CLUB KID is the debut feature from writer-director-actor Jordan Firstman (I Love LA). A gay club promoter, drug-dealer, addict the inevitable move-cliche "heart of gold" discovers he has a ten-year old kid and has to take over parenting when the kid's mum dies. I really wanted to love this film. It has an authenticity rooted in the contemporary queer clubbing scene and Firstman writes and performs superb comedy. Everyone is adorable. But that's the problem. Everyone is too adorable, the spikiness and darkness is tamped down, and the plot is as predictable and tropey as any of those films from GREEN CARD to KRAMER VS KRAMER.
First off, the dad, Peter, seems to be able to magically give up drugs despite having been a seriously heavy user for over a decade and still hanging out with users. We see one relapse. But no therapy, no NA, no AA, and he's just fine. We don't even really see withdrawal. Then there's the kid, Arlo, who seems remarkably kind, sweet, open and undamaged despite the fact he grew up with a violent and abusive father, a drug-addict mother, and is still grieving. We don't see any of that in how he interacts with all the new people he meets or being around drug use. Then there's the fact that Peter starts dating Arlo's psychiatrist (Diego Calva). We see enough of the psychiatrist to think he takes his job seriously and would not breach this boundary.
So this is a really funny, really heart-warming film that's beautifully shot and acted, but that is fatally flawed. I just didn't believe any of it. And it just felt super-cliched and sanitised and obvious in ways that I found problematic.
CLUB KID is rated R and has a running time of 2hrs 2m. It played Cannes, Telluride and Toronto. It opens in the USA on November 6th.
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