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Get Real

Get Real

List Price: $29.95
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Irresistable
Review: I was channel-surfing recently and came upon this film playing on Showtime, almost one hour into it. I was hooked. I immediately checked Showtime online to find when it would be playing again. Director Simon Shore beautifully creates every gay teen's dream come true (a romance with the high school hero) and he makes it seem all so natural and believable. Ben Silverstone (Steven) illuminates this film. Brad Gorton (John)is wonderfully awkward yet passionate - not to mention incredibly beautiful. I must admit, I am a sap for this. I was a college cheerleader and had my first romance with a guard on the team. Both of us were like John, however, and our fear was paralyzing. I eventually became like Steven, and the other guy got married. Go figure.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful and Inspiring!!!!
Review: Simon Shore manages a smooth transition from television and documentary filmmaking to feature films with his debut, the captivating and engrossing gay teen comedy Get Real, based on Patrick Wilde's stage success, What's Wrong with Anger? Shore recounts an appealing tale of a teenaged schoolboy coming to grips with his emerging sexuality. Sixteen-year-old Steven is just another teenager: He listens to the latest music, plays computer games, hangs out with friends. But Steven has a secret: He's in love with the school's top athlete, the devastatingly handsome John Dixon, who reminds me of a young Christian Bale. Not surprisingly, Dixon is dating a model and is the object of every girl's attention. Steven certainly can't tell his parents, and none of his friends know he's gay; he can only confide in his best pal, the overweight, feisty Linda, who wants a romance of her own. As if this weren't complicated enough, Steven discovers that one of the girls at school has developed a crush on him. And then Dixon notices Steven's attention. Shore and his cast of youngsters do a wonderful job of capturing the secret lives of his teenage characters. He penetrates the hearts and minds of people trying to understand their complex sexual yearnings, while compensating for the expectations of parents, friends, and society. Fresh, youthful, and invigorating, Get Real establishes its moving tone from the beginning and doesn't let go; it takes an incisive voyage into the world of a gay teenager trying to tell the world that there's nothing wrong with being in love. This film was strongly recommended to me and I'm glad it was. It's an inspiring and insightful view into young gay life. All the characters and real and not cardboard sterotypes, giving the film that realistic edge which helps it surpass other films of the genre. It's a wonderful film and one every struggling gay teen should see. One of the best coming-of-age films ever and an inspiration to the handful of gay-themed scripts I have written. Get Real is recommended to everyone!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: definite 5 out of 5
Review: After reading the reviews of Get Real I decided to buy the dvd. After buying other gay themed dvds (they aren't available in Australia, that I've seen) I wasn't sure about it. Sure majority of the reviews say it's a good movie, but I've had that happen before. I've bought movies where the reviews are positive only to watch the bad acting, poor story and short length.
Well I got Get Real and I watched it, and I was blown away! The movie itself is very well made. The story is excellent... It was so easy to sympathize with Steve because I have been going through as well. You can't help but laugh, and Cry at the same time. This movie was so real for me. I can see why it was part of the official selection of the sundance film festival. After watching this movie I felt so good because I had finally found an excellent movie that depicts coming out in a straight world. I loved this movie so much that I had to get online and write a review about it (which I never do). The acting on Ben Silverstone's part is excellent! He is such a great actor who portrays Steven so well that you just want to give him a great big hug.
All I can say is Well done to the director Simon Shore and the whole cast and crew of Get Real.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent film making, excellent acting. Good Movie
Review: One of the many up and coming gay movies that inspire and entertain a wide demographic. Click on my name for a fairly complete list of gay movies.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An enjoyable and enchanting film
Review: The story was well told and the acting was excellent. A nice film that leaves you feeling strong and with a new sence of freedom. I found that I got involved with the film emotionally and that it was a good investment. Buy this film and enjoy it. A nice addition to the video collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BUY ME!!
Review: very well done! great story line,great acting and well worth the price.you won't be disapointed.this is one movie you would be proud to have in your collection.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The incredibly true adventures of two boys in love
Review: BEAUTIFUL THING-lite, set in the bland British suburbs. Charming waif-boy Steven Carter (Ben Silverstone) is just your average teenager, prone to all manner of insecurities and the usual harassment by fellow students and parents.

