Cam Archer | Godly Boyish / 2004

closer to god

by Douglas Messerli

 

Cam Archer (screenwriter and director) Godly Boyish / 2004 [20 minutes]

 

In the past I’ve quite enjoyed Cam Archer’s unnecessarily “arty” films, but this time I draw the line. In Godly Boyish the same two actors of his 2003 film Bobbycrush, Jasper Bel and Cassidy Field, both lovely to look at, mope around the woods in this film mostly fussing about the fact that they can’t openly display their boylove.

     Instead of doing anything like kissing, hugging, or even touching, they wander imagining how much better things are in “heaven.” Like some awful traditional view of the place, they imagination everyone is besuited outlined in flower petals, not even taking account that most devout Christians who believe in such a world could not possibly imagine their presence there as a wannabe gay couple.

     They know it’s a sin to commit suicide, so together they cook up plots to make their deaths appear to be actually accidental. It is not apparent precisely who they are attempting to fool, themselves or their warped vision of some kind of god.

      Jasper imagines laying down on the railroad track to await a train to come crashing into his body, while curly blond-haired Cassidy prefers to drown himself in the bathtub.

      In any event, despite the eye-candy, I can’t be bothered with these boys’ babble, mostly covered up with a pointless narrative voice and other voices speaking as they attempt to deal with their angst.

      If this is what it means to get, as Cassidy insists, “closer to God,” you can count me out. Why don’t they just turn around and fuck one another; I have the feeling that all their fears would be over a minute.

     I really can’t endure such pointless films that almost seem to advocate putting an end to it all about boys who haven’t even yet tried to live.

     This is gay filmmaking at its nadir.

 

Los Angeles, May 10, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (May 2026).