There are few films this year as unapologetically queer, outrageously funny and unexpectedly moving as Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid. A raucous, wonderfully irreverent comedy that gradually reveals itself to be one of the most heartfelt explorations of parenthood and growing up in recent memory, Firstman’s feature directorial debut is a remarkable achievement, one that manages to celebrate the beautiful, messy and occasionally self-destructive nature of queer nightlife without ever feeling the need to explain or sanitize itself for audiences unfamiliar with that world. It’s a film that wears its heart on its sleeve, and one that announces Firstman as an exciting new filmmaker with a distinctive voice and a tremendous amount to say.
Written, directed by and starring Firstman, Club Kid follows Peter, a thirtysomething party promoter who has spent much of his adult life at the center of New York City’s underground queer nightlife scene. Alongside his close friend and business partner Sophie (Cara Delevingne), Peter has built a career out of throwing extravagant parties and keeping the city’s queer club scene alive, spending his nights surrounded by friends, lovers and strangers while seemingly having little interest in what comes next. But when Arlo (Reggie Absolom), a ten-year-old British boy, unexpectedly arrives at his apartment following the death of his mother, Peter discovers that a drunken encounter with a woman a decade earlier has resulted in a son he never knew existed.
Understandably overwhelmed by the sudden responsibility of raising a child, particularly one who has just lost his mother, Peter is forced to confront the reality of a life that has remained largely unchanged since his early twenties. It’s a premise that could have easily lent itself to a conventional, sentimental comedy about an irresponsible man learning how to grow up, but Firstman has much more interesting ideas in mind. Rather than treating Peter’s sexuality or the community he belongs to as obstacles he must overcome in order to become a responsible parent, Club Kid embraces them as an integral part of his life, and eventually Arlo’s as well.
There’s something incredibly refreshing about that approach, particularly when considering how frequently queer stories are expected to either center on suffering or present their characters in an overwhelmingly positive light. Club Kid makes no such concessions, depicting a community that can be loving, supportive and wonderfully accepting while also being capable of perpetuating the very behaviors that leave its members feeling isolated and unfulfilled. Firstman’s portrayal of that world is affectionate without being uncritical, and the film is all the more affecting because of it.
For Firstman, who rose to prominence through his viral comedy videos before appearing in projects such as Sebastián Silva’s Rotting in the Sun and Rachel Sennott’s I Love LA, that honesty was particularly important when developing his first feature. And while Club Kid is filled with references, humor and experiences that will feel immediately familiar to queer audiences, its emotional impact has extended far beyond the community it depicts.
“I’m definitely surprised, I would say, not even sexuality-wise, but the age range,” says Firstman when asked about the film’s reception. “Like, in Telluride, seeing 75-year-old men leaving the theater crying, I was like, ‘Wait, what’s going on here?'”
“But I knew how important it was to represent my community in a real and honest way and not sugarcoat things, and paint the picture with all its colors,” he continues. “It’s beautiful and it’s tragic, and we live a life that is a lot of different things. And so I knew in order to do that and make it a movie that people could relate to, it had to have universal truths as well.”
It’s precisely that balance between specificity and universality that makes Club Kid such a compelling watch. While Peter’s circumstances are undeniably unusual, his reluctance to confront the passage of time, and the growing realization that the life he once found exciting may no longer be making him happy, are feelings that will undoubtedly resonate with audiences regardless of their sexuality or background. There’s a profound sadness to the idea of someone waking up one day and realizing that they’ve spent years living according to decisions made by a much younger version of themselves, particularly when they’ve become so accustomed to their circumstances that the prospect of changing them feels almost impossible.
“I think anyone can relate to the idea of, like, you choose a lifestyle at 18, 19 years old and you wake up when you’re 35 and you’re like, ‘I’m leading the life that a 19-year-old chose for me,'” Firstman explains. “And I think whether that’s a job, a corporate job that you have, or whatever, a marriage, I think it’s a very relatable thing. And then just finding yourself at a place where you’re like, ‘Am I a grown-up? Am I not a grown-up?’ And not knowing.”
“I think there’s 70-year-olds that feel like, ‘I never grew up,'” he adds. “So I think once I found how to make it universal, I wasn’t scared to show the specificity because I knew I had the other stuff in the pocket.”
