Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Fire Island (2022)
Friday, June 10, 2022 at 2:30PM by Nathaniel R
It did occur to us that a visual series stopping to center on a new rom-com would be a risk. The romantic comedy genre doesn't tend to scream "visually interesting!" (though obviously it can be). But we knew most of our readership would be watching so... why not? As it turns out, though, with a true filmmaker at the helm (Andrew Ahn of Spa Night and Driveways) it wasn't a risk at all as a Best Shot discussion. Fire Island isn't just funny -- the "Heads Up" game scene snapped above is only one of many hilarious bits in the excellent screenplay from Joel Kim Booster -- but a real movie-movie, too. In short, it's one of the year's best films and we are blessed to have it.
While you'd probably prefer a "ten funniest moments" or "five sexiest guys" list -- hey, we can do those too if this gets engagement -- the visuals are more than worth discussing! Conversations about visual storytelling are ironically in short supply on the internet whenever movies are discussed. The focus is always on acting/casting and screenplay/messaging. And there's a LOT to say about those of course but the internet is already handling that so we're here to talk visuals. Here are the three overall smartest choices director Andrew Ahn, cinematographer Felipe Vara de Rey, and editor Brian A Kates make in telling this particular story...
If you've ever been to Fire Island you will recognize this walk
BRONZE MEDAL CHOICE - Best Shot
ENVIRONMENT AS CHARACTER
We've shared our frustration before that most contemporary movies -- perhaps conscious of their futures being watched on phones / laptops are told in about 90% closeups as if establishing and wide shots and any shots with more than one character in them are a necessary evil only to deployed only when they absolutely have to be. Ahn and his team understand that that isn't the case at all. Right away, they give us the full arsenal: wide shots, three shots, two shots, medium shots, closeups, everything. The wide shot -- we'll be coming back to this -- is especially handy if you want to immerse the audience in a place. Fire Island has a sensational cast but Ahn understands that the island is one of them, top billed even! Really selling the titular character makes the repeated crucial line about time operating differently there really sing; we're right there with this family of friends in their special place, savoring each moment whether everything slows down or flies by too quickly.
One of those slow down moments, beautifully judged, is the conversation on the roof while Howie (Bowen Yang) smokes weed and Noah (Joel Kim Booster) sets the agenda for the week. It's a gorgeously immersive scene, already endearing us to the characters and helping us to feel those faraway vacation vibes while casually laying the groundwork for the plot.
Hilarious, sweet, raunchy, great to look at, and just a really smart adaptation of Pride & Prejudice
-Ryan's choice for Best Shot. Read his thread on Twitter
An image that evokes twilight gold and brings it into the erotic embrace of nighttime hedonism.
-Cláudio's Choice. Read the Article at The Film Experience
The shot itself is interesting because of the lack of clarity...
-Ben's choice for Best Shot. Read the article at Ice Cream for Freaks
SAVING THE DRAMATIC LIGHTING FOR THE WILL & NOAH ROMANCE
Maybe it's watching Fire Island three times in close proximity to a sloppily made blockbuster in which every shot choice feels somehow both random and stiff, but all praise to Andrew Ahn for his direction that pulls off the magic act of feeling spontaneous and light-touch though it's obviously carefully planned to deliver each element in impactful ways. Note how the shots that feel most exquisitely lit in movie-movie ways are almost all about the Will & Noah romance. It's not as central to the plot as the Howie & Charlie story, but it is the "lead" romance if you will.
Look at how much character detail you're getting in this one shot, just from the physicality of the actors!
THE WIDE SHOT TO ACCENTUATE THE ENSEMBLE FAMILY & COMEDIC ACTING
We've reached peak Fire Island. The most perfect choice Ahn and team make is how often they're willing to show us the whole cast rather than picking and choosing which closeups to feature as lesser filmmakers are always doing. This illuminates the nature of queer families in endearing ways. It also considerably ups the rewatchability factor. Next time through focus on just one actor -- any actor -- and marvel at how much you missed the previous time. There's none of the disconnected feel so many films have now where you can tell the actors weren't even in the same room to fill their shot/reaction shots.
