"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." You know who said that? Jane Austen, the queen. Pretty dope way to start a story, right? Well, no offense to my girl Jane, but that sounds like some hetero nonsense. Listen, I don't know much about a good fortune, but not every single man is looking for a wife.
Fire Island is a 2022 original queer romantic-comedy written by and starring Joel Kim Booster and directed by Andrew Ahn.
Of all the gay men in their friend group, Noah (Joel Kim Booster) is closest to Howie (Bowen Yang) who, unlike Noah, wants a real romance. On their likely final vacation to Fire Island, Howie is attracted to Charlie (James Scully), who seems equally as kind as he is. The first problem is that Charlie's wealthy friends, Cooper (Nick Adams) and Will (Conrad Ricamora), obviously look down on Noah and the others. The second problem is that for all he dislikes him, Noah can't help his interest in the snobbish, intellectual Will.
If that premise sounds vaguely familiar, the film is a modern, gay retelling of Pride and Prejudice set on the gay tourist destination of Fire Island, New York. The cast also includes Margaret Cho as Erin, the Mrs. Bennet analogue, Matt Rogers, Tomás Matos, and Torian Miller as Luke, Keegan, and Max (counterparts to the Bennet sisters) and Zane Phillips as Dex, the story's Mr. Wickham.
It was released on Hulu on June 3, 2022.
Unrelated to docu-reality TV series Fire Island besides being set on and named for the same island.
This Film Provides Examples Of:
- Actor Allusion: Howie makes conversation with Charlie by talking about the "Gays in Space" segment on Saturday Night Live. Bowen Yang who plays Howie is a cast member on Saturday Night Live.
- All Gays are Promiscuous: Played with. The movie is very sex-positive and most of the cast are shown to have plenty of hook-ups over the course of the week. However Howie wants romance more than just sex, Will is clearly just tagging along to the events because Charlie asked him to, and Noah realizes he himself wants more than sex after swearing off men in order to help Howie.
- Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: Coming from the bathroom at the Tea afterparty, Noah is able to overhear Will saying some pretty mean things about him to Charlie.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Noah and Will constantly get into arguments and snark relentlessly at each other, but it's beyond glaringly obvious that the two are attracted to each other.
- Bittersweet Ending: Unlike the novel that serves as inspiration, Howie and Noah getting together with the financially well-off Charlie and Will doesn't guarantee the "family"'s stability (i.e. Erin is still probably going to lose her house). But the entire group realizes that their found family is more important than the house or Fire Island itself, and as long as they have each other they'll be alright.
- Camp Gay: Among the Cast Full of Gay, Luke and Keegan take the grand prize. They're constantly posing, taking selfies, and dressing in revealing outfits. The most notable moment is when they angrily reenact Marisa Tomei scenes from My Cousin Vinny during a game of Heads Up.
- The Cameo: Peppermint, a popular drag icon and alumni of RuPaul's Drag Race, appears As Herself hosting a show at the Ice Palace.
- Cast Full of Gay: The main male characters are all gay men, and the only important female character Erin is a lesbian.
- Dance of Romance: Noah and Will finally have theirs at the end of the film, inspired by seeing two elderly gay men doing the same.
- Date Rape: Dex grabs Luke while the latter is very out of it because of the drugs and not only has sex with him, but records it and uploads it to his website. Will later tells Noah that Dex has a history of doing this, but hopefully will stop now that he's been threatened with legal action.
- Deadpan Snarker: Most of the main five, but mainly Howie and Noah. It helps endear them to Charlie.Charlie: You're all so funny. So biting!
- Defrosting the Ice Queen: As the Mr. Darcy stand-in, Will's arc involves this trope. He starts off very cold towards Noah and his friends because he believes they're just using him and Charlie for the free alcohol and social status. But the more time he spends with them, especially Noah, he realizes that his pride was holding him back from opening up.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: While running through his inner monologue about why he should or shouldn't hook up with Dex at the underwear party, Noah's drugs kick in and he blurts out "George W. Bush!", much to Dex's confusion.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The entire film lasts from Thursday afternoon to Tuesday evening. Lampshaded by both Noah and Will, who comment that "time works differently on Fire Island".
- Family of Choice: As stand-ins for the Bennet sisters, the five main gays have become a surrogate family for each other with Erin as their house mother. While it's a joke that they like to pretend she's their mom, for Noah (who had a rough time coming out to his family) it's a lot more real.
