Fire Island

I found this in a list of award winning films and when I saw Joel Kim Booster is in it I had to watch. I've been a fan after watching Loot, he is always funny and a great actor, comedian and representative of the asian and LGBTQ+ community.

The film itself is very well written, dialogue and story, and every character presented in a way that gives a very clear picture of who they are. As a non binary biological man I love another addition to the list of films that represent the stories of the community in a positive light.

I highly recommend it if you want to have lighthearted fun with also deep and interesting characters and depth in the story.

I can certainly appreciate "Fire Island's" message about how gay Asian men are stereotyped and discriminated against in our community, but the director and writer of this film have managed to pigeonhole all the rest of us in the process. This is yet another film produced by gay men that portrays a group of mostly superficial, vapid 20-something-year-olds whose main interest in life is sex, getting high and finding the next party (oh, and getting a boyfriend, lol!). It's a tired depiction that's becoming more and more offensive, and it's refreshing to see others posting reviews here who feel the same way I do.

There isn't one character in this film who is over the age of 35 (or maybe even 30?), unless you count Margaret Cho's customary reprisal of a fag-hag, another stereotype we've seen over and over again. No one in the film seems to have any political interests or awareness whatsoever, considering the day and age we're currently living in.

The same week this film was televised the Peacock channel also released a "new" version of "Queer as Folk," and it's almost a duplicate of this film in the way it portrays gay life. The only television show I've seen that made a serious effort to represent us as real human beings was HBO's "Looking," produced over eight years ago. That's really dismal, considering more gay people than ever have been given a voice in television the last few years. It may come as a surprise to gay scriptwriters in Los Angeles, but the vast majority of us just don't lead our lives in the way these shows are portraying us, nor do we want to.

The concerning thing is that there are straight people in small communities (who vote) who don't have exposure to gay people other than what they see in films like "Fire Island." These characters only perpetuate their narrow belief that we're a narcissistic community only interested in constant self-gratification and nothing else. It's seriously time for gay filmmakers to start portraying our community a little more responsibly as real human beings and not the same old cartoon characters the public has unfortunately become more than accustomed to.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." The opening words of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and this script is a gay spin off of that novel. This is a mostly Asian caste that goes to Fire Island for an annual week's vacation. Enroute they repeat one of the island's mantras, "No Fems, No Fats, No Asians", their group mostly fits that stereotype.

The script isn't perfect, but it's adequate. It's mostly drama school trained actors and it's funny. I enjoyed this more than "Queer as Folk" (2022). Not an exact match up of characters to the Jane Austen novel, but it's close enough.

I struggled with the first hour. It amped up the current-day gay cliches to extreme proportions. The dialogue was solely based around gay men, with gay personalities, talking about being gay, and discussing gay issues which left no space for anything else. On top of that you've got the lead character narrating throughout the entire movie about how we as the audience should feel about gay life. There was a lot of telling not showing.

However, in the moments when the plot positioned the social commentary to the background and had a chance to actually explore gay issues by seeing these men in various situations, as superficial as the exploration may have been, ultimately led to a well-meaning warm-hearted place. There were moments of genuine insight, and occasional laugh out loud moments peppered throughout, and Margaret Cho will never not be a delight to watch.

However the outcome felt a little undercooked and reliant on stereotyped one liners that often didn't land and an idea of what a gay screenwriter thinks what gay men want to see. I would have loved a high comedy version of the HBO TV series 'Looking' type experience where no cliches are allowed and all characters have depth and dimension. This exploration felt a little cynical, mean and lazy in parts.

This movie had a lot to prove. And I did it so effortlessly. The films characters are perfectly flawed I knew instantly fall in love with each one of them. The film is eclectic, emotional and overall very very funny. I recommend anyone to watch this film and learn about a community that has many complications. What an amazing film that was navigated so well.