So for that, at least, we’re grateful.It usually starts with the tie. The bottom line is that Fire Island is perfectly nice and easy to watch, with a strong enough sense of itself to put a line like “can I trade someone a Crest White Strip for a PrEP” into a romantic comedy. Will we actually, and finally, let a gay story just be the one single story that it is, and not demand that it be every gay story, all at once?
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But that isn’t this story, and that should be the fascinating question that this movie might answer. There are as many gay men who are terrified of Fire Island and its reputation as there are those who count down the days each year until their pilgrimage. Sex is an incredibly important part of gay culture. There is also a focus on sex that might be isolating. There are really interesting conversations touching on ideas of shame, internalized homophobia, and sex that will be so refreshing to many people, particularly in the context of modern romantic expectations. The magic, then, is in the gayness of it all. It’s really unpleasant and almost not believable, even understanding that’s the point of this well-trodden character dynamic.) But you know how Pride and Prejudice ends, so you know the journey that we’re going to be going on here.
(Stepping in for a little bit of film criticism here: Almost too heinous. Their characters are heinous to each other. Fire Island is a twist on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, set among the different classes of friend groups who co-exist at the vacation destination for the week. The “hetero nonsense” that Noah is scoffing at in the film’s opening is actually the idea that happiness is found in marriage, or at least monogamy and a long-term relationship. The question is whether to give them credence, or to let the movie be what it is: gay, slight, and fun! Their arrival is so expected that the door is already open to usher them in, where they can be discussed alongside the “kink at Pride” and “corporations exploiting Pride Month for profit” debates until the cacophony gets the party shut down. Or, even, that its storytelling, particularly when it comes to love and romance, is disappointingly conventional.Īll of those points are fair and all of those points are exhausting. They might argue that it’s too eager to over-explain gay colloquialism or behavior to a “straight” or uninitiated audience. On the flip side, there will be those who might find it too pandering to a mainstream audience. “There’s actually a strange tension that will inevitably snap once more people see the film and the-pardon my use of the world’s worst word-*discourse* arrives.”
There’s actually a strange tension that will inevitably snap once more people see the film and the-pardon my use of the world’s worst word- discourse arrives.Īs with every major piece of gay content, there will be those who will cringe at the depiction of casual sex, drug use, and other things that they think may not represent the community favorably, or that it leans into unsavory cliches about promiscuity, or that it doesn’t represent whatever particular identity of the queer experience the person complaining identifies with. I’m not talking about homophobes who can’t fathom the idea of gays running amok on an island. It’s also what, for some, will make it so annoying. It’s called cinema, and I feel seen.Īll of this is what makes Fire Island so beautiful. Marisa Tomei’s courtroom monologue from My Cousin Vinny is performed verbatim by two characters as if they are reciting religious text at church. Finally!Īn emotional climax takes place during a karaoke rendition of “Sometimes” by Britney Spears performed in three-part harmony. Truly, the only character I saw in the film who might be heterosexual was a woman who worked at the grocery store, where patrons peruse the aisles for $11 boxes of Cheez-Its in nothing but thong bathing suits and sandals.įire Island is a Very Gay Movie.
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It’s where they can feel free to be unabashedly gay-to hook up, to be flamboyant, to talk in their own vernacular, and to make references to Cherry Jones without ever having to explain themselves or, worse, who the esteemed character actress is. It’s where he and his friends, including Bowen Yang’s Howie and Matt Rogers’ Luke, fortify their friendship bond into family. In an opening voice-over, Booster’s character, Noah, refers to Fire Island as a “sacred place.” It’s about a group of gay friends who convene every summer for a week on the titular mecca, the New York City-adjacent beachside destination the LGBTQ community flocks to in droves each year once Speedo weather arrives. Those are the superficial perks of the world created in Fire Island, which was written by and stars Joel Kim Booster.