Hello, cinephiles, casual film enjoyers, and everyone in between.
I’m walking through Brooklyn Bridge Park and thinking about how beautiful it looks and feels to be by the water, which reminds me… this is a newsletter about films (and sometimes TV shows), so I should probably get to the point.
You don’t want this to be like reading a recipe. Where they talk about their vacation to Italy to meet their great grandparents and how they fell in love with fresh pasta— just to end up showing you how to make spaghetti with store-bought sauce.
Hopefully, this newsletter is as good as the metaphorical vacation to Italy and not as bad as the store-bought spaghetti.
So,
On Hulu,
Fire Island is my favorite movie I’ve recently watched, which also happens to take place by the water. On an island… yeah, you get it. It’s a Queer retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. And I know that sounds like I made it up, but it’s real, and everyone in it is very beautiful.
It’s hilarious; it’s charming, it’s bright, vibrant, and oh so very tender.
It centers around so many of the same thematic elements that Pride and Prejudice hinges on while simultaneously adding so much new life. If you have never read or seen Pride and Prejudice, that is shocking and a felony that is punishable by life in prison (allegedly). You must immerse yourself immediately in the love and torment of the book and the film, but in case old period pieces aren’t your thing,
Fire Island is your 2022 rendition.
Pride and Prejudice is essentially about the daunting pressure for a woman in the 1800s to marry well and start a family. The main character, Elizabeth, is introduced to Mr. Darcy, a grumpy handsome man, whose (you guessed it) Pride in himself and his reputation and his Prejudice toward the lower class gets in the way of his ability to love.
Picture that but in 2022, with an all-star cast of gay men— on an island in New York. Again, I promise I’m not making this up…
One thing about me, I love a feel-good movie, and they don’t make them like they used to. Nor do they make romantic comedies like they used to. At this point, making romantic comedies is a radical act. Something so controversial yet so brave.
The influx of Queer media (especially rom coms) that just make you feel good is something I feel so excited about and connected to. Fire Island is joining the list of my favorite gay movies besides Crush and Booksmart, and I guess we could throw Love Simon in the mix out of sheer desperation.
In every newsletter, you guys know that I have to somehow figure out how to bring up Booksmart as if it’s the finest piece of cinema ever released next to classics like Taxi Driver and Shrek 2.
Jane Austen would be thrilled to know that her work has constantly transformed into the greatest love stories alive.
Until next time.
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