CLUB KID

When I was recently given the opportunity to attend an early screening of CLUB KID here in Los Angeles, I couldn’t have RSVP’d faster. A friend had sent me the trailer a few months earlier, knowing my nightlife history. The title is a bit of a play on words, and it immediately took me back to my late teens/early 20s as a university student in NYC in the late ’90s, where I was, in fact, a “club kid.” Definitely not the type you’ve seen on MAURY, but I loved going out dancing to electronic music at Twilo, Limelight, The Tunnel, and many other now-classic venues. I ran guest lists at various clubs and even booked a handful of music acts and DJs in my day. Writer-director Jordan Firstman, however, is a generation behind me and captures the scene from 2016 to today in his first feature.

You may know Firstman as Charlie in HBO’s I LOVE LA. Here he plays Peter, a fun, popular, and openly gay party promoter in New York circa 2016. Cara Delevingne stars as his best friend and business partner Sophie, who handles the technical side of their promoting business while Peter “brings the party.” Hedonism and a good time are at the forefront of every night out, until one day Peter gets an unexpected wake-up call, quite literally.

Peter and Sophie work the Brooklyn club scene, something I couldn’t have imagined back when I was 19! We only went to Brooklyn if someone rented out the space under the bridge or there was some probably-not-legal warehouse party. Now it’s quite the epicenter of NY nightlife. But one thing both periods have in common is the vibe of everyone coming together to dance, laugh, and love regardless of race, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Firstman succeeds in pulling us onto the dance floor and into the back VIP rooms. Each sequence pulses with the kind of energy I wish every person could experience at least once in their life.

The other side of this story centers on Arlo, played by newcomer Reggie Absolom. At just 14 years old (but looking 10 or 11), Absolom is charming and mature well beyond his years. Arlo has lived through so much in the first decade of his life, and Absolom’s performance has depth that very few children his age can pull off. If he and his family want him to continue acting, he absolutely has a long and successful career ahead of him.

Peter and Arlo’s bond is the heart of CLUB KID. The film doesn’t just tell us what their relationship is. It asks us what it should be and where it should go, and the answers are messy and often heartbreaking. Firstman excels at showing the audience how Peter wrestles with arrested development without ever judging where he started. One of my favorite aspects of the film was how it showed that some of Peter’s friends can stay happy and healthy living that life.

You don’t need to know current (or past) New York club culture to relate to CLUB KID. At its core is a story of a young adult and a child who are both trying to find their place in the world, separately and together. In its 2-hour runtime, the characters go through a lot, yet even the heavier subject matter, like addiction, never feels surface-level. The story also dives into mental health issues such as depression and imposter syndrome. It highlights how the relationships we form with our blood and chosen families can make or break us.

Another reason to love and celebrate CLUB KID is that it surrounds the audience with queer joy. You can’t make a film about NYC nightlife without the LGBTQ+ folks who built (and still build) it, but too often we’re shown only trauma and tragedy. There is still so much bigotry here in the United States. Laws try to keep people apart or keep them from being who they truly are inside. Showing this joy still feels revolutionary, which makes Firstman another catalyst for bringing this kind of exuberant art to our screens. His portrayal of Peter asks us to really see him as a complex human being, as we all are. He’s our brother, our best friend, our lover, our neighbor. CLUB KID honors the beauty of human diversity and the shared sentiments that connect us all.

Finally, CLUB KID was shot on 35mm. It’s gorgeous in ways only celluloid can be. I miss films on film! Please, filmmakers, if any of you are reading this, take the challenge: shoot on film! Never let this art form die. Moviegoers at large have forgotten what it looks like, what it feels like to experience this. Massive kudos to Firstman for doing this. New York City just looks better on 35mm than on digital.

CLUB KID opens this week, exclusively in theaters.