Ben Silverstone plays Steven Carter, a gay teenage schoolboy who mt hi his secret om his homophobic classmat. One day, a lol park where gays cise…
Contents:
THE GAY WE WERE: ‘GET REAL’
* brad gorton gay *
"Get Real" is the story about a 16-year old gay teenager named Steven Carter (played by the boyishly adorable Ben Silverstone) who has known about himself sce he was 11-years old and is perfectly fe wh . Only his bt iend Lda (Charlotte Brta, who livers a terrific performance) knows and is worried about Steven, due to his sexual adventur at a gay men's rtroom a park. Beg gay is not easy the days, pecially for teenagers, but we all wish we were as brave as Steven, who matur as the movie go on and we all hope the bt for him as he embarks on his emotnal revery after the end of this movie.
The 1990s were an odd ltle crossroads for gay entertament. At the same time, far om the mastream, the ttage dtry of gay romantic edi pched self to a greatly unrserved market.
Wh The Gay We Were, we’re gog to exame this subgenre one film at a time and exame what they said about gay entertament and the era that once was. One of the thgs about gay liv that ends up beg reflected most starkly by the movi is that gay people very seldom get teenage love stori. Get Real is a charmg and well-observed movie out of Bra the late ’90s that do s level bt to liver one such gay high-school love story, and is ght as hell.
Steven (Ben Silverstone) spends his school days longg for all-star athlete John (Brad Gorton). But John has a geo girliend, and Steven is still the closet about beg gay. The only one who knows the teenager's secret is his iend Lda (Charlotte Brta). After a cur n- wh John a public rtroom, Steven starts to wonr if the jock is straight after all. When they start a romance, threatens to expose the tth about both of them. * brad gorton gay *
It’s only been relatively recently that gay people have started g out high school, and even when they do, the numbers game of all works agast them. So much of any kd of gay teen story volv g out, g to terms, self-nial, the srn of others, self-acceptance, et cetera.
Star-crossed gay teenage boys. Likable but formulaic. * brad gorton gay *
Steven is pale and skny and a school-newspaper nerd, and the other kids pick on him for beg gay even before he out. John hs all the ual beats that the gay jock the movi tends to h; if you’re already mentally fast forwardg to the part where John’s plited feelgs on ward self-hatred explo to outward vlence, yeah, you’re on the right track. The thg about the ’90s gay rom-s isn’t necsarily that they were bad or good, but that they were all we had at the time, and there were relatively so few of them (I’m only a few months to this seri and the pool is gettg shallow, y’all).
What a movie like Get Real do, beyond the pleasur that is giv as s own thg, is make me long for so many other gay high-school movi.