Fire Island star James Scully says all-queer cast was “invaluable” to film’s success

Our very own ghetto, just like BET!! Sweet!!!

This feels like the cliche gay movies available but with better actors so maybe it will be fun if they really go there. I'd love to see some other type of gay film of the screen. The Europeans do it much better.

It’s very stereotypical

Because they are. No one knows who they are. Gays are watching because it’s a gay themed movie and they wanna be supportive.

Has nothing to do with the cast.

Looks like Elijah Wood. But tall.

I'm gonna watch it, just so I can keep up with what the Brooklyn comedy gays are cooking up. They really please and wow the simple, well-meaning liberals from middle America. But these guys are sorta "5 years ago" when it comes to trying hard to be inoffensive to the point of tediousness. But they're commercially viable because their brands are very compatible with modern corporate marketing.

Queer actors. Are there any gay actors or bi actors under the age of 30? Queer seems so more woke.

I don't know anyone who would go to see this movie.

The previews made me fucking CRINGE.

If this is how gay people think gay people should be, then I don't want to be gay.

The characters in this movie are gross stereotypes and caricatures.

Blech.

Queer! Queer! Queer! Queer! Queer! Queer! Queer! Queer!

Good luck with all that.

It is not about YOU the actor, it is always about the story and how you make the audience feel. This whole notion of "ONLY this type actor can play this type of role" is pointless. I couldn't care less if an actor is gay playing gay or not. Once you do, it all becomes laughable like Broadway which is no longer about the plays, or the writing, but instead sees itself as a jobs program for non-white actors over everything else.

So does this queer cast include. non binaries and men in dresses?

Or is it just basic bored straight people who crave identity?

It’s not a bad movie, but it’s riddled with 1998 tired stereotypes. It definitely makes Fire Island look like a horrible, vapid hedonistic scene.

James Scully was so gooooood in YOU. So looking forward to watching this.

I love that so many gay, LGBTQ+ people are involved (aka getting paid) in this. I don't mind the stereotypes, because - unfortunately - they are still part of our community: rich gays vs. poor gays, ugly / average gays vs. hot gays, femme vs. "straight acting", self loathing issues, fag hags - I noticed the movie doesn't use it to describe Margaret Cho's character, no fats no femmes no Asians, etc.

The movie makes great use of Austen's Pride & Prejudice theme.

R14 what community??? ENOUGH with "the community"!!! It's a population. You can say the gay community of WeHo, or West Village, but everyone who is a gay man isn't a part of the same community. Everyone who identifies as LGBTQ+ isn't in a single community. Enough with this "activist-speak"

r15. Whoa, Mr. Ron DeSantis. I think you took a wrong turn some way on the interweb.

What do they mean by queer?

Does that include those straight heterosexual couples who take on the persona of furries, trans and whatevahs?

"Gay community" = cultural domination by WeHo and NYC white monied gay men. Right? I like appropriating straight culture better than this ghetto shit.

r18, you create your own community. But let me assure you: With your attitude at r18, I don't want to be part of yours. No, sir.

Good?

You don't like Joan Crawford?

Who the FUCK decided it was okay to refer to gay men as queer”? Fuck that shit. That isn’t cool and it’s just another reason I loathe the “born this way” millennials and trans crowd. They caused that shit. Do not call gay men and women “queer”! Ever!

I agree with r15. I never had a communal feeling with the "gay and lesbian community" when it was called that in the 80s and 90s, and certainly don't with the "LGBTQIAA2SWTF? community" today. But I am a part of the gay male population, and would have no problem being considered part of that.

And, yeah, "q***r" has got to go. I despise that term with the heat of a billion suns.

R22- We're here ,we're QUEER!

Get used to it!

r16 has a lot invested in "the community" being ONLY what she says it is!

The movie was stupid but just as stupid as straight rom coms. So I guess it’s progress that gays are now able to produce the same fake fantasy bullshit that straights do.

Fantasy bullshit like the James Scully doctor character falling for Bowen Yang the second he laid eyes on him. And calling him the smartest, most interesting man he had ever met. And calling him beautiful. Maybe an average looking asian gayling will watch it and think one day a hot doctor will fall in love with him too. God knows the fraulings grow up watching shit like that and dreaming. Why shouldn’t the little gaylings?

