard British Film Festival
Golden Hitchcock
 Simon Shore Won [4]
Audience Award
1999 British Independent Film Awards Achievement in ProductionGet RealNominated [18]
10th International Filmfestival Emden-NorderneyBerhard Wicki AwardGet RealWon [19]
1st Golden Trailer Awards Best Trailer with No BudgetGet RealNominated [20]
2000 Chlotrudis Awards Chlotrudis Award for Best Actor Ben Silverstone Nominated [21]

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References

  1. ↑ Carver, Benedict (10 May 1999). "Production gamble". Variety . Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  2. ↑ "Get Real". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  3. ↑ "Draining the Drama: Simon Shore's Get Real". Bright Lights Film Journal . Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "The History of Get Real - Ben Silverstone". Ben Silverstone. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  5. ↑ Argy, Stephanie (20 January 1999). "Simon Shore". Variety . Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  6. 1 2 "Filming Locations - Ben Silverstone". Ben Silverstone. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  7. ↑ "The Vyne School - Ben Silverstone". Ben Silverstone. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  8. 1 2 Phares, Heather. "Get Real [Original Soundtrack]". AllMusic . Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  9. ↑ "Get Real". Mubi . Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  10. 1 2 "Get Real - Box Ofice Mojo". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  11. ↑ "Get Real". Amazon . Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  12. ↑ "Get Real". Amazon . Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  13. ↑ "50 Best High School Movies". Entertainment Weekly. 28 August 2015. Archived from the original on 18 September 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  14. ↑ "Get Real". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 15 June 2024. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. 1 2 Ryll, Alexander (2014). "Essential Gay Themed Films To Watch, Get Real". Gay Essential. Archived from the original on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  17. ↑ Synnot, Siobhan (14 May 1999). "Gay stereotypes should stay firmly in the closet". Daily Record. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  18. ↑ "Winners & Nominations - The Awards 1999". British Independent Film Awards . Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  19. ↑ "Previous Award Winners". International Filmfestival Emden-Norderney. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  20. ↑ "GTA1 Program Book (1999)". Golden Trailer Awards. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  21. ↑ "Chlotrudis Society for Independent Films - 2000, 6th Annual Awards". Chlotrudis Society for Independent Films . Retrieved 28 July 2024.
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