Mark Reviews Movies: FIRE ISLAND

Fire Island, Searchlight Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 2, 2022

Something about Fire Island feels a bit revolutionary. It's a romantic comedy, so that's not it. The plot comes almost directly from Jane Austen, but considering how many direct adaptations or modern interpretations of the author's material we have on hand and continue to get, it's definitely not that, either. The film's story revolves around gay characters, and while that's getting closer, it's not quite getting to the point of why this film feels a bit different from and unique among the recent influx of cinematic stories that focus upon gay characters.

The key, perhaps, is that screenwriter/star Joel Kim Booster has written a story that's almost exclusively about fun. There are occasional heartbreaks and other relationships that falter in this tale, which announces its inspiration from Pride and Prejudice with its opening narration. However, these characters are allowed to experience heartache, to stumble, and to mess up in notable ways, without any of those negatives becoming the point. So many films about gay characters are about tragedy, either personal ones about repression or ones caused by societal oppression, and while it's vital for those stories to be told, this one just wants to be about love and sex and friendship. That it's a mainstream film from a major Hollywood studio that's entirely about such things makes its existence feel like a bit of a turning point.

Beyond those things, it's a fine and entertaining film, too—clever about its unofficial but self-evident source material, thoughtful about issues of race and class within gay culture, considerate of and sympathetic toward its characters. Kim Booster plays Noah, a man who, citing the Austen novel, is in no need or not of any desire for a spouse—or a serious romantic partner of any kind, for that matter. To be fair, he is also not in possession of anything approaching a "good fortune," because Noah and his main group of friends are of the modern working class—normal jobs or freelance gigs that pay just enough to make the monthly rent.

Those steady pals are Howie (Bowen Yang), Noah's best friend and polar opposite in terms of personality, and Max (Torian Miller), who has that suspicious habit of announcing that he doesn't want adventure but somehow constantly falls into it, as well as Luke (Matt Rogers) and Keegan (Tomás Matos), who met in theater school—and got kicked out together—and see themselves as the stars of any space they occupy. The quintet have an annual tradition of a week-long vacation in Fire Island Pines, which has become a resort town for gay men over the past several decades. They can afford the trip on account of Erin (Margaret Cho), whom they met on past stays and who owns a house there, thanks to a legal settlement.

Anyway, that's all background information that gives us a solid sense of these relationships (even if everyone in the group aside from Noah and Howie becomes part of the backdrop) and basically pronounces that the film has no larger ambitions than to let these character hang out, party, look for sex, and maybe find someone who promises a deeper connection along the way. In terms of sex, the film allows these characters to seek for and enjoy it, just as countless characters in other romantic comedies of the past have done for decades and decades.

At times, Kim Booster's character feels like a direct stand-in for the screenwriter, particularly in the way Noah's dismissal of traditional relationships comes across as a critique of how gay characters in popular culture are restricted by limiting social norms. As a counterpoint, though, there's Howie, who does want the love and big romantic gestures he has seen in the movies his entire life. Just as the two characters—who are both of Asian descent—share experiences of casual or unthinking racism within the community (and more direct forms of it elsewhere, like at the job where they met), Noah and Howie also form a nice balance between a kind of rebellious skepticism about romance and a hopeless optimism about it. It's simple but smart.

The same can be said of the plot, which is more or less from Austen's novel and is only employed enough to give some shape to the narrative's main purpose: to let these characters joke, debate, go out to parties, consider an assortment of potential partners, and figure out what's really important at this stage in their lives. For one thing, Erin has to sell the house (because she's terrible with money), so this might be the group's final summer at Fire Island.

There's more, of course. Like with the Austen book, there's a burgeoning romance between Howie and Charlie (James Scully), a wealthy and well-to-do man of considerable means. It's met by cynicism from Noah and Charlie's friend Will (Conrad Ricamora), an attorney who seems to have a superior attitude—and probably does to some extent, although there's something beneath that distant, cold, and arrogant attitude. In learning more about Will, Noah starts to understand that he might be as self-involved as he imagines his foe and sparring partner.

While the basic outline of the plot reflects its source (a lot of gossip and rumors from assorted parties complicate what seems to be a perfect match), Kim Booster doesn't sacrifice the guy Noah is (or the one Will turns out to be, for that matter), simply to fit into the norm we expect from the book, the movie genre, or larger society. Like Fire Island, the character still just wants the freedom to be and have fun while the opportunity lasts, and in a small but significant way, that does come across as a bit revolutionary.

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