Like the famous New York state queer vacation haven it’s named after, the new film “Fire Island” is a beautiful, sun-soaked escape from the real world. Time on the island moves at a slower, sexier pace, as the film’s characters repeatedly remind us.
Perched off the South Shore of Long Island — the same land mass that’s home to the glitzy Hamptons and the Gold Coast made famous in “The Great Gatsby” — it’s also the perfect setting for this gay, Asian American-led adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” penned by star Joel Kim Booster and directed by Andrew Ahn.
“In our community, money isn’t the only form of currency,” Noah (Booster) narrates in the film’s opening minutes. “Race, masculinity, abs: just a few of the metrics we use to separate ourselves into upper and lower classes.”
Confident and fit, Noah serves as the film’s Elizabeth Bennet. He and his largely BIPOC chosen family are perpetually short on cash but long on joie de vivre, intending to make the most of their last summer on Fire Island before their newly broke mother hen, Erin (San Francisco native Margaret Cho), sells her treasured vacation home.
Joel Kim Booster doesn’t mind if straight people don’t get every joke on ‘Fire Island’
诺亚的最好的朋友,豪伊(“周六夜现场”tandout Bowen Yang), serves as his gentler, more romantic counterpart — sister Jane to his Elizabeth. Howie yearns for “the rom-com stuff, like kissing in the rain and standing outside my window with a boom box or confessing things in a gazebo,” but he’s never had a boyfriend. Noah makes it his mission to get his best friend laid during their week on Fire Island, promising to eschew his own hookups until Howie gets his.
At Tea, one of the island’s iconic, historic dance parties, a suitor for Howie enters the picture in the form of Charlie (“You” actor James Scully), a white doctor. (His Korean-mom-approved profession draws a joyful yelp from Erin.) A romantic comedy-of-errors ensues, stirred up by Will (“How to Get Away With Murder’s” Conrad Ricamora), the snobby token Asian in Charlie’s rich, otherwise white posse.
与他罗曼兰n-puckered pout, Will, of course, plays Darcy to Noah’s Elizabeth.
What makes the film sparkle like the waters of the Atlantic is the ensemble’s undeniable chemistry. Yang and Booster imbue their scenes with pure sweetness — as a buddy duo, they comfort each other with a signature move of touching their index fingers together. Ricamora, who first crossed my radar as Seymour during the NPR Tiny Desk Concert for the “Little Shop of Horrors” revival off-Broadway, grows ever more endearing as his character loosens up and warms to Noah.
But with so much BIPOC talent within the cast, it’s easy to wonder how the film mighthave been better served by giving white characters and extras even less real estate on screen. In the world of “Fire Island,” much ado is made of whether Howie, who is Asian American, is good enough for Charlie. Yet no one, except for Booster’s Noah, questions whether Charlie is even good enough for Howie. Most of the film’s characters (including Noah, at times) seem to consider hot white men the gold standard in desirability. How much more interesting could “Fire Island” have been if all of the love interests had been Asian? What would it have felt like if chronically lonely Howie had finally felt desired — and seen — by a fellow BIPOC? Or what if white characters like Charlie and his unkind friends had seen real consequences for the chronic rejection of Asians within their community?
These lingering questions, plus the troubling way the film glossed over a revenge-porn plot point, dented my appreciation of “Fire Island.”
Despite the shortcomings, “Fire Island” is a feel-good, enjoyable comedy and a celebration of queer, Asian American storytelling. Let’s hope its success paves the way for even more subversive films to come.
L“Fire Island”:Comedy. Starring Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Conrad Ricamora and Margaret Cho. Directed by Andrew Ahn. (R. 105 minutes.) Available to stream on Hulu starting Friday, June 3.