Cheerful and romantic, Jason Karman’s coming-of-age feature debut offers an exceptional portrait of first (queer) love through the eyes of a Chinese-Canadian teenager discovering his sexuality. Cardi Wong stars as Jake, a high schooler already juggling expectations from his family, girlfriend, and peers. But the arrival of a handsome new neighbor, Aleks (Chris Carson), catches Jake off-guard.
Struck by a connection he struggles to explain, Jake follows Aleks onto the school basketball team. In doing so, he runs headlong into a web of others’ hopes and pressures, forcing him to shoulder the scrutiny of schoolmates and his former-athlete father. Struggling to discover himself while — like so many high-schoolers — trying to thrive in the public eye, Jake finds himself caught between the familiar and the new. GOLDEN DELICIOUS accesses perspectives well beyond Jake’s, bringing to life the whole community, while offering a timely, warmhearted look at the crosscurrents shaping young queer lives.
— George Elkind