One thing he's sure of, though: He's gay and has a massive crush on ostensibly unattainable school stud John Dixon (Brad Gorton). Still, Steve's got more going on than his stereotypically chubby next door neighbor and confidante Linda (Charlotte Brittain); only sixteen, he's got the sex in public restrooms thing down, including the disenchantment that goes with the territory. He has a brief encounter with writer Glen (David Elliot), only to later discover that his dream boat is a married man with an infant: Welcome to closeted reality.

So imagine Steve's surprise when he runs into macho John cruising for an easy pick up. John tries to make believe that he doesn't know what came over him, but develops his own crush on Steven that begins to drive him crazy. The lads stare soulfully at each other at a school dance before finally consummating their attraction, and it's all still terribly confusing.

Oxford-bound John is adamant about keeping their relationship under wraps, and his involvement with Steven doesn't shield him from self-loathing and not-so-latent homophobia. Steven, meanwhile, gets gay-bashed by John's pal Kevin (Tim Harris), the school bully, and starts hanging out with Kevin's ex-girlfriend Jessica (Stacy Hart). Wacky complications ensue.

Simon Shore's feature directing debut displays considerable confidence and aplomb. But his fairly hackneyed sense of storytelling seems to value accessibility above complexity, so don't expect any surprises. The saving graces of the film are Silverstone's winning performance and Gorton's visible assets.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A Gay Film for Heteros
Review: It is quite obvious why this film would play well with the straight community & be popular in such backwater places as Valdosta Georgia & Memphis Tennessee. The gay guy ends up by himself except for the fat girl in the role of "fag hag". I am just surprised that the filmmaker did not have Stephen commit suicide in the last scene. I had to go back and watch "Beautiful Thing"-especially the last scene-it was like trying to get a bad taste out of my mouth. This is what so many "sympathetic" straights and "understanding" people want for the gay population-it is all right to be queer but just do it all by yourself. God forbid that you find someone to love & build a life-long relationship with. A real setback for those of us who want to see more gay positive films in the marketplace.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Run-of-the-mill Teenybopper Flick Turns Queer
Review: Dear Director: Get Real! Alright, this movie is probably not the worst one I have ever seen, but it insults your intelligence. Think of your typical bad American teenybopper flick with loads of C-grade acting, no storyline, plenty of pretty faces and some bad comedy, and add a gay twist. Essentially, quiet gay teen gets his fantasies come true when the star of the soccer team gets with him. The dramatic scenes make you feel like laughing out loud, especially the bad gay jokes. The only funny thing to see is Steven fall in love with every man he meets at the toilets. A saving grace is Charlotte Brittain as Linda, Steven's sidekick. Did I mention that Steven and John have no chemistry, to top everything off?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Oh Freedom!"
Review: As a religious person, the lens through which I see the world is spiritual. This film, especially its title, hit me as a Revelation. All works of art should, ideally, transform us. Usually this occurs unconsciously. If by Grace the message rises to the form of Insight, then we can experience an Epiphany as it were. The process by which this happened within me is complicated, but I will attempt to explain.
As I said I am religious. Though I am mostly at home in Christianity, I have also studied Buddhism. In Buddhist Enlightenment one Realizes "Suchness," or "as-it-is-ness." This is contrary to our usual "as-we-want-it-to-be-ness" or "as-we-think-it-should-be-ness." To realize Suchness is to realize "Perfection" or maybe in Christian terms "Righteousness" or the "Right-ness."
Now what does all this "ness" business really mean? Simply it means accepting "things just as they are," as the manifestation of Reality, big Reality in your life. As Charlotte Joko Beck in Everyday Zen states: "All religious disciplines at bottom say the same thing: I and my Father are one. What is my Father? Not something other than myself, but just life itself ..." LIFE, Big Reality is my Father. For gays to be gay is to be in Reality or in Christian terms, "in God." It is to be the experience of our life as it is. As Joko says, "It's OK."
I took such a torturous mental route because I believe that the world is just like John in the end silently shaking his head "no," saying no to reality, things will be the way that we think that they should be, not the way that they truly are. I was also moved by Steven's anguish that "there must be more of you who feel like this, like I do, frightened to speak out." To believe that God's Righteousness can be found in gay and lesbian relationships is for many to believe a lie. And I apologize for taking seriously the last song of the film, "Think!" As the Buddhists say, "Wake Up!" As this film so eloquently says, "Get Real!"


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