England,
1998, 110 min
Shown in 1999
CREDITS
- dir
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Simon Shore
- prod
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Stephen Taylor
- scr
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Patrick Wilde
- cam
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Alan Almond
- editor
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Barrie Vince
- cast
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Ben Silverstone, Brad Gorton, Charlotte Brittain, Louise J. Taylor
- source
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Paramount Classics, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90038-3197. FAX: 323-862-1103. WORLD SALES- Alliance Independent Films, 121 Floor Street East #1500, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 345 Canada. TEL: 416-967 -1226
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COMMENTS
Simon Shore and Stephen Taylor in person.
OTHER
The main character of Simon Shore’s delightful new film, a straight-A high school student in the suburban town of Basingstoke, is in love with the school’s Head Boy and track star. No big deal—except 16-year-old Steven (Ben Silverstone) hasn’t come out yet. Worse still and against all expectation, the object of his desire, the ostentatiously heterosexual John (Brad Gorton), reciprocates his tentative advances—but refuses to associate with him in public. Shore dramatizes the emotional trials, matter-of-fact sexuality and unrequited romantic yearnings of his teenage characters with humor, tenderness and a refreshing lack of condescension, aided by a uniformly excellent cast of new faces. One foot planted in the quirky, unassuming early films of Bill Forsyth (Gregory’s Girl), the other in the unabashed wish fulfillment of John Hughes’ romantic comedies like Pretty in Pink, Get Real explores familiar teen conflicts—the overcoming of fear of rejection and the assertion of sexual sovereignty—but puts a very English spin on them. And in contrast to the gritty, urban, working-class ambience that is the ground zero of British Cinema, Get Real captures a modern, middle-class suburban England we’ve never quite seen before.
—Gavin Smith
FACTOID #347
The world premiere of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert took place at the 1994 San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theatre.
