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Golden Boy is a very personal and quite autobiographical story, written by Mark Elias. Golden Boy has garnered much attention since its release in September. It has won the FilmOut San Diego Audience Award for Best Screenplay, and the California Independent Film Festival Jury Award for Best Feature Film Director. It is a story that has gotten rave reviews, and it will open a lot of eyes to a world not understood or seen by most people. Golden Boy is now available on iTunes, Amazon and Google Play.
The VOD release of Golden Boy was September 17, 2019, by DFM Creative. It is directed by Stoney Westmoreland and written by Mark Elias and Jonathan Browning. The cast includes Mark Elias, Lex Medlin, Paul Culos, Kimberly Westbrook, Logan Donovan, Jeffery Marsh, and Armin Shimerman. Golden Boy is produced by Steven Tyler O’Connor, Bree Irvin, Ted Stevenson, and John Doria. The composer is Christine Hals. Director of Photography is Oktay Ortabasi. The editor is Bryan Hoday. Casting Director is Marv-Margaret Kunze. Golden Boy runs 104 minutes.
Golden Boy is the story of James (Mark Elias), a young man, depressed and struggling in Los Angeles, who gambles on the dangers of being seen versus the quiet life of desperation and invisibility. Saved from doomed nonexistence by CQ (Lex Medlin), a wealthy debonair businessman with more going on than meets the eye, and introduced to a world he is not ready to navigate. He gets enmeshed in a carefree, party boy lifestyle, and gets involved with a rather deceitful friend (Logan Donovan), fellow party girl (Kimberly Westbrook), as well as a love interest named Josh (Paul Culos). While CQ saves him from non-existence, his new life leads him to a path of addiction and self-
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discovery. The film follows him as he chases his dreams — while losing himself, one piece at a time. Golden Boy is a story with universal themes of trust, seduction, betrayal, and redemption.
Elias provides some thoughts on the film and why it is important to watch it.
“It is so important, I think. First of all, it’s a cautionary tale on several levels. Not making a choice is a choice! Going with the flow because it seems easier at the moment is a choice! It’s understandable to want to be seen by someone, anyone, in a city where it’s so easy to become invisible, and especially difficult when you’ve been buried under years of anonymity — but if you don’t make decisions, someone else will. (Donovan’s character) Houston isn’t kidding when he mentions being a shark. On another level, this is not a black and white world. I think we have seen that a lot lately (especially politically) but this is a world that exists out there, one that if you’re not prepared for, or unable to navigate, it will suck you in and QUICKLY — I truly believe people don’t reveal themselves as good or bad immediately — you tend to see it over time — or else how would they gain your trust in the first place? I’ve been at film festivals in both North Carolina and Cincinnati specifically where people have told me, ‘I lived this life, and I didn’t even know it until it was too late’ and another person who left the movie to cry in the bathroom because it hit so close to home.”