When the party stops: ‘Club Kid’ takes audience on wild ride

Gay director Jordan Firstman’s “Club Kid” takes the audience along for a wild ride. The camera circles through a car whose passengers are preparing for the night with the aid of ketamine, molly, and vodka. Peter (Firstman) isn’t the center of the film’s attention at this point. The party continues once they arrive at a club, culminating in a threesome in a darkroom. Peter’s so high he doesn’t realize he’s having sex with a woman. For him, this is an ordinary night out. Then the comedown hits. He wakes up, exhausted and looking much older. With one cut, a decade has passed. Peter doesn’t talk about his experiences between these two scenes, but he’s landed an unemployed roommate who calls himself a queer philosopher while spending his days playing video games with 12-year-olds. His whole group of friends have gone from partying to addiction. He greets the morning by hoovering up a line of coke. This downward slope is interrupted by an unexpected visit. Unbeknownst to him, he fathered Arlo (Reggie Absolom) during that threesome a decade ago. The boy’s troubled mother has just killed herself, and her boyfriend abuses him. Although he’s British, staying in New York on a tourist visa, living with Peter is his best option. Peter swiftly gets his act together, quitting drugs and integrating Arlo into his life. After meeting with social worker Oscar (Diego Calva), they begin dating. Firstman designed “Club Kid” as a showcase for all his talents: acting, writing, directing. He’s made a name for himself with comedy skits on Instagram, which went viral during the pandemic. I initially noticed him in Sebastian Silva’s “Rotting In The Sun,” where he played a fictional version of himself. Since then, he’s acted on the TV series “Ms. Marvel” and “English Teacher.” “Club Kid” functions as the end point of his ambitions, expanding upon his persona. Firstman wrote himself a role with great dramatic range, ecstatic highs and pummeling lows. “Club Kid” finds humor in the dark corners of addiction. Firstman’s direction captures the pleasure Peter finds in drugs. The camera swirls around with an infectious excitement. It’s a co-conspirator more than an observer. Later on, these same situations are lit unattractively, with the sound mixed to be grating. When Peter’s sober, he’s irritated by hanging around nightclubs watching people do coke. To the extent that “Club Kid” will succeed with a large audience, thanks to A24’s kingmaking prowess, it looks back to a style of raunchy comedy that tended to use gay men and trans women as punchlines. (They bought the rights for $17 million.) For once, we’re telling the jokes, rather than being used as their butt. Its bits of gross-out, like a scene where Arlo pukes up pizza and Peter then vomits on him, are mere sidelines. Dialogue like “I’m finding fisting spiritual, low key” lends novelty to a story that heads in a more dramatic direction. The “kid” in “Club Kid” speaks about both Peter and Arlo. Drugs have trapped Peter in perpetual adolescence, where he can’t move on to the next chapter of his life. Hollywood is full of stories about man-children forced to finally grow up. Firstman tells one from a gay perspective, where the typical markers of adulthood aren’t present. As entertaining as “Club Kid” is, the jokes help conceal how formulaic the narrative becomes. Once the film’s tone becomes more serious, you can see some of its turns well before they land. Peter’s personality and life comes through loud and clear, while the club scene is affectionately sketched, but the same can’t be said for Arlo. He’s defined by a surface coolness. At 10, he loves the Cocteau Twins and Massive Attack. He goes for shopping for vinyl and even DJs at the clubs his father promotes. The pain and tragedy of his life, raised by a mother suffering from mental illness and addiction, are held at bay. Even so, “Club Kid” moves through its shifting moods gracefully. Grainycinematography evokes the Lower East Side setting. Firstman proves gifted at both comedy and more somber drama. Until this film premiered, many have seen him as more influencer than artist. “Club Kid” demonstrates that he does have something real to say. “Club Kid” | Directed by Jordan Firstman | A24 | Opened Nov. 6 at the Angelika, Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn and AMC Lincoln Square