Making Creator Headlines · Page 7
Jordan Firstman Gives a Party Promoter the One Guest Who Cannot Be Sent Home
· New York time
Jordan Firstman’s new film follows a gay party promoter whose life changes when he discovers he has a young son. Firstman, who knows the Club Kid world firsthand, told NPR that the relationship works in both directions: Arlo teaches Peter to grow up, while Peter teaches Arlo to be a kid. The premise brings nightlife and parenthood into the same story without requiring either to be treated as a simple moral lesson. A person accustomed to organizing a party must also negotiate a relationship that lasts well beyond the end of the night. The child, in turn, meets an adult whose idea of growing up may not look like a conventional schedule. Firstman’s account of partying too much gives the film an autobiographical point of contact, even though the reported premise is a fictional story about Peter and Arlo. Personal experience can supply a setting and a sensibility without making every detail of a character’s life a statement about the filmmaker. The comedy is in the collision of calendars. A party promoter knows how to manage a guest list; a parent discovers that one important guest is there for breakfast too. The film’s central bargain lets both of them learn something before anyone agrees on bedtime.
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