Fire Island is an LGBTQ film released on 3rd June 2022 on the Hulu network to coincide with Pride Month.
About
A group of friends make their regular trip to Fire Island, but this time their journey that challenges their relationship.
Cast
The only person I recognized in the film was Margaret Cho who is an icon in herself and to the LGBTQ community. I think it was quite a coup to have her involvement which would draw an audience in itself.
This is a more Asian focused story, written by and the lead actor Joel Kim Booster. According to his Internet Movie Database biography he has been writing since 2013. He has also appeared in quite a few TV shows. If social media is anything to go by this work will boost his career as he becomes an LGBTQ icon.
Review
The movie addressed a number of issues and challenges within the LGBTQ community. The story revolved around a group of friends dealing with these issues which challenged their relationship between themselves and others.
In my opinion, the character that was written and played the best was Will, actor Conrad Ricamora, this is the only one in the film that I could identify with. All the other characters just seemed to be a mess and outlined many reasons why I feel that I don’t belong anywhere in the community. Most of the characters were overly camp, swearing, doing drugs, vindictive, gossipy, and having sex with anybody, and a lot of what they were saying I couldn’t really understand or follow. I think the Will character was part of the point of the movie, and this will be my main (positive) takeaway from it. I was also pleased that there were at least a couple of characters that didn’t fit the body stereotype, even though one of them, the black character, was sidelined in the story. The movie had a bumpy start but ended on a high note, similar to Beautiful Thing.
Apart from the story and characters, having a diverse cast is so important and that is such a positive and important step.
The reviews on Internet Movie Database ranged from “this is the best thing since sliced bread” to quite toxic comments. Asian TV shows and films do seem to be reviewed much worse on that platform than anywhere else, and the fact that this is an LGBTQ film made them even more toxic. It’s so sad.
I do prefer LGBTQ shows from South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, maybe they aren’t as “realistic” and focus more on the good in people rather than all their faults, and have other elements of the story like SciFi, business, food etc.
As for a score, I will give this a 2 out of 5, it just wasn’t my thing. It’s great that others are enjoying the movie and I’m sure it will go down in history and be remembered forever.