Ahn and team often let scenes just play out in wide without cuts giving us multiple character/plot/laugh beats from the same shot. Like this one of the cast walking to see the sunset...
Silver Medal: Best Shot
You can trust me. I'm a doctor.
The first beat is the Charlie/Howie flirtation, the punchline is Mother Eric (fab Margaret Cho) letting out a squeal when she realizes Howie's crush is a doctor, and the flourish/exclamation point is Luke and Keegan (Matt Rogers & Tomás Matos) making a split second femme-pride proscenium with their arms up, walking the group out of the frame. That ushers in the cut (to a picturesque view of the island with Pride flags). Chef's kiss. No notes.
This next one has a couple minor edits but it's a perfect encapsulation of how the movie is firing on all cylinders with each actor constantly "on" rather than waiting for their closeup. The director is confident enough to pan away while jokes are in progress (there's no awkward waiting for laughs) to the next joke already in progress to the next. And the camera stays far enough away to absorb the physical comedy (which is abundant).
My personal choice for best shot is, then, is naturally a long shot that incorporates physical comedy and is a great example of the movie's constant effortless multi-tasking.
We get a perfect sideways laugh just when we're in our feelings about the friendship drama. Howie gets his heart broken -- which we watch with puppy eyes from behind the window while Erin and Noah have a serious discussion about friendship. Erin is arguing that Howie needs space, that Howie will be just fine.
Nathaniel's Choice for Best Shot
Howie's body, in the moment, doesn't agree.
Erin abandons her sensible hands-off approach for a hysteric punchline on top of Howie's physical punchline "OHMYGODMYBABYISDROWNING" returning the movie to its delicious flamboyant register. In this exact moment it hits the heart and the funnybone simultaneously while extolling the virtues of queer families. In this moment I couldn't have loved the movie more.
What was that moment, and/or that shot, for you?
Reader Comments (11)
The superb commentary on the film here leaves me wishing for a full review by you. And yet, the insights are so on point I feel I read one. Either way, this is a masterful piece of film analysis. Well done.
See when I was trying to pick for best shots, I actually had a bunch where the whole group was on screen and so while I didn't clock it at the time, the whole wide shot thing (and ensemble as family) really is refreshing (and actually vital) in this movie. Anyways, great shot pick.
Just in case people don't go to my twitter thread for MY Best Shot, I chose that dancing scene as well because of how it reminded me of those ballroom scenes in Austen adaptations where the two leads, feelings undefined, dance and the whole world seems to fall away around them. GREAT adaptation choice to do it here, in that moment and in this particular way.
The one thing I might have changed is probably made Cho an omniscient narrator instead of Booster/Noah. Don't know why, but I think about it.
As gay representation in media and gay actors playing gay characters, this film being made and promoted is win. Especially under the umbrella of Disney.
But I do think it takes a major step backwards.
Everything about the plot revolves around a gay man needing to have a rockhard body in order to get laid or to have a relationship.
The only significant character in the film with a different body type is shown as boring, undesirable, and mostly unable to enjoy a good time.
When are films for gay men made by gay men starring gay men going to evolve to include all body types rather than just making softcore porn?
@MJC "When are films for gay men made by gay men starring gay men going to evolve to include all body types rather than just making softcore porn?"
It's called a HOLLYWOOD MOVIE. Name a straight romcom that isn't filled with far more-attractive-than-the-average-American. Most people aren't as attractive as Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Burt Reynold, Meg Ryan, Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, or Emma Stone and they're your rom-com stars. Do you remember what Ryan Gosling looked like in CRAZY, STUPID LOVE? I mean I agree to some point, but if you let that hinder your enjoyment of a film that's clearly a fantasy, like virtually all romantic comedies, that's your loss. Had this been cast like a Ken Loach film, it would have the audience of a Ken Loach film, minus all the straight Ken Loach fans.
