Golden Delicious in some ways feels like an old fashioned gay movie with its boy in a relationship with a girl when he meets another boy and struggles to figure out his feelings and find his ability to be true to himself and true to those around him. But in other ways Golden Delicious feel fresh in that the focus isn't necessarily on Jake coming to terms with being gay but more about him coming to terms with being his own man.
Golden Delicious' main story focuses on people filling roles that were assigned to them, or that they felt they had to take on in opposition to the ones they wanted or that would help them meet their full potential. Whenever Jake is about to embrace a relationship with his crush Aleks he is confronted with his obligations to who he sees himself as supposed to be, and second guesses himself, not due to the queerness of his feelings, but how they divert him from his set course.
He isn't alone in this journey, each of his family members struggles with the tension between where they are and where they want to be. The film might be a little heavy handed in this message and, like many of those older gay films, they don't necessarily achieve full redemption for Jake from his actions while hiding who he was. The ending resolves things a bit to optimistically. Still, the Gen Z aspects of the film lie in how little his queerness plays into the conflict. Jake faces little homophobia (there is some) and his struggle with his feelings for Aleks have little to do with any resistance to homosexuality. His family and friends have little to no concerns about him being gay. Jake lives in a different world than the gay characters of queer cinema a generation ago.
Cardi Wong is strong in his central role even the film doesn't resolve all his story in a completely satisfying way. I do think he brings an empathy to Jake that is necessary for the film to work. The film's story does feel a bit clunky at times but its heart helps carry through that and perhaps we're seeing here, along with other 2SLGBTQIA+ media, a turn in how queer cinema is evolving as we all evolve along with it.
Golden Delicious
Starring: Cardi Wong, Chris Carsen
Director: Jason Karmen
Writer: Gorman Lee
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