Get Real . Tucson Weekly . 06-28-99

Get Real

DIRECTED BY: Simon Shore

REVIEWED: 06-28-99

The story of this British coming-of-age-and-out-of-the-closet film is a familiar one. Steven (Ben Silverstone) is a middle-class, geeky teenager who falls in love with a rich, popular athlete named John (Brad Gorton). Steven is comfortable with his gayness, but John fights it in order to maintain his image and the perks that accompany it. The unoriginal story is somewhat balanced by Silverstone's excellent performance and crisp cinematography that utilizes closeups of the actors to visually draw them together. The characters are underdeveloped, however, and the worst is Steven's friend Linda. She embodies the all-too-familiar stereotype of the lonely, overweight woman who lives vicariously through her gay friend. Exploration of Steven also remains largely superficial as he's reduced to a sexual category. He meets John while cruising public restrooms and falls in love merely because of his gayness, not because he's attracted to John as a person. It's unfortunate that even in low-budget films gay characters are rarely allowed few identifiers beyond who they sleep with.

--Polly Higgins

Full Length Reviews
Get Real
Get Real

Capsule Reviews
Get Real

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