Fire Island: Orgulho & Sedução

Finally another Gaysian story after a long time, last time it was The Wedding Banquet almost 30 years ago by Ang Lee which I owned on DVD.

Definitely feels like a passion project and thank God it turns out great, well done to the cast and crew. The semi-documentary and indie feel sometimes drag it down and the acting is uneven but they're all minor complaints.

A shame that it's released straight to streaming. Like Noah said in the movie, it feels like all the wrong things are changing......

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.

Some people don't appreciate what they've got. Despite the other comments this is not about marginalized Asians or any race. Most of the characters portrayed are just low-confident, shallow, and way too sensitive. Many are like this in real life, but this could benefit with at least a couple of well-adjusted individuals to balance things out.

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.

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.