[quote] Fantasy bullshit like the James Scully doctor character falling for Bowen Yang the second he laid eyes on him. And calling him the smartest, most interesting man he had ever met. And calling him beautiful

I saw that line in the previews and laughed out loud!

Talk about fucking ridiculous. Whoever wrote that line is living in a total fantasy land.

R16 Since when did delineating the meaning of words become equivalent to being a right-wing-groomer-panic-instigator? People have to be able to communicate in order to be in a community. We have to share values and experiences by living in a vicinity together. I don't have much in common with a trans man who lives in Northalstead, and I don't share the same beliefs as a mature lesbian couple in Burlington. We don't communicate. We don't live in a monolith. We say the black community of Houston, or Minneapolis, etc.. We don't say the "black community" when talking about millions of Americans who have different socioeconomic backgrounds, geographical locations, ethnic backgrounds, education levels, and skin tone differences.

Brown Yang and “rom com” are two things I never want to hear again.

So it means they all cannot act?

Isn't it rich? Isn't it queer?

R27 This “movie” was written by a gaysian snow queen.

r29, fortunately for you, "Brown Yang" is indeed something no one is likely to hear again.

This movie is, sincerely, a horrific piece of shit. I liked the energy and potential of the first 10-15 minutes but past that? I'm too lazy to make a list of horrible quotes and bad acting scenes but I just finished this turd and want to scream for those two hours back. Bowen Yang is not feature film material and the How To Get Away With Murder actor is an even hotter mess.

[quote] People have to be able to communicate in order to be in a community.

Yeah, sure ...

[quote] [R14] what community??? ENOUGH with "the community"!!!

Your idea of communication is shitting on everything like you have a scat fetish. A very conservative Russian bot value.

I was molested.

I thought it was a cute film, all gay, and really mocked the privilegedb white Pines types. Extra points for the casual racism displayed by them towards the Asians.

Joel Kim Booster is hot as hell, too.

The trailer is so annoyingly self serving and stereotyping “male gay life” I refused to acknowledge this shit fest. Bowen Yang on SNL in tiny supporting role doses is tolerable but this whiny bitch in a feature film in his bathing shorts? Bitch please, I’d rather see Pete Davidson fake kissing that kardashian kunt and imagining his 12inch cock.

Uhhh, isn't the cast “invaluable” to ANY film’s success? Otherwise this is all you have left.

R39, I would say no. The cast is not always invaluable compared to other aspects of the film.

The cast of a Spider-Man film isn’t invaluable to the success of the film, the character of Spider-Man is. Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire- it doesn’t matter. I would also say the same is true for a Bond film or a transformers movie. Sometimes of a certain actor (like The Rock) will bring a few people in, but these actors are not invaluable to the film’s success.

It’s not just the popcorn flicks either. Auteur writer/directors matter more to the success and longevity of a film than the actors. They’re the invaluable name. The criterion collection will release every minor Ingmar Bergman film ever made, but will completely other “better” films from the same period/milieu.

I love that this is on Disney+ in Canada.

[quote]Fantasy bullshit like the James Scully doctor character falling for Bowen Yang the second he laid eyes on him. And calling him the smartest, most interesting man he had ever met

It is weird but it also isn't. The film uses Pride and Prejudice as it's spine. It's doing a romcom with that as the center of every character and story.

Bowen Yang/Howie is Jane Bennet

James Scully/Charlie is Charles Bingley

Joel Kim Booster/Noah is Lizzy Bennet

Conrad Ricamora/Will is Mr. Darcy

Every character acts exactly like they did in the books. There's an equivalent for almost everyone.

Charles Bingley behaves as he does in the book here with his sisters so yes he's going to say stuff like that. Caroline Bingley (Nick Adams as Cooper) also makes it clear he likes Mr. Darcy when he confronts Noah/Lizzy/Joel Kim. Even little details like Caroline and Jane being "friends" but not enough so that she'd want to be associated with their family or allow her to date Charlie/Charles/James.

The good thing is: it's hard to mess up a script where you're clearly basing everyone off of successful material. The bad thing is that sometimes it's going to come off as unbelievable. They did, however, hammer it home that this is an asian gay romcom. Not specifically gay, but Asian Gay.

SPOILER ALERT

r42, there's also

Zane Phillips / Dex as Mr. Wickham. A scoundrel taking advantage of one of the younger "Bennet sisters" (Matt Roger's Luke).

