Review: 'Fire Island' is Two Hours of Summer Paradise
Andrew Ahn and Joel Kim Booster take a page (or a whole paperback edition) from Jane Austen's oeuvre for their gay rom-com "Fire Island."
Booster, who wrote the screenplay, stars as Noah, one of a group of gay besties who make an annual, pilgrimage to Fire Island at the invitation of their friend Erin (Margaret Cho). They're a slightly ragtag bunch: Former theater students Keegan (Tomas Matos) and Luke (Matt Rogers) are the life of every party, while bookish Max (Torian Miller) pursues his carnal pleasures on the sly. (He's also barely in this film, compared to the others.) Meantime, Howie (Bowen Yang) has never had sex on Fire Island despite its rep as a gay playground; Noah decides it would do him a world of good to change that status, and devotes himself to the project of getting Howie laid, at the expense of his own gratification.
The guys soon find themselves commingling, almost reluctantly, with a group of wealthy friends staying at a much more luxe accommodation. The reason: Charlie (James Scully) is attracted to Howie at first sight. Charlie's friend Will (Conrad Ricamora), a sort of anti-wingman, does his best to dissuade Charlie, and his icy contempt for Noah and his downmarket pals fairly drips off of him, setting Noah's teeth on edge; but it will all be worth it if only things work out between Howie and Charlie.
Naturally, it's not destined to be that simple. Party faux pas, demonic exes, and the crushing bad news that this is going to have to be the gang's last summer on Fire Island all conspire to derail the holiday and its sexy fun... and that's not even taking into account how, while Howie and Charlie dance around one another, Noah, who has sworn not to hook up with anyone until Howie does, has to navigate both his instant attraction to Dex (Zane Phillips) and a slow burning attraction to his new nemesis, Will.
For a film that conspicuously mocks rom-coms as a class in its (sometimes on-the-nose) dialogue, "Fire Island" has the genre down cold. But it clings, and fiercely, to a certain gay sensibility, trawling through underwear parties and back rooms as its romantic complications and class tensions unfold. Austen, who no doubt would have had legions of gay male friends had she lived in our times, would be proud, but perhaps also a little appalled; running parallel to the film's more traditional romantic impulses is a contrarian streak, and its most honest line —�hinted at by most of the cast, but put into words directly by Will — is, "I don't think monogamy's for me." (Its best line, by contrast, belongs to Noah, who drops this bon mot into his running voiceover as he and Will spar: "Somehow, I'm mad and horny.")
It's hard to tell exactly what "Fire Island" wants to be — a gay rom-com, yes; but also a teen sex comedy set amongst twenty-somethings? A snarky update on Austen's "Pride and Prejudice?" Yes, and yes, those things too, or at least it feels like it. In the end it doesn't matter where the story is trying to go, since it follows its formulae so closely that the major arcs are predetermined and the fun lies entirely in how we get there.
Ahn, who has proven himself a talented director with more dramatic and emotionally delicate fare like "Spa Night" and "Driveways," shows that he can handle a summery romp and give it some heft; he's also a master at conjuring atmosphere, and you can fairly feel the fresh, humid air of a gay summer paradise, so convincingly is the film's setting conveyed.
"Fire Island" premieres on Hulu June 3.