Watching Club Kid at its Canadian premiere at TIFF back in September, I knew it was something special. Not just one of the best films of the festival, but a future classic of American cinema that I know I’ll be returning to over the years along with my all-time favourites. Make room on the Criterion Closet shelves for this one. It feels both effortlessly of the moment and enchantingly timeless. One of those rare gems where every element of a production just works, coming together to create that ineffable movie magic, something more than the sum of its parts. From the effervescent, unpredictable but admirably sturdy script that deftly riffs on familiar movie tropes, to its gorgeous shot-on-film cinematography, great music choices and score (Cristobal Tapia de Veer), and terrific acting performances, led by Jordan Firstman making his mark with a virtuoso feature debut as writer-director-star.
As the film opens in 2016, we are thrust into the fabulously messy world of queer New York nightlife promotor Peter (Firstman) as he fills an Uber with his exuberant entourage and heads across the bridge to Brooklyn for a typical, heavily drug-fueled night out at one the regular parties he hosts. With its busy handheld shifts and spins, cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra’s bravura work immediately captures the frenetic energy of Peter’s scene—aided by Taylor Levy and Sofía Subercaseaux’s kinetic editing—from the jubilance of a car ride group singalong to throwing us into the thick of a pulsating throng of sweaty shirtless partygoers at the club, and then on to the horny abandon of the darkroom. Fun cameos from Drag Race’s Kandy Muse (not in the VIP) and the legendary Amanda Lepore contribute to the authenticity of the strobe-lit club scenes. As does the druggy backstage banter between Peter and his inner circle including the dolls, Saffron (Saturn Risin9, a vibrant, magnetic presence), Hana (Alaska Riley, natural and engaging), and Almi (Miss Benny, with spot-on comic timing and delivery).
Crucially, none of the nightlife scenes feel sanitized to appeal to a mainstream audience, nor are they heightened for shock value. The milieu just feels unforced and genuine, aided by the fact that some of the scenes were shot at real club nights, while those that weren’t were populated by queer club-goers, including some recruited from Grindr. It is an attention to detail that runs through the film and really pays off.
Peter seems to be in his element on the dancefloor surrounded by hundreds of people vying for his attention and offering him bumps, but the comedown in the days that follow is palpable. He sits alone on his bed, jerking off to anime porn, eating junk food and ordering in sex from a hook-up app. Anything to distract from facing himself and his future. While he’s dedicated to ensuring everyone else is having a good time, including selling drugs to his friends and familiars, his co-host Sophie (Cara Delevingne, in an increasingly unhinged tour-de-force) is focused on the business side of things with an eye on outside investment and expansion of their brand. A heavy coke user herself, she berates Peter as “literally a fucking child” when he turns up late and high for a business meeting.
There is no authorial sense of judgment, but as the action cuts to the present day, there is a sense that, a decade on, Peter is stuck in a state of arrested development which some life-changing news abruptly interrupts. On the night out which opens the film, Peter lost his gold star gay credentials in a brief and hazy encounter with a vacationing British woman, Leonora (a wonderfully full-on Paris Petitjean), whom he nicknamed “innit babes” and continued to joke about over the years with his bestie Devon (a delightful Nigil Whyte). The unexpected arrival of Leonora’s friend Edison (a hilarious Kirby Howell-Baptiste) shakes up Peter’s world with the delivery of the adorable ten year old son he never knew he had, Arlo (Reggie Absolom), who has just lost his mother to suicide.
At the heart of the film is the bond that gradually builds between a lost, reluctant adult (let alone father) and a kid in need of a stable home and some love. Absolom gives a beautifully natural performance and his chemistry with Firstman, so unguarded and vulnerable in the role, is captivating and heartwarming. As Peter is forced to take a crash course in parenting, there are some gross out moments (a double vomit scene in a pizza joint bathroom stall) and some heartfelt, deeply moving ones. In one of the film’s standout scenes, the two really begin to connect, open up and share their feelings with one another, in an exchange that is beautifully captured in an unedited, continuous shot that glides back and forth from close-up to close-up as it draws us in and conveys the intimacy and rawness of the conversation.
In a way that is reminiscent of films like The Goodbye Girl and Sleepless in Seattle, Arlo isn’t talked down to as a child by Firstman in his writing or Peter’s approach to communicating with him. Here, the kid continually surprises the adult with a worldliness that is beyond his years along with his taste in music, an area where the two really begin to hit it off, with Arlo starting up a shared playlist that they can both add to.
A kind spirit, who also likes to avoid confrontation, Peter has generously allowed his idiosyncratic friend Nicky (Eldar Isgandarov) to stay while he is looking for a job and a place to live, but instead spends his days playing computer games in his underwear and eating cereal. Isgandarov, who only graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in 2024, makes his feature acting debut here (upcoming is another Oscar buzzy title, Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut) giving the kind of memorable, scene-stealing supporting turn that boldy announces an exciting new talent. With the arrival of Arlo in his life, Peter convinces his older neighbour Evelyn (veteran actress and producer Colleen Camp delivering rich, hysterical character work) to take Nicky in, leading to a genius odd couple cross-generational pairing, and some of the film’s funniest moments.
One of the stars of the film is its casting (led by Carmen Cuba in the US, with Lucy Bevan in the UK) combined with Firstman’s obvious skill for directing actors. Not a beat or line of dialogue is wasted, and we get a sense of backstory from every character Peter interacts with however little screen time they have. Vicki Pepperdine as Peter’s Drag Race UK-loving pro bono family lawyer Lydia is a highlight, exuding warmth and wit. Diego Calva is perfect as the handsome, passionate and charming child psychologist Oscar, with a rough past that he’s overcome to become the kind of dreamy boyfriend that the first version of Peter we meet would likely think himself unworthy of.
Firstman also impresses with the way his screenplay, direction, and performance navigate contrasting tones, while maintaining a sense of cohesion. Taking things from fizzy, smart dialogue and outlandish humour to some deep and dark places, as he touches on Peter’s issues with low self-esteem, as well as the environment of domestic abuse that Arlo grew up in and Leonora’s suicide. We see how nightlife can sustain and uplift, but also become toxic and damaging too. Firstman manages this balancing act while keeping things grounded in a sense of reality throughout, without being afraid to create some bold movie moments along the way like Peter and Arlo’s duet at the piano to Ethel Cain’s “Thoroughfare” in an homage to Paul Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman.
A quintessential contemporary New York movie, the city itself is never simply a backdrop, but Firstman channels what it is like to live in Manhattan in a way that early episodes of Sex and the City (like the pilot directed by Susan Seidelman) achieved, conveying how it can be both invigorating and exhausting at the same time. But it is all worth it for that breathtaking view of the Manhattan skyline as you cross the East River that never gets old.
Unlike Karol Klementewicz and Monika Pęcikiewicz’s recent Polish HBO Max series Proud, where the sexuality of its queer partying young guncle who suddenly finds himself in loco parentis, is major plot point—pointedly underscoring that country’s societal and institutional homophobic biases—refreshingly Peter being queer isn’t a focus or any kind of obstacle to him caring for Arlo. As the film reaches its final reels though other complications do emerge, taking Peter across the pond and the movie in a more sober direction. Already an international festival darling following its Cannes debut in May, Club Kid has been nominated for a raft of awards including a BIFA and two Gotham Awards just this week. I’d love to see Firstman end this awards season with an Oscar in his hand.
By James Kleinmann
Club Kid opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, November 6th and expands nationwide on November 26th, 2026. For local showtimes head to a24films.com/films/club-kid.