Is it just me, or does the word "rom-com" crawl up anyone else's ass sideways too?

I wish everyone would stop saying it.

R44 Especially since this wasn’t funny or romantic.

[quote]Zane Phillips / Dex as Mr. Wickham. A scoundrel taking advantage of one of the younger "Bennet sisters" (Matt Roger's Luke).

Jane Bennet / Bowen Yang / Howie – the eldest Bennet sister. She is considered the most beautiful young lady in the neighborhood and is inclined to see only the good in others (but can be persuaded otherwise on sufficient evidence).

Elizabeth Bennet / Joel Kim Booster / Noah – the second-eldest of the Bennet daughters, she is attractive, witty and intelligent – but with a tendency to form tenacious and prejudiced first impressions.

Mary Bennet / Torian Miller / Max – the middle Bennet sister, and the plainest of her siblings. Mary has a serious disposition and mostly reads and plays music. She frequently moralises to her family.

Catherine "Kitty" Bennet / Tomas Matos / Keegan – the fourth Bennet daughter. Though older than Lydia, she is her shadow and follows her in her pursuit of the officers of the militia. She is often portrayed as envious of Lydia and is described as a "silly" young woman.

Lydia Bennet / Matt Rodgers / Luke - the youngest Bennet sister. She is frivolous and headstrong. Her main activity in life is socializing, especially flirting with the officers of the militia.

And that leaves Margaret Cho as Mrs. Bennett, their mother.

Queer used to mean ODD, peculiar, strange.

I liked it. Sue me.

So, some like queer, some not, and to some it just don't matter.

Girls, I think we've arrived!

I despise the word "queer" and I'm not old. I resent people using that word for me and I especially cringe when straight people use it

I feel like an odd outcast that just doesn't care if a gay-themed project is cast with "all queers". As long as the material is well done, and the intentions of those involved respect the subject matter, I could care less about "only queer actors in queer roles'.

What I'd rather see is the breaking down and eventual elimination of 'keeping actors in the closet for the sake of their career/image'. That can go. I'd like to see actors be able to out and play whatever kind of character/material they want if they're ultimately good enough. That's it.

r51, the problem is that there are some critics within the Gay Community who complain that gay entertainment is made for a straight audience (to make it more commercially successful). This (and Bros) is being marketed as "From Gays / Queers for Gays / Queers". And that is a very important distinction. Pivoting from making movies for completely straight people (allies or people who only want to be entertained by campy gays but are homophobic otherwise) to making movies for the LGBTQ Community as the main demographic and hoping that this sort of marketing pays off and Hollywood produces more and better LGBTQ marketed and themed entertainment.

"I despise the word "queer" and I'm not old."

Who cares?

" I resent people using that word for me and I especially cringe when straight people use it"

Good for you. Get me a drink.

Queer is too ambiguous. People make it into whatever meaning they want. What's the point now? It used to be a shorthand for LGB when it wasn't a slur. Now it includes transgender, nonbinary, genderfluid, polyamorous, kinks, etc. That's my main issue. Nobody can decide what it means anymore.

I would fuck Noah all night

But are the producers and directors allowed to ask actors personal questions? Such as sexual orientation? Isn't it against the law. Even here on Balkans the employer is not allowed to ask you such personal questions.

[quote] Hollywood produces more and better LGBTQ marketed and themed entertainment.

"Hollywood" is a misnomer. Producers have an extremely limited market for gay-themed films, just as they have a limited market for "diversity" and "inclusion" films. Taiwan and Japan both burgeoning gay-themed film markets, but most of their markets are in the West and "straight to video".

R51, but you can't have it both ways.

Lesbian and Gay representation in media has almost always been performed by Straight actors, leaving gay folk out of the running. Once we start owning our own stories and projects, we can control how we are seen, and THEN we can see the stigma erode in Hollywood, whereby folks can come out more safely without losing their careers.

[quote]That's my main issue. Nobody can decide what it means anymore.

So true. As soon as a word means everything, it means nothing.

Not really, r58. I'm an actor and basically making a living doing only that. I rarely get offered gay roles, so am I bad for being gay playing straight?

No, I'm not. Anybody can and should play anybody! It's make-believe!

[quote] So true. As soon as a word means everything, it means nothing.

Well, the good thing about that is that a word that means nothing can't hurt anybody, right?

