First time writer/director Jordan Firstman delivers an emotional story that touches the heart in one of this year’s best freshman filmmaker outings

CLUB KID (2026)
★★★★ & 1/2 of ★★★★★ stars

I didn’t know what to expect going into CLUB KID, a first time effort from writer and director Jordan Firstman hitting theaters this weekend from A24. Firstman stars as Peter, a club night promoter in New York City. When we first meet him, he and his partner Sophie (played by Cara Delavigne) are starting up a popular club night in Manhattan. Peterloves to party in every sense of the word. He runs the club night and is the life of the party as he takes cocaine and ketamine and has sex in between sets in the club’s basement with partygoers. He meets Leonara (Paris Petitjean) a British partier on vacation who has a thing for him even though he’s gay and tells her so. But as he parties high on drugs, she gets in on the action and Peter has sex with her while drugged out of his mind. A decade later, Peter and Sophie’s club night is still going strong, but his drug use is making things difficult for her to expand as she fires him. On top of his struggling finances, he has a mooch for a roomate (Eldar Isgandarov) and in this scenario, a British clubber named Edison (played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste) shows up at his door. She drops the bomb that not only does Peter have a son named Arlo (Reggie Absolom), but his mom is Leonora and she has since killed herself, leaving Peter as his only caretaker outside of Leonora’s abusive ex. Peter is shaken by this, feeling that he is not up to the task of being a father, especially when he has no income and his life is in a transition point.But he sees something in Arlo that lights a spark in him. Arlo has really good taste in music, his mom has exposed him to many figures in the house and EDM scene back in London and Arolo has empathy and an effortless sense of self about him. Peter sees something in Arlo that makes him think he can help Arlo grow into the best version of himself. This in turn helps Peter gain a sense of focus in his life, as he starts to build a chosen family around Arlo and build his own club night events with his connections.

Everything seems to be going Peter and Arlo’s way until Sophie in a cocke-fueled episode reports Arlo to CPS. Peter learns that getting the life he wants with Arlo is goingto be more difficult than he thought, even as Peter bonds with Arlo’s social worker Oscar (Diego Calva)and starts to come into his own with his addiction issues and coming to terms with who he is as a person and his own insecurities. Will Peter step up and do what it takes to secure Arlo’s future? That’s what Club Kid explores aswell as the conceptof alternative families and faith in your own individuality.

Firstman’s film is very self-assured and confident. In many ways, it reminds me of Sean Baker’s Anora – a story of an ordinary person with an alternative life and job being put into an extraordinary situation and finding themselves in the aftermath. Firstman credits Baker under Special Thanks in the film’s credits so that connection resonates. The film does a great job of making the world of clubkids and underground parties seem accessible. The fact that the film explores queer and trans relationships and makes them feel like just a natural part of the story is a credit to how naturalistic and lived in the world Firstman and his collaboraters have built here is executed. Firstman is inherently likeable and his humor infuses the movie with tonsof laughs and personality. It is Reggie Absalom who steals the show as Arlo, who feels real and a child of his influences and circumstances. He holds his own throughout and I love that he is givenso much development in the film since us caring about him is inherent to the conceit of the film. The film also has some great andinnovative shots including a really intense and creative 360 shot inside of an Uber during the beginning of the film that really sucks you into this film’s universe.

I can’t say enough good about Club Kid. This is one of the year’s best films and a film you definitely need on your awards radar this year, ontop of being a heartwarming film and this year’s ANORA.

Check out more reviews from Victor Moreno at http://cultclassicsaz.com and http://youtube.com/@cultclassics