Club Kid(2026)

This review may contain spoilers.

I knew Jordan Firstman first from I Love LA, and then from the little scuffle that he got into with the Heated Rivalry creators and cast. From those moments I had some idea about the kind of queer stories he wants to tell, and I was right. He did a great job here with this dark coming of age story that is sincerely funny and heartfelt. 

Nothing forces you to mature more than having a dependent that needs your care. Even caring for a cat has been a very grounding force—whenever I have irresponsible thoughts, I remind myself that Preston still needs me to top up his water fountain. An actual child complicates this a lot more, because it’s not just about your growth anymore, it’s also about the welfare of the kid. Peter showed rapid growth after having Arlou in his life, but it was not enough for Arlou, however much Arlou wants to live with him. Big house Sharon was the better parent for the club kid. 

I do often think about how crazy it is that by my current age, my parents already had me and I was already three years old. Actually, I’m not sure my parents, who grew up in rural China and just found food security at age 25 and 28, were more ready to have a gay kid than Peter was. This story, with the drugs and the parties, made Peter’s ill-preparedness very dramatic, but the same kind of story happens every day everywhere in the world if you think about it. 

Also, I’m sorry but Oscar is a terrible social worker. Setting aside the fact that he immediately starts f**king the child’s father, he also did not identify the Arlo’s citizenship issue! Arlo is very likely a US citizen by birth since he was born to an American citizen father and it’s literally on his birth certificate. All the drama in the third act could have been entirely avoided if Oscar had simply done his job. This is groundbreaking representation for queer immigrants who are bad at their jobs. Honestly slay.