movie review
CLUB KID
Running time: 122 minutes. Rated R (drug content throughout, strong sexual content, brief graphic nudity and language throughout). In theaters Nov. 6.
You are not prepared for “Club Kid.”
Because it’s directed, written by and starring Jordan Firstman, who many will know from his hysterical Instagram “Impressions” videos, I knew it would be funny. But I was not prepared for how funny.
Because of the plot — a messy gay New York party promoter in his thirties learns he has a 10-year-old son — I suspected it would be emotional. But I was not prepared for how emotional.
Because it premiered at Cannes and is now packing theaters at the Toronto International Film Festival, I assumed it would be artful. But I was not prepared for how artful.
“Club Kid,” a film that stays lodged in your head far past the cinema doors, has shades of “Anora” in its optimism, grounded fantasy, five-borough mania and heartbreaking performances. Firstman’s freshman feature (crazy!) is easily one of the year’s best movies; a great big hug followed by an even bigger cry.
After the trailer dropped, a few online reduced the film to “gay ‘Big Daddy’,” referencing the 1999 Adam Sandler comedy. And on a rudimentary level, there’s some truth to that. A listless city dweller finds meaning with the help of an unexpected kid. And Firstman, who’s 35, surely was impacted by other movies he saw during the nineties, which generally speaking were more openly affectionate than the predominantly cool and bleak fare of today.
Yet the similarities end there. As personal to its creator and filled with Brooklyn nightlife specifics as it is, “Club Kid” is also uniquely about a generation’s collective malaise and stunted growth. And a lot of millennials will get mighty introspective when they watch it.
Their lost and lovable stand-in is Peter (Firstman). It’s 2016 and he starts a hot weekly party with his friend Sophie (Cara Delevingne) called Club Labor. One night, while on a lot of drugs, he spontaneously hooks up with a British tourist — a female one, wouldn’t ya know. The beginning of the film, be warned, is pretty raunchy.
A decade later, not much has changed. He’s still doing mounds of coke and staying out till sunrise, only his act is no longer cute. Peter is sad and desperate and spackling a void with substances. And then a scattered woman arrives at his apartment with Arlo (Reggie Absolom), a curly-haired boy from London whose mom, the dark-room tourist, has just died.
“Point is, that’s your son. Yay!,” she says, and leaves him there.
Young Absolom is a marvel of casting and essential to making the film work. Firstman knows as much, and fixates the camera on his expressive face during deep, almost-whispered conversations. His glances up at dad have a power, and his shyness and straightforward honesty is part of what keeps the movie from sliding into soupy sentiment. These characters are fighting the whole to hold back tears, thus unleashing ours.
Peter knows zip about children, but tries his best to fit Arlo into his life, as hard as that is for a man without a stable job.
A first-rate example of Firstman’s ability to control our feelings comes when the pair are shopping at a record store and music-lover Arlo spots a $300 LP he covets. He doesn’t ask for it, but Peter immediately buys the album for him anyway and then discreetly peeks at his banking app. There’s less than $3000 in his account.
That’s also an early red flag. There’s an effective tug of war going on throughout. We desperately want the complex situation of Peter and Arlo to work. They’re happier and better for being with each other. Peter is learning how to love himself and Arlo is building back from tragedy.
However, on the other side of the rope, practical considerations nag. Is Peter truly ready to take care of a pre-teen son? Is he truly willing to leave his old life completely behind?
Firstman has always tickled me, but I didn’t think he had this performance in him. At all. He’s still got his smirking, tell-it-like-it-is style of humor, of course, which is what reels us in at the start. What wins us over and knocks us out, though, is his easy tenderness and vulnerability. In the ending, tough but beautiful, he’s absolutely shattering.
In the director’s chair, Firstman has gotten hugely memorable performances from every member of his fantastic ensemble. Special marks go to Eldar Isgandarov as Nicky, Peter’s eccentric layabout roommate who’s “an aspiring queer philosopher” and gets laugh after laugh, and the compassionate Diego Calva as Oscar, Arlo’s social worker who becomes something else.
Not so long ago, Firstman was very much an outsider. But now with this remarkable must-see movie, he’s in the club.
