GET REAL VHS
Ben Silverstone's appealing lead performance is the main reason to see this well-intentioned but otherwise bland tale of forbidden teenage love. Steven Carter is 16, lives in leafy, stuffy Basingstoke and is gay. Although comfortable with his sexuality, he knows neither his parents nor schoolmates are ready for the news. Until, that is, he forms an unlikely relationship with John Dixon (played by wooden Brad Gorton, who looks about 25), star athlete and all-round school stud. Wary of damaging his hunky image, John insists the romance remains secret--but Steven finds this easier said than done.

There is no faulting Get Real's tolerance, honesty, trusting yourself and trusting others message. And Silverstone, despite his alarming resemblance to geeky Carry On star Richard O'Callaghan, does his best to make it watchable, His scenes with Charlotte Brittain, as his next-door-neighbour and confidante Linda, are especially fresh and convincing. The film is enjoyable and hard to dislike--but this very inoffensiveness ends up counting against it.

While the gay themes are handled with an admirable lack of fuss, the package they come in is too tasteful, too carefully put together. Director Simon Shore can't be blamed for the script's predictably contrived melodrama--Patrick Wilde adapted his own play--but he might at least have brought it to the screen with a bit of pep. Instead we get TV-flat visuals, scored by creakily old-fashioned incidental music to ram home every point. As a story, it's enjoyable, even admirable, especially given the political controversies over the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools. But as a movie, it's a non-event. Released at around the same time, Swedish hit Show Me Love covered virtually identical ground, but with an intoxicating energy that this picture never comes close to matching. Like John Dixon, it has got the right idea--it just needs to loosen up a bit.

CAMPFIRE DVD
I loved this programme of short films. They are gently observed and aching with desire. Director Bavo Defurne has an eye for pretty boys and the aesthetic of his films is never less than luscious, but there is nothing superficial about them. It's hard not to recognise yourself in these stories about unrequited love and love lost. They pack a subtle emotional punch, but one that makes you want to watch them over and over again. There is an excellent interview with director on the DVD in which Defurne talks about his influences and how he achieved some of the glorious effects in the films. This really is one of the best gay DVDs around.

TRICK DVD
Firstly I have to say I really like Trick. I like the acting, the music, the story, the style of it, the lovely guys and I especially love Tori Spelling's rant in the cafe, I have a friend exactly like her character so it amuses me greatly. This is a fun film about two guys trying to find somewhere to have a one night stand but they end up falling for each other. Around this is a collection of interesting characters, from the bitchiest drag queen on film to the bimbo with aspirations of becoming a sex therapist, that enrich the film. But... (and it pains me to say this) the sound quality is abysmal. Why is such a modern film presented in poor quality mono that destroys the music in the film, and music is an integral part of Trick (buy the soundtrack and see). Whoever put this DVD together had a major off day. There are a couple of extras but nothing that you would kill your granny for. Here's hoping that this gets re-released with more care taken.

YOU'LL GET OVER IT DVD
Teenager Vincent has it all, he's good looking, sporty, popular at school and has a beautiful girlfriend. However, his world starts to fall apart when the other pupils find out his secret...
 

STRAIGHT BOYS ?? VHS
Two young lads get it together in a barn until a third comes along and joins in. For the gay man. Sounds really dull but hey - I'm no judge!

JEFFREY/BEAUTIFUL THING 2 for 1 Pack VHS
Ok, so I gave the tape 5 stars - but this is purely on the merit of one of the films, namely the second one. I couldn't bear to give a tape with a beautiful thing like 'Beautiful Thing' on it a mediocre 3 stars on the basis that it shares its run time with an awful film like 'Jeffrey', which if on a tape by itself, I would hesitate to give one star.

So, lets start with the dross. 'Jeffrey' is the tale of an 'hilariously' neurotic gay actor called, surprisingly, Jeffrey - although I prefer to think of him as 'the most annoying character I have ever seen in a film' or, indeed, 't**t'. Coming to terms with the fact that sex isn't safe anymore in the modern disease-riddled world, Jeffrey decides to experience differently similar joys through such things as exercise and body-building, or 'poncing', as I prefer to call it. Moving on. It is here, at his gym, that he meets a young fellow who seems to take a shine to him, and subsequently sticks his tongue down Jeffrey's throat right then and there in the gym. You heard me. Anyway, what follows is an 'hilarious' voyage of 'hilarity' in true Ally McBeal style ('Jeez' isn't the word), as Jeffrey discovers his new interest carries the HIV virus, and subsequent events are the stuff of true cinematic legend (if legend meant really, really bad). This film has a tired story, it is laden with ridiculous homosexual stereotypes with are supposed to be funny (none more so than Patrick Stewart's character, Jeffrey's annoying best friend), and the final weight that will drag it right down to the bottom of the tar pit, where hopefully it will never be seen again, is the fact that it is obvious to anyone who cares to notice that this is just a highly pathetic American attempt to be comical and controversial in one ball of wax, but they only succeed in creating an annoying, whining, not-in-the-least-bit-funny pile of dead worms. Why Sigourney Weaver lowered herself to this, I will never know. Phew.

Anyhow, now I've clambered down from my ridiculously high horse, I can move on to the real reason I bought this video. 'Beautiful Thing' is the wonderful story of two teenage boys, Jamie and Ste, who live next door to each other on a dour Thamesmead housing estate. It takes place over a particularly hot summer, during which the athletic and popular Ste receives increasingly brutal beatings from his drunken father and thug brother, causing him to seek refuge at the flat next door, where Jamie and his mother, Sandra, live. Jamie is a quiet loner at school, and is the brunt of all the taunts of his classmates. At home, Jamie is in his element when he is reading (particularly Hello! magazine), watching old films on lazy afternoons bunking off from P.E., and arguing with his caring mother, who struggles to balance her job, her new middle-class-hippy-trying-to-be-cool boyfriend Tony, the Mama Cass obsessed girl who lives on the other side of them and raising her worryingly isolated son. Following a particularly savage beating by his brother, Ste finds welcome sanctuary in the company of Jamie, with whom he is forced to share a bed due to lack of space in Sandra's flat. In turn Jamie finds in Ste someone of his own age he can relate to for once, and for a while, neither of them feel as isolated as they thought they were. As time goes on Jamie realises that what he feels for Ste is more than just friendship, it is love. Against all odds, Jamie discovers that these feelings are reciprocated, and what follows is a wonderfully touching 'urban fairytale' of the tender and delicate love that blossoms between the two boys, and how they each deal with this, and more importantly, how they deal with it when people start to realise what's happening. Unlike 'Jeffrey', this is not a hopeless story of sex and sleaze told by basest stereotypes, but rather a gracefully handled story of romance in the most unlikely of settings. As a newspaper reviewer said, 'only the most irrational of homophobes could fail to be moved by this'. Forget 'Jeffrey' - fast-forward the tape 90 minutes, and settle down to one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.