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
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