Film

Get Real

Name: Get Real
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 1998
Cast: Ben Silverstone, Brad Gorton, Charlotte Brittain, Stacy Hart, Kate McEnery

Coming-of-age

A 1998 British coming-of-age drama about a closeted teenage boy in a conservative rural town who falls for the golden boy next door. Tender, funny, and unflinching about desire, shame, and small-town claustrophobia. For anyone who's ever hidden who they are, or loved someone they couldn't have.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy coming-of-age stories that find humour in awkward schoolyard politics and let a closeted teenager's bluster slowly crack open.

Skip it if you need brisk plotting, since this unfolds at a deliberate pace and its emotional beats come slowly, often in quiet pauses between arguments and awkward dinners.

What it asks of you: Roughly an hour and fifty minutes of patience, with a restless, talky rhythm and a mix of sharp comedy and sudden sadness that never fully settles into one register.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Beautiful Thing1996

A warm, funny British film about two working-class boys discovering love in a South London housing estate. Features a similar blend of tenderness, humour, and genuine emotional stakes without sacrificing either.

But The tone can feel lighter than *Get Real*, which some might find less dramatically satisfying. Also quite of its era in ways that date it visibly.

The Edge of Seventeen2016

An American indie about a depressed queer teen finding connection and self-discovery. It's sharp, darkly funny, and doesn't shy from the messy interior life of adolescence or the fear of exposure.

But Centres a girl rather than a boy, and has a different emotional texture—more anxiety-riddled, less romantic hope. Some find it punishing rather than cathartic.

Heartstopper2022

A British series about two boys navigating first love, identity, and friendship in a school setting. Visually gorgeous, genuinely funny, with real emotional weight despite its lighter surface. Captures the euphoria *Get Real* does.

But It's considerably more optimistic and less fraught. If you're drawn to *Get Real*'s tension and risk, this might feel too safe by comparison.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Get Real

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Maurice1987

Both explore the collision between desire and social expectation in a repressive British context, but *Maurice* asks: what if you could actually leave and build a life? *Get Real* asks: what if you can't?

An Ivory-Merchant period drama set in early 20th-century Cambridge and rural England. Visually lush and deeply romantic, but also rigorous about desire, class, and the possibility of escape. Ends in hope, which matters.

But Adapts E.M. Forster's novel with a different sensibility entirely—formal, stately, and sometimes emotionally distant. If you want rawness, this is the opposite.

My Own Private Idaho1991

Gus Van Sant's poetic, uncompromising film about gay street hustlers in Portland. Raw, experimental, visually stunning. Understands desire, displacement, and the cruelty of class in ways that cut deep.

But It's much darker and stranger than *Get Real*. The narrative is fragmented, and it ends in genuine devastation rather than ambiguous hope.

God's Own Country2017

A British rural drama about two men—one closeted, working his family farm—discovering love and self-acceptance. It has *Get Real*'s small-town setting and tension, but with the clarity that only comes with adult hindsight.

But More physically intense and sexually explicit. Also considerably bleaker about family acceptance, which can feel punishing if you want hope.

Terrace House: Boys & Girls in the City2016

A miniseries adaptation of Mart Crowley's play about a group of gay men in 1960s New York. Sharp, funny, angry, and tender by turns. The dialogue is superb and the emotional excavation is serious.

But Set in a completely different era and cultural context. Much more ensemble-focused than the intimate two-person dynamic of *Get Real*. Can feel theatrical rather than naturalistic.

Terrace House: Boys & Girls in the City poster

Latter Days2004

An American indie about a closeted Mormon missionary who falls for a gay man in Los Angeles. Balances humour with real spiritual and emotional conflict. Gets the shame and compartmentalization right.

But Shifts between two settings and worldviews, which diffuses focus. The tone can feel uneven, swinging between comedy and melodrama in ways that don't always land.

Show Me Love1998

A Swedish film released the same year as *Get Real*, about two girls falling in love in a small town. Similar energy: tender, quietly defiant, captured with humour and without sentimentality. A genuine peer.

But It's in Swedish and subtitled. The small-town Swedish setting will feel foreign in ways that might distance you emotionally, depending on what you're looking for.

Pose2018

Both are about queer people building community and identity in a world that doesn't want them to, but one finds transcendence in visibility while the other finds it in secrecy. Two different survival strategies.

A series about New York's ballroom scene in the 1980s, centring queer and trans people of colour. Visually ecstatic, funny, angry, and utterly alive. The storytelling is generous and the emotional stakes are real.

But Completely different setting, era, and cultural context. The show's glamour and scale sit at the opposite end of the spectrum from *Get Real*'s intimate claustrophobia.