Jordan Firstman Grows Up in Club Kid

"There's the cluster of gay men amping themselves up for the evening by doing a group recitation of Nicki Minaj's 2015 MTV Video Music Awards speech (one of them describes the mix of coke and ketamine they're doing as "a little Charlie, a little Kirk"). There's Firstman's character, a party promoter named Peter, plaintively insisting that he's only started dealing on the side "for the safety of my community!" And there's one of Peter's friends in a group of terrifyingly funny, beautiful dolls, observing that his longtime business partner Sophie (Cara Delevingne) has been "getting into beefs with 19-year-old non-binaries on Twitter.""

"Club Kid, which is Firstman's directorial debut and just had its premiere in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes, is firmly planted in a realm of queer New York nightlife stretching from the Lower East Side to Myrtle-Broadway to whatever part of Queens Basement is in, a joyous mess of a scene that the filmmaker clearly knows and and even more clearly loves, albeit with the rueful affection of someone who is also aware of how easy it is to stay too long at the party."

"Ironically, the movie's boldest gambit doesn't involve fucking or drugs or edgy quips, but a plot device so conventional that it is both a fanfiction trope and the narrative of an Adam Sandler movie. Just as he's teetering on the edge of serious substance abuse problems, Peter learns that he has a son, courtesy of a reluctant dabble in hetero sex a decade earlier."

"Arlo (Reggie Absolom) has been living with his mom in London, but her death prompts her best friend to whisk the boy out of the home of his abusive stepfather and onto the doorstep of his previously oblivious bio-dad. Peter isn't just unprepared to care for a child; the idea of children is almost alien to h"

The film centers on Peter, a party promoter navigating queer New York nightlife across neighborhoods and basements. Party energy builds through group rituals and explicit references to drugs, while characters frame their actions as tied to community safety. A friend group includes dolls and sharp observations about online conflicts involving Sophie. The movie’s most significant turn comes from a conventional plot device: Peter learns he has a son from a past encounter. The boy, Arlo, is brought from London after his mother’s death, escaping an abusive stepfather. Peter must confront unfamiliar responsibilities as he teeters near serious substance abuse problems.

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