CLUB KID
(Check out Chris Reed’s Club Kid movie review, it’s in theaters Friday, November 6 via A24. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)
There have been many films about irresponsible would-be adults suddenly forced to care for a child who then evolve over the course of the story into a better version of themselves. This is not a new narrative. But the cinematic devil is, as always, in the details, and with Club Kid, his feature-directorial debut, Jordan Firstman (You People) proves adept at finding additional depths to explore in an otherwise familiar setup.
Firstman plays Peter, whom we meet in 2016 as a party promoter (and participant) living a life of drugs and sex and generally good times. With his friend and business partner, Sophie (Cara Delevingne, Tell It Like a Woman), Peter cruises the clubs where his raves are a big hit, believing that this is what it’s all about. He’s in his twenties, so why not?
One night, tripping on a variety of narcotics, he hooks up with another guy for a hot bathroom shag, only to find Leonora (Paris Petitjean)—a British gal, whom he met earlier and who fancies him—moving in on the action. He told her he was not into women, but once the alcohol mixes with the other stuff, who can tell the difference?
Flash forward approximately ten years, and Peter is older but not much wiser, approaching burnout from what he will later call a lost decade. He knows it’s time to quit, but the thing about the fast lane is it’s hard to find an exit. Enter Arlo (Reggie Absolom, The Other Bennet Sister), dropped off at his apartment by Edison (Kirby Howell-Baptiste, We Strangers), the now-deceased Leonora’s bestie. She tells Peter that Arlo is his son, after which she heads back home.
And so our arrested-development protagonist has to make changes, though they do not come easily. If, like me, you find it uncomfortable to watch young people in the company of grownups who struggle to behave as such, then some of this will no doubt make you as anxious as it did me. Still, there is a lot of genuine humor mixed in with the drama, not to mention warmth and empathy.
Standouts of the movie include Eldar Isgandarov (The Debut) as Nicky, Peter’s ex-boyfriend and current roommate, and Colleen Camp (Yvette from the 1985 Clue) as Evelyn, a downstairs neighbor. Firstman and Absolom also shine, delivering moving moments as two strangers who slowly begin to bond. They’re the heart of film while Isgandarov and Camp are the funny bone. Diego Calva (Babylon), as Arlo’s social worker and Peter’s new love interest, is engaging, too.
I was greatly relieved that Firstman allowed things to conclude as they do, eschewing a simple (and unbelievable) happy ending in favor of something that makes more emotional and legal sense, given the circumstances. The emotional restraint of his mise-en-scène keeps the piece from descending into overwrought sentimentality, even as we process the weight of events. As a result, Club Kid, while not reinventing its genre, offers a moving treatment of it and very much succeeds on its own terms.
– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)
