My Review of Fire Island (2023)

 

Written by Myles Clohessy And Emma Harrell And Phil Harrell

Directed by Myles Clohessy

Rafael (to Troy): "If I can't have you, no one will."

I said earlier in the month that I'd be doing more LGBT themed blogs for Pride Month and I meant. This movie wasn't even remotely on my radar until a few hours ago and I wish this was a positive review but eh, it's not gonna be I'm afraid.

Last year we had a romcom movie of the same name that had a nice positive buzz to it and a few months after it, we had American Horror Story: NYC, which had it's own Fire Island themed episode. Both of those were much more entertaining than what was on display here.

The movie opened with a young girl being killed by a mystery killer and then we cut to Troy (Connor Paolo), the closest to a protagonist the movie has. He's heartbroken over a former boyfriend who killed himself during the pandemic and it's the last bit that I take a little issue with.

Most movies and shows in the last three years have largely handled COVID as a main plot badly and here it's no different. Anyways, Troy got himself roped into visiting the titular island by his friends, comprising of a lesbian couple and a bisexual woman with her boyfriend, unaware it's a holiday they won't survive.

One by one, each of the characters are bumped off by a killer who's revealed to be some random guy named Rafael (Jonathan Bennett). Rafael's taken a fancy to Troy and wants the latter to stay with him. Troy's less keen on the idea and does make an effort to get away from his homicidal admirer. You can take a wild guess as to what eventually happened to Troy and it's the least of the movie's problems.

Now I'm all for more gay themed horror and while I'm not always expecting something a little deeper, this movie had some interesting ideas that it just badly utilised. The COVID commentary felt a tad too late and Rafael definitely lacked for a horror baddie. I didn't find him scary and he wasn't campy in a fun way either. However he did come out on top though, so he had that in his favour.

- Other characters in the movie included a creepy Irish guy spooking out Troy, an older gay couple named Jason and Wes (killed), a determined detective named Santino (also killed) and another friend group for Rafael to target.

- Nice shout out to Mean Girls, given the actor playing Rafael as well as a Batman reference because why wouldn't you?

- Connor Paolo can sing pleasantly enough and even played the guitar during a bar scene. 

- Chronology: It was set during the pandemic with characters wearing masks and talking about isolating at times in the movie.

Fire Island could've been an entetaining enough horror romp but it's largely a bit of a mess with most of the actors on autopilot (Connor Paolo being the only one to make an effort), the scares sorely lacking and yes, I know it sounds shallow but a little bit of guy on guy wouldn't have hurt either. I wouldn't say avoid but it's definitely not a must see either.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of Fire Island (2022)

 

Written by Joel Kim Booster

Directed by Andrew Ahn

Noah: "Pretty dope way to start a story, right? Well, no offence to my girl Jane but that sounds like some hetero nonsense."

With Pride month coming to a close, I thought it was time to get round to watching this gay themed film released a few weeks ago from writer and lead actor, Joel Kim Booster. With the title, it's not hard to guess where the action for this particular tale was placed.

Seeing itself as something of a queer take on Pride And Prejudice, Fire Island saw a group of gay men - Noah (Joel Kim Booster), Howie (Bowen Yang), Luke (Matt Rogers), Keegan (Tomas Matos) and Max (Torian Miller) all heading to the titular place, staying with their lesbian friend, Erin (Margaret Cho) for a week of drink, drugs and sex. So far pretty clear cut stuff.

On top of the usual plans at Fire Island, Noah made it his mission to get his best friend, Howie some action and that's where Charlie (James Scully) factored into things. With Howie and Charlie taking the time to get to know one another, Noah found himself clashing with the latter's friend, Will (Conrad Ricamora) while also being brief'y swayed by the seemingly charming Dex (Zane Philips) who Will has prior history with.

Needless to say, the more Noah and Will are drawn in each other's orbit, the more they learn of the other and go from the enemies to eventual lovers trope by the time we get to the movie's ending. There's undeniably great chemistry with Joel Kim Booster and Conrad Ricamora, though I found myself more on Will's side than Noah's during the movie. Can Will and Noah be a long term thing considering the latter's aversion to commitment? Maybe a sequel might shed light on that.

As for Howie and Charlie, it's a nice enough secondary romance in the movie and the chemistry between Bowen Yang and James Scully has it's moments but the focus wasn't as sharp with it compared to the main romance of the movie. Also between Charlie's awful other friends and racist ex-boyfriend, he's probably the only white gay (Luke too I guess) who wasn't depicted as being the absolute worst.

The film definitely has a lot to say on race and privilege, most of it done reasonably enough. It's the main source of conflict between both groups in this movie, between Noah and Will until the pair find common ground and love with each other. It's also seen in how someone like Dex can exploit others for his own personal gain too, given what he did to Luke here.

As for the other characters, I have to admit to finding Erin and her stories entertaining but the plot about her house didn't really get any closure. Luke got something of a storyline with Dex but both Keegan and Max didn't have a whole lot to do even if they were both likable to watch. Again, perhaps a potential sequel could give those characters a bit more to do.

- Originally this was going to be a comedy series called Trip before it became a movie.

- Released on Hulu but for UK/Irish audiences, available on Disney+ who now have their own Pride section.

- Standout music: It has to be the use of Britney Spears Sometimes, doesn't it?

- Chronology: The movie took place over the course of a week on Fire Island.

Fire Island hits the sweet spot of being an all round entertaining movie with a likable cast while also attempting to talk about issues of racism and privilege within the gay community. It pilled off these feats rather well too. I definitely wouldn't mind another trip.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Two More Gay Themed Reality Shows: Fire Island & What Happens At The Abbey

For those of you waiting for the second season of Finding Prince Charming, it seems that both Logo and E! have got you covered in terms of gay themed reality TV shows for the next few months.

Logo are ahead of the game here. Following the first season of Finding Prince Charming, their latest stab at gay reality TV centres on Fire Island. The show will focus on six guys - Khasan, Jorge, Brandon, Cheyenne, Justin and Patrick who enter a Fire Island house to entertain folks during the summer. The trailer shows a lot of fun, pecs on display, hook ups, fights and so on. The series is produced by Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.

Elsewhere E! are also jumping in with their own LGBT themed reality show, What Happens At The Abbey, focusing on the staffers of LA's most infamous gay bar and going by the trailer, you can expect the usual hijinks here with nearly everyone (gay, lesbian, bisexual and even straight) copping off with each other. There's even a gay man and a lesbian having a baby together.

Looking at the trailers for both shows, neither of them are what you'd say are positive representations for the LGBT community but if you love unapologetic trashy reality TV, then both are likely to appeal to you.

Fire Island Website: http://www.logotv.com/shows/fire-island
What Happens At The Abbey Press Release: http://www.newnownext.com/the-abbey-gay-reality-show/03/2017/

Fire Island airs on Logo, Thursdays at 8pm from April 27th while What Happens At The Abbey airs on E! Sundays at 10pm from May 14th.