'Club Kid' Review
Release Date: 11/06/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Comedy. Drama.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: A24.
The Verdict: A Must-See
As long as it remains the city that never sleeps, which will be true until the end of time, filmmakers will keep making movies about New York. Recently, filmmakers have increasingly focused on underrepresented subsections of the city’s population. Best Picture winner Anora is the modern classic that comes to mind above all else: an outer-borough romantic comedy about a sex worker swept up in a fantasy. Club Kid, the new A24 dramedy, is in ways a great successor to Anora, yet nothing like it at all, telling a cozy, familiar coming-of-age story immersed in the city’s LGBTQ+ community.
In his introduction of Club Kid at my New York Film Festival screening, writer/director/star Jordan Firstman talked about how important it was to set some of his film’s scenes at authentic queer hangouts across the five boroughs. Though it is ultimately a very specifically scripted movie, that approach gives the film a pseudo-“cinema verite” style that brings it to life. This is a good old-fashioned crowdpleaser, with plenty of laughs, plenty of heart, and a bit of corniness. Still, it often feels more substantial because of the electricity of Firstman’s filmmaking and his understanding of this world and lifestyle.
The opening scene of Club Kid immediately grabs your attention. The camera does a 360-degree spin around the packed Uber that Peter (Firstman) and his entourage take to the club. A Rihanna song blasts through the speakers, and the image gets hazier and hazier with each revolution. It gives the audience the spins, something these perennial partiers are probably fairly used to by now. This is clearly an everyday occurrence for Peter, a promoter who puts on the party and is also the life of it. His nights are packed with dancing, drugs, and as many men who want to hook up with him. The one time he dips into a blip of bisexuality is when Club Kid’s plot kicks into motion.
The film jumps 10 years ahead after that dizzying opening sequence. The party still rages on for Peter, and he is still beloved in the partying community. But the overindexing on drugs and alcohol is growing stale to the people who need him to be more present in his life. This is particularly true of his business partner Sophie (Cara Delevingne, doing the best she can with an underwritten part), who cuts ties with him after he acts particularly sloppy at a business meeting. He’s got plenty of friends and fulfillment when the strobe lights are flashing. Still, his closest meaningful connection during the day is Nicky (a very funny Eldar Isgandarov), the Queer kid who takes advantage of his hospitality by squatting on the futon in his sizable, rent-stabilized apartment.
Those daily responsibilities change quite suddenly when British party girl Edison (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) shows up at his doorstep with 10-year-old Arlo (Reggie Absolom). She claims Peter is Arlo’s father, saying he slept with his mother at the party from the film’s opening. Arlo’s mom committed suicide, and with an abusive ex as the only other option, Edison leaves Arlo with a bewildered Peter. It’s a classic setup: an immature adult stuck in arrested development, thrust into a situation where he has to take care of himself and this kid.
Peter struggles at the beginning of his parenting life, but I will say I was a bit disappointed by the film’s willingness to give him easy ways out. Someone with as habitual a drug problem as he has shouldn’t be able to drop all these habits without any sort of withdrawal (although, maybe I’m just naive to that party scene). He also is handsomely rewarded with a love interest the moment he starts to show any effort, crossing some questionable boundaries with Arlo’s child psychologist (Diego Calva of Babylon fame). The movie pays lip service to whether this relationship is appropriate, but doesn’t really make a choice. It’s not really Club Kid’s prerogative to make you worry too much about the details, as it’s trying to catch and create a vibe above all else.
Firstman clearly relies heavily on the personality of his filmmaking and the sharpness of the joke writing. Luckily, he proves himself a more-than-capable leading man, a gifted comedian, and a solid dramatic performer. He also found a kid who is absolutely perfect for what he needs. Firstman and Absolom have great chemistry, and you genuinely buy the affection and love as Peter starts to get the hang of things. It helps that Arlo is his spitting image in many ways, particularly in his taste in music and his surprising DJ skills.
New York's sunsets and sunrises have rarely looked more gorgeous than on the 35mm film stock Club Kid employs. Adam Newport-Barra won an Emmy for his work on Apple TV+’s The Studio, and Firstman wisely gives him room to spread his wings. It doesn’t feel like film for film’s sake, either, as the graininess of the frame matches the blur of the lifelong party Peter and his friends are attending.
By the time father and son are dueting an Ethel Cain song on the piano, Club Kid has more than won you over. But it's these little touches that really make it shine, even above other A24 coming-of-age films trying to find a similar truth. This is one of the great debuts in recent memory, a soul-pouring effort from a voice that was waiting for his turn.
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