- Gayborhood: Both in real life and the film, Fire Island is a popular vacation spot almost exclusively for gay men. Any people that the characters meet in the film are correctly assumed to be gay.
- Gilligan Cut: Luke and Keegan manage to coax Will into playing a game by saying it’s "it's real low stakes" and "real chill." Immediate cut to Luke and Keegan screaming their faces off in the midst of a game of Heads Up.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: Noah tries to get Charlie to do a big and stupid gesture to win Howie back. Charlie more than delivers by stealing a water taxi to bring Howie back to Fire Island after he leaves.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Well, they're not heterosexual, but Noah says that his and Howie's relationship runs especially deep compared to the rest of their friends.
- Inherently Attractive Profession: The friends coo over the fact that not only is Charlie well-off and handsome, he is also a doctor.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: In contrast to his best friend Noah, who is more cynical about relationships and seeks sex over love, Howie wants the frills and softness of a romance and despairs that he's never had a boyfriend. Noah keeps trying to get Howie to have sex with Charlie and get over him, but Howie forms an emotional connection with Charlie anyway.
- The "I Love You" Stigma: Played for laughs at the end. Noah urges Charlie to do something big to win Howie over, so Charlie drops the L-word - and everyone immediately calls him out for moving too fast even for this situation.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Will turns out to be this, as he starts the movie very standoffish but eventually opens up to Noah and helps him take Dex down a peg.
- Logo Joke: The film was made by Disney via their Searchlight Pictures division, and opens with the cast doing an acapella rendition of the logo's music.
- Love at First Sight: Howie and Charlie are clearly into each other from the moment they see each other, and only grow closer when they officially meet a few minutes later. Technically subverted at the end since Howie tells Charlie it's way too soon to say he loves him, but they're officially in a relationship by the film's end.
- One-Steve Limit: A Minor example. One of the members of Cooper’s house makes a point of showing off his Charlie brand swimwear. This of course has nothing to do with the character Charlie who Howie is trying to romance.
- The Place: Fire Island almost entirely take place on, wait for it, Fire Island and is titled accordingly.
- Racial Face Blindness: Implied Trope. One of the white gay men in Charlie's circle assumes Howie and Noah (who are both East Asian but look nothing alike) are dating and comments that it's cute when couples look alike.
- Running Gag: One of the guys in Cooper's house constantly asking Noah if he's in the right house, despite meeting him several times over the course of the film already.
- Setting Update: The film is a modern, gay retelling of Regency romance Pride and Prejudice.
- The Bennet family is reimagined as a five-man friend group of gay men and their lesbian friend/mother figure Erin. The need to find husbands for the girls for financial/succession reasons translates to the need to enjoy Fire Island together one last time since Erin is selling the house.
- Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley are now Will and Charlie, rich guys who are staying in a huge house on Fire Island. The desire for Jane to marry Bingley translates to Howie wanting and getting a genuine connection with Charlie, even as Elizabeth analogue Noah just wants Howie to get laid and get it over with.
- The subplot of Lydia's defilement by Wickham becomes Luke getting a sex tape uploaded to the internet without his consent by Dex, which Darcy analogue Will solves with his legal expertise rather than a Shotgun Wedding.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Howie feels that he can no longer handle his feelings for Charlie he decides to take the next ferry off the island.
- Shout-Out: Luke and Keegan act out various scenes from My Cousin Vinny during a heated game of Heads Up (the clue was Marisa Tomei).
- Silly Rabbit, Romance Is for Kids!: Noah takes this a step further, consistently reminding Howie that romance is heteronormative and unrealistic.
- Spiteful Spit: In a flashback, both Howie and Noah (who are both East Asian) are waiters at a brunch spot. A rude customer calls them "Jackie Chan" while asking for a drink refill (it's unclear which one of them he meant) and they respond by spitting into the pitcher and drinking from it, respectively.
- Take That!: Erin announces that she's gone broke and is losing her house on Fire Island. How did she lose her money? She invested in Quibi. It's also a sly Mythology Gag: Fire Island actually started as a Quibi show!
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Noah gives one to Will after the underwear party. Will responds with an even more cutting one.
- Token Lesbian: Erin, the owner of the house the boys are staying in, is also the only major female character. She's a lesbian who loves the main characters like her kids.
- Token White: Luke is the only of the member of the family who's white. Charlie could be counted as the second white person by the end of the film.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: If Noah, Luke, and Keegan aren't shirtless in a scene it's usually because they're about to take their shirts off, or they're wearing shirts so revealing that they may as well not be wearing any.