Amen to Dan H.!
I'm freakin' tired of gay people hating on gay films always as a "major step backwards." Every single time we have a major film or TV series that pushes the envelope in the culture is a "major step backwards.e
I hated, hated, hated this film. Mediocre. It felt like Pride and Prejudice meets the most showy and cringe-worthy aspects of the LGTB community to appeal to mainstream audiences... I am tempted on writting a piece on why this film gets so wrong, how to portray naturalistically comedy and drama in a LGTB key, by contrasting it with the much superior - if somewhat flawed - "Bear Cub" (Cachorro) by Miguel Albadalejo (2004), which presents both drama, comedy, romance in a way different and way more naturalistic way, less flashy and less feeling like watching the over the top planned extravaganza of the Queer Eye franchise.
For example, the use of drugs in "Bear Cub" is completely integrated as natural in (part) of the bear scene (I am a bear and don't do drugs, as so many), sex is shown in a more neutral way (there's a close up of a cock while the condom is rolled, prior to have sex, as it was made in a pre-Prep time, when save sex was taken more seriously than now, the director said that the shot - by the way as part of a threesome - was crucial to the film), and the characters are three-dimensionals, evolve, and have way bigger heart than this by-the-number romcom, that has so predictable outcome...
Maybe is it that American audiences simply like only the safest, more mainstream version of queer life? I can't help to remind myself how such a masterpiece as William Friedkin's Cruising was trashed...
For the same thing, but done WAY BETTER and in the USA, recheck the 3 Bearcity films. They are waaaay more interesting, as their characters are. They put "Fire Island" and its "1st World Problems" to shame.
Coincidentally, I saw this just last night. I thought it was a terrific adaptation of Jane Austen, and it was a lot of fun comparing it to the book and other movie adaptations. I thought the updating was really deft.
I also read these comments with some interest. Even back in the era in which this was originally written, none of the people involved are truly poor or downtrodden. It's more just levels of privilege. The A people/situations vs. the B people/situations. I think this current movie reflects that really well.
Haven't seen it but I love Matt Rogers in I Love That for You. He's Emmy-Good.
Wonderful posts! Late to the FIRE ISLAND party - not really, because I saw it the weekend it came out, but I've been traveling since then and not able to engage with y'all about this film. However, I'm thrilled you picked it for HMWYBS because even though it's not an obvious choice for focusing on the visuals, you all highlight just how beautifully and cannily it's filmed.
Anyway, as you can probably tell, I absolutely ADORED the movie. It's such a brilliant adaptation of the book and at the same time very much its own thing - loud and proud and tons of fun, yet quiet and tender at all the right moments. And perfectly cast across the board - especially Conrad Rikamora as Will/Mr. Darcy - though I do think Yang was MVP. And not just because I already loved him.
I've read/seen some critiques - some of which seem to be inherent in some of the comments here - that the movie kind of tries to have its cake & eat it too in terms of skewering the social hierarchy of Fire Island while at the same time making it look gorgeous and desirable and teeming with hotties. But you know who was the master of having & eating that kind of cake? Jane Austen, that's who.
Ryan T - re: making Cho the narrator, that point also comes up in the NPR "Pop Culture Happy Hour" ep on the movie - one of the commentators noted that one of the great features of Austen is the omniscient, slightly ironic narrator, and there's some tension in trying to meld that voice with the Lizzy character's. She thought it didn't quite work, that we really needed another, more detached narrator. Someone else suggested Cho, which everyone (including me) agreed was the Best. Idea. Ever.
Also, good call on Yang's character being a Jane-Charlotte hybrid. You're absolutely right; I didn't pick up on that until pretty late in the movie (when Howie gets picked up by the Asian-fetish guy), but it's kind of there all along. A smart compression.
Austen nerd out.
Nice and amazing post this one is, thanks for sharing…
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