[quote]Queer is too ambiguous. People make it into whatever meaning they want.

Which is EXACTLY the point.

I am 68 and the love of my life and I started calling ourselves queer in the 80's. Not because we felt any need to "reclaim" the word. And not to spit in heteros' faces. And not even because we really enjoyed fucking each other.

We called ourselves queer in the classic sense of the word. Neither of us ever felt we quite fit into any norms of either the straight or gay lifestyle. We didn't fit into ANY defined "lifestyle".

But man, did we fit each other. In the queerest sense possible. I will miss him until the day I die and rejoin him.

I watched this just because I felt like I should watch/support gay-themed films and project. I give it points for casting representation. However, to say the plot was flimsy is an understatement. I think I ended up liking Margaret Cho's character the most -- she was quite understated here.

I assume the producers were counting on viewers like you, R63 (people willing to hold their nose and dive in).

Didn't care about the flimsy plot r63. Just enjoyed the ride.

But I definitely loved Margaret Cho. As usual, she was wonderful and a definite highlight of an enjoyable film.

"Queer" now includes narcissists who have co-opted an identity because they feel special or edgy. Men who really like to wear pink or paint their nails and they love their gay friends but still exclusively fuck women. Women on the spectrum who like short blue hair and read tarot and don't like sex at all. It's all so convoluted. Fine, you're "queer" in that you don't fully subscribe to heteronormative, patriarchal society. But you've not been through the same things as men and women who grew up very gay and couldn't help that they don't fit in to this structured, bigoted, heteronormative, patriarchal society. Fuck all the way off with believing you have the right to co-opt what we are.

[quote] Fuck all the way off with believing you have the right to co-opt what we are.

What the hell are you going on about at r66?

[quote] Origins and early use. Entering the English language in the 16th century, queer originally meant "strange", "odd", "peculiar", or "eccentric". It might refer to something suspicious or "not quite right", or to a person with mild derangement or who exhibits socially inappropriate behaviour.

Anyone who is considered an outsider by mainstream standards can be queer. How on earth do you think you can decide who can or cannot use queer as a self proclaimed identity?

Because he's still a big MAN, R67.

OP- The guy in your photo looks like a blander version of Jonathan Groff

R66 don’t forget that pretty white girls are also queer now too. That actress Renee Rapp calls herself queer - she’s some 20 year old sorority looking blonde with a boyfriend.

R67, way to miss the point. Jesus Christ.

I'm not R66, but they said it better than I could. If you aren't aware of what happened recently, that actual groups of people who have struggled for civil rights regarding SEXUALITY for decades are now lumped in with Breonna with purple hair who kissed a girl in college, but dates guys exclusively, because she feels 'different'. It's not the same fucking thing, and if you're picking up fucking dictionary clues to argue your case you really are part of the problem.

Gay and Lesbian folks called themselves Queer in order to rebrand ourselves with pejoratives from the gay bashers. Now Breonna gets to claim a vague victim status because she is just 'somewhat open minded.'

Why don't you stop mansplaining Breonna to us? Breonna is a PERSON.

This movie was just ok but certainly not groundbreaking. There is no way in hell that the hot Doctor would've fallen for that nerdy asian guy in real life. He had zero personality and no sex appeal. I think they should've cast another Asian actor besides Bowen Chang. He's so not funny or appealing to me at all. I hate him on SNL.

I liked Bowen Yang in this movie. It was a real emotional, thoughtful performance. He really was the heart of the movie. And, shall we say , not “conventionally attractive” women get hot guys all the time in straight rom coms, so we can’t we have the same?

Honestly it was no worse than a straight rom com and FAR superior to the gay (and blindingly white) direct to DVD crap we got in the early aughts.

[R74] If Bowen Chang was “the heart” of the movie then the movie has no soul. He was boring af and not even endearing or sympathetic. I think Conrad Ricamora (who is a better actor and actually kinda hot) would’ve been a better choice. The other Asian lead was just annoying. One of those gay asians who think they’re good looking because they have abs. Not!!

[R65]. Agree. Margaret Cho was my favorite part of the movie. Love her even though she always plays the fag hag.

Oh please.

This movie is going to prove you don’t need to be gay to make a gay movie. This isn’t going to possibly have the same impact “Brokeback Mountain”, “Call Me By Your Name” or “Moonlight” had with straight actors.