While Firstman has built much of his career around playing exaggerated, often abrasive versions of himself, most memorably in Rotting in the Sun, his performance in Club Kid reveals an entirely different side to him as an actor. Peter is frequently selfish, impulsive and frustratingly immature, but he’s also incredibly sensitive, a man whose outward confidence and larger-than-life personality gradually give way to a deep-seated uncertainty about himself and his place in the world.
Firstman is particularly impressive in the quieter moments, when Peter is forced to reckon with the consequences of his decisions and the realization that someone now depends on him in a way nobody ever has before. It’s a surprisingly vulnerable performance, one that becomes increasingly affecting as Peter and Arlo begin to develop a genuine relationship, with Firstman navigating the character’s emotional journey without sacrificing the humor and irreverence that make him so compelling to begin with.
That would be an impressive achievement for any actor, but Firstman was also tasked with directing himself in his feature debut, all while balancing the responsibilities of writing, producing and continually developing the film throughout production.
“I think just really trying to stay as present as possible in the directing and the acting and the constant rewriting and the producing,” he says of balancing those responsibilities. “Just really grounding myself at the front of the day and being like, ‘You know this story. You are this story. This is life. This is a life you know.'”
“I wanted everything to feel like life,” he continues. “And so, yeah, just staying grounded and knowing when I didn’t do a good job and knowing how to fix it. I think just presence.”
That commitment to making everything feel as natural and authentic as possible extends to the film’s supporting cast, which includes Diego Calva as Oscar, a social worker who becomes romantically involved with Peter, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Edison, the woman who initially brings Arlo into Peter’s life.
“Kirby’s amazing,” he gushes. “I mean, that is a performance that can make or break the movie. Because if that scene doesn’t work, the movie doesn’t work.”
But perhaps the film’s greatest discovery is Reggie Absolom, who delivers an astonishingly natural and deeply affecting performance as Arlo, a young boy who finds himself navigating the overwhelming experience of losing his mother, moving to an entirely different country and suddenly having a father who barely knows how to look after himself, let alone someone else.
Absolom is nothing short of extraordinary in the role, bringing a wonderful sense of humor, sensitivity and emotional intelligence to a character who could have easily been reduced to little more than a device for Peter’s personal growth. Instead, Arlo feels like a fully realized person in his own right, someone who is equally capable of teaching his father a thing or two about life while also desperately needing the love and reassurance that Peter is still learning how to provide. The chemistry between the two actors is phenomenal, with their developing relationship providing the film with some of its funniest and most devastating moments.
For Absolom, who makes his feature film debut in Club Kid, the experience of taking the film around the international festival circuit has been nothing short of surreal, having attended screenings in Cannes, Toronto and London, among other cities.
“Going to all these places that I never thought I would have gone to, it’s just crazy,” he says. “And for free, extra bonus. And people like the film, another bonus.”
Absolom has also been keeping a close eye on the film’s reception on Letterboxd, even going so far as to translate reviews from audiences in other countries to see what people have been saying about it.
“Sometimes if it’s gone to France, you have to do some translation on the Letterboxd reviews, but then you get to read it and they’re always so nice,” he shares. “And I don’t think I’ve seen a review that’s been that bad yet. So let’s just hope it stays that way when it gets its theatrical release.”
A large part of why Absolom’s performance works so well is the relationship he developed with Firstman during filming, with the young actor praising his co-star and director for creating an environment in which he felt comfortable contributing his own ideas and exploring different approaches to his scenes.
“I feel like we were just such good friends,” Absolom says of working with Firstman. “Even though he had to do so much other work with directing and putting out the camera shots and all that, he still kept conversations with me between takes, and he was just such a good friend and director.”
“He really helped me out with scenes, like giving me different options to do things in a different way, or maybe changing this line or asking me how I felt about this scene,” he continues. “He always asked me how I felt about doing certain things, and I feel like that really helped me out to make me feel even more comfortable on set.”
It’s a collaboration that pays off tremendously, with Firstman and Absolom delivering two of the year’s most memorable performances in a film that is as hilarious and outrageous as it is overwhelmingly sincere. For all its excesses, Club Kid is ultimately a deeply moving exploration of love, responsibility and the often uncomfortable realization that growing older doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve figured out how to grow up.
CLUB KID is now playing in select US theaters.
