Fire Island is a romcom, an adaptation of Pride And Prejudice, that follows Noah(Joel Kim Booster, also writer) and his group of friends as they take a week vacation at famous gay destination, the titular Fire Island, off the coast of Long Beach. Noah, who has a healthy sex life but is relationship averse, attempts to help his lonely romantic best friend Howie(Bowen Yang) hook up and as they party around the island they run into a group of rich friends including Charlie(James Scully) who Howie falls for as well as Will(Conrad Ricomora) who is at first very reserved and particularly contentious with Noah. Fireworks, romantic and otherwise, ensue.
Booster gives a commanding lead performance, balancing humor and real, dynamic emotion with a casual realism. He incorporates a lot of topical references as well as gay culture commentary and it really works. Yang is equally compelling, the character so raw and open, wears his heart on his sleeve and its delightful to see this side of Yang, one that is virtually non-existent on SNL. We get a little of the biting humor he's known for on the show but here he is much more vulnerable, more real. The supporting cast is filled out wonderfully- Matt Rogers, Tomás Matos, and Torian Miller round out the friend group with energy and vitality, Margarat Cho is great as their defacto house mom(although she's a bit underwritten), with Scully and Ricomora as the quite effective romantic interests. It weaves together wonderfully.
Effectively shot on location and in the NYC area it evokes it's place and time beautifully and provides a window into and explores it's protagonists culture while using the Jane Austen story as a throughline. The filmmaking itself may be more workmanlike than artistic but it is effective and what is highlighted is what should be namely- the characters, the humor, and the emotion. A surprising and fascinating follow up to director Andrew Ahn's previous(excellent) film Driveways.
Effortless yet punchy humor, unapologetic romance, with some biting social commentary lead by a great Booster.
Currently streaming on Hulu.
See It.
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