I don’t see how real gays could make a difference in such a stereotypical film.

Is saying gay politically incorrect now? Are we all queer now? Is gay not inclusive enough today?

Is gay inclusive? Not around here, generally.

r75, are you also r73? If so, you read r74's response, which used the correct name, but then went ahead and used the wrong one in your response to it? Or can you really not tell the difference between Bowen Chang (WHO?) and Bowen Yang?

[R80]. Yep same guy. Well- EXCUSE me for not getting this boring actors name correct. How would I know that the other poster wrote his correct name out??? Bowen Yang is hardly a household name. WTF?!!!!!

[quote]I don’t see how real gays could make a difference in such a stereotypical film.

"Fire Island" is the "Cotton Comes to Harlem" of Gaysiansploitation films!

[quote] Gay and Lesbian folks called themselves Queer in order to rebrand ourselves with pejoratives from the gay bashers. Now Breonna gets to claim a vague victim status because she is just 'somewhat open minded.'

Way to miss the point of the meaning of queer. It has never been an exclusive term for Gays or Lesbians. It was about owning the outsider status that came with the original meaning of the word (see r67). The message was it is ok to be an outsider when society doesn't accept you for who you are.

The insult never meant specifically "you're a homo or a carpet munching lesbo!" it was "you will always be a weird outsider who will never be part of normal society!".

Queer to this day, within the LGBTQ+ Community, is used to embrace the so-called outsider status. That is why straight guys and gals with dyed hair and weird hobbies can claim to be queer.

Just checked disney plus and theres no fire island

R83 I hope you're joking because that was the most inane response

"Queer" does not mean goth or alternative or emo or whatever the fuck you're trying to put forth, r83. It does not mean an enthusiastic gay ally who thinks they're a "they" and obsesses over the appropriation of sage smudge sticks. Queer, if anything, is an outdated term for fucking homosexuals, whether you wish to believe it or not.

Cute Young Doctor finds Bowen Yang husband material?....Ain't nobody buying that.

R87 Cute young white guy with an asian grandma with glasses fetish?

R83

No….. Unless you actually grow up feeling different from the other boys, go through puberty and have that smack in the head realization this is who you’re going to be the rest of your life, the fear, the rejection, the shame, taking a road most would never choose, and (hopefully) finally feel the freedom of accepting yourself and live to wear the scars of actually being a queer…… it’s not just about being an “outsider.”

Whatever language police

Great comeback R90.

R83 I'll join the cavalcade against you with this.

As a 51 year old gay man, I grew up in Suburbia being called a "Fuckin Queaaah" and "Fuckin Faggot" out many car windows on a regular basis, as did the one other gay person in my class in high school. The pejorative was specifically aimed at the idea that I suck dick and am a pansy (both true). My goth friends did not get called that. They got called Freaks. That's a pejorative that has nicely been co-opted by all who are different, and that's a great turnaround. But I disagree with the notion that Q is to be co-opted by Breonna with the green hair, and the like.

If you think Queer has always meant 'someone different' you are clearly under 30 years old and can't be speaking for what has always been.

This is the main problem here - young folks are trying to co-opt the LG struggles of the past and own them in the name of an inclusive set of 'misfits' or 'freaks'. Just like the ongoing motive to name a black transvestite from the 60s as a Trans Warrior who threw the first brick at Stonewall when she wasn't even there when it started. Marsha would not agree with that. Just like she wouldn't agree with someone non-black claiming that the "N" Word is now owned by all non-Whites in solidarity. It's just b.s.

Yes, yes, we were all there for ACT UP. We're queer, ....

Now queer means chubby straight women with blue hair and giant red glasses...and straight men who like to paint their fingernails and wear skirts a la Harry Styles.

Queer today does not mean gay. It is a term for straights who want to be edgy and cool. Most these chubby queer women would never lick a woman's pussy.

Can you blame them r92?

Haha R93. But if you a cosplaying a queerish lesbian woman, be prepared for the horrors that follow!

The movie is boring. Sorry.

R86 Agreed and I think at one point, gays were considered apart of those groups. Being gay was an “alternative lifestyle”.

I remember being a kid watching the cops in Manson’s “The Dope Show”.

Gays were outsiders and most people identify a queer as a gay man.

Is that his real hair? He honestly looks like he's wearing a wig!