Review: 'Golden Delicious' Serves Fresh Takes on Gay Coming-of-Age

Writer Gorman Lee and director Jason Karman both mark their feature debut with "Golden Delicious," a gay coming-of-age story that delves into the turmoil of adolescent angst and the pressures of family with deft storytelling, wit, and passion.

A montage of family videos – taken on cell phones; the modern equivalent of home movies – introduces us to a Canadian family, the Wongs, who run a restaurant called Golden Delicious. In a few short scenes we get a sense of who they are, and where the film is going: George (Ryan Mah) had dreams of playing pro basketball until a knee injury put that out of reach. He and Andrea (Leeah Wong) got married young and took over the family business from George's parents not out of passion, but because they were in the family way. A couple of decades later, the gloss has worn off (if any was there to begin with); the two have a strained, brittle relationship that's more about work than love, a situation that extends to their teenage children.

Daughter Janet (Claudia Kai) views a career in the restaurant business from a different angle: She "knows in her bones" that cooking is her calling, and she tinkers with a noodle recipes in hopes of figuring out what made her grandma's recipe so special.

Son Jake (Cardi Wong) is going into his senior year in high school. His avocation is less clear; George pushes him to join the basketball team (Jake has zero interest) and his girlfriend, Valerie (Parmiss Sehat) pressures him to have sex. Jake offers excuse after excuse – it should be special, he's sacred of changing things between them – but no sooner than when a hot new neighbor, Aleks (Chris Carson), moves in next door do things begin to come into focus: Aleks is a basketball player and he's joining the school team; Jake quickly discovers an interest in the sport.

The movie stacks reliable subplots atop one another to keep things moving – marital stress reaches a boiling point between George and Andrea; the captain of the basketball team, Ronald (Jesse Hyde) is a stereotypical arrogant jock with a jealous crush on Valerie; Jake finally gives in to Valerie and they have sex, word of which leaks to the rest of the school – but manages to make its various parts fit into a meaningful whole, even if some of the narrative pieces have well-worn edges. The story unfolds, beat by beat, just as you predict, and yet there are insights into family and individual dynamics that give the movie an extra sense of depth.

Key to this is Carson's Aleks, who is not only gay but utterly open and unabashed about it; when Ron gives him flack in the locker room, Aleks owns himself, pushes right back, and puts Ron's toxic masculinity in its place. He won't be bullied or shamed, but he avoids the easy tropes of becoming either a sarcastic best friend or flamboyant poster boy, two of cinema's most tired fallbacks.

Nor does the film overdo it on the trauma porn front, and Kai's Janet helps keep the film's tone on an even keel; Janet is smart, she's self-assured, and when the rest of her family needs a few bracing words she's ready to deal them out. The character is underused, but thanks to Kai's performance she's three-dimensional.

There are some heavy-handed narrative devices here, but once you look beyond a few clichéd tropes, "Golden Delicious" has some fresh and insightful things to say about being gay and finding yourself.

"Golden Delicious" streams on Fuse and Fuse+ starting Nov. 1.