Ganymede

With its uninspired storyline, clichéd horror elements, and lackluster acting, "Ganymede" is a disappointingly mediocre and outdated addition to this year's LGBT film collection.

The film centers on Lee Fletcher, a sensitive high school athlete grappling with his conservative, Evangelical parents who impose traditional gender roles on him. Lee's poorly developed and rushed crush on his openly gay classmate, Kyle, is depicted through the bizarre and uninspired appearance of a literal gay demon. This attempt at incorporating "creepy" horror elements into an otherwise dull coming-of-age drama occasionally resembles a low-budget, cheesy Christian film. The predictable plot, shallow characterization, and awkward dialogue make the movie more cringeworthy than campy.

While films like Sam H. Freeman's intense gay thriller "Femme (2023)" suggest that higher standards for homoerotic cinema are emerging, "Ganymede" stands as a regrettable and, despite its surprisingly favorable reviews, overrated step backward.

One would think that with releases like Sam H. Freeman's harrowing gay thriller "Femme- (2023)", directors have sought to set a higher standard for homoerotic movies, but this film proves to be an unfortunate, and based on its suspiciously well-received reviews, an overrated setback.

Still the premise and basic story and concept aren't awful.

One could almost simply go down the cast list and realize just how this movie was doomed to rate.

Its a long list of D list or one hit wonders and so on or never were's.

It even has cliched obligatory shots for some reason that are purely cinematic but anything but realistic in the least.

There are even fairly obvious technical details that id pick at if i had any prior expectations of such detail being addressed well.

Frankly im amazed at how not awful tv movie it managed to be while still rating overall in the same field.

Still there are some good bits. Frankly this could have been cut into a short form short film and be amazing cutting all the padding and dead weight out to make it reach feature length if not feature worth.

Still don't let me mislead you from not seeing if it might be for you at the right time and place because i watched more than my share of 4's and 5's in my own youth for anything but reasons like taste or sophistication.

Often quite the opposite i was more engaged by simple or low brow entertainment action violence and of course every teen boys favorite accessible nudity to some degree in the distant days before free internet access to such things was so pervasive and mainstream.

The great thing about bad movies and bad times is sometimes you need them if only for the contrast to appreciate similar content done to a much better overall quality.

How would we know a far superior version of the gay sexual awakening trope versus family complications traditions or sometimes strict religious fundamentalism if we didn't have something terrible thrown into the average of such genres?

Ganymede seems somehow necessarily bad. When you are content to invest less and make less as long as you can line up profits overall.

I almost think the worst part about it is the unfortunate name choice.

To me it doesn't make a lot of sense despite a minimal attempt to explain it in the film. After trying to understand the choice there are so many seemingly superior options of other mythical characters that would surely fit so much better than this story.

When you don't have all day and endless resources this is what you get when you just have a job to get done.

While Ganymede isn't an Oscar worthy film by any means, it isn't the worst film I've ever seen. The acting is good and script is decent. Jordan Doww is a stand out (in my opinion) as a young closeted gay man struggling with the need to repress everything about himself. David Koechner's preacher character is so eerily believable that you almost forget he's the same actor from Ron Burgundy. The only character I had an issue with is Kyle. I felt he was far too self-absorbed and annoyingly persistent that I ended up hating him in the end. The thing that affected me the most about this film is that attempts to "fix" young homosexual men is still a relevant topic today and that's scarier to me than any horror character.

This all-too-familiar tale about nutty christian homophobes and gay conversion therapy is well on the way to being a great little movie when it all goes horribly, hysterically wrong. It's the story of "Little Lee" Fletcher who is gay, but afflicted with a bible-bashing, fundamentalist father (Big Lee) and a psycho God-fearing mother right out of "Carrie". The film deftly negotiates Lee's budding romance with out-and-proud Kyle and his struggle to break free of his suffocating family. And it's particularly good at using horror tropes to represent just how torturous and damaging religious oppression can be. And in that respect it's rather better than the rather bland, lacklustre Boy Erased. But everything goes off the rails when Lee embarks on conversion therapy with the demented Pastor Royer, who, unbelievably, conducts electro-convulsive therapy in his church office! Now, while gay christians were often subjected to ECT, it was most definitely NOT conducted by pastors in their churches, Ganymede then hurtles toward a wildly over-the-top dramatic denouement that is either camp or just plain silly, depending on your point of view. A shame really, becasuse the film's first tow acts are not half bad. But all is lost in the third.

This film feels like something shot in the early 1980s, then put on a shelf and forgotten about until now.

Back then it might have been sort of edgy, but today it just feels dated and melodramatic. The characters are either creepy or corny (with the notable exception of Kyle's mother), and the relationship between Lee and Kyle feels very rushed. Letting the audience know that the now high school seniors met as freshmen was a very ineffective shortcut.

Overall, the subject matter was quite relevant, but the writing and execution lacked any real substance. Lastly, the laughable "horror" effects (costumes by Spirit Halloween?) should have been nixed completely. If you don't have the budget for effects, don't do them.