Club Kid

The greatest discoveries at Cannes are never the obvious ones. They’re the films that materialise out of nowhere and suddenly become impossible to avoid: the titles whispered about in queues, passionately dissected over midnight drinks, or overheard between strangers while drying your hands in the Palais bathrooms. Every edition has one. This year, that film is Club Kid.

With his feature debut, Jordan Firstman writes, directs, and stars in this charming crowd-pleaser, effortlessly funny, emotionally sincere comedy that sneaks up on you with surprising tenderness.

Firstman plays Peter, a professional clubber and chaotic party promoter drifting through an increasingly unstable existence fuelled by nightlife, drugs, and an almost pathological refusal to grow up. Now pushing forty, Peter’s Peter Pan routine is beginning to collapse under the weight of adulthood he has spent years aggressively avoiding. Then, without warning, reality literally arrives at his doorstep in the form of Arlo, a sharp ten-year-old boy from London who turns out to be the son Peter never knew he had, the product of a long-forgotten one night stand- and, allegedly, the only time Peter has touched a woman.

At first, Peter desperately tries to offload the “British package”, but as the two are forced into reluctant coexistence, Club Kid gradually transforms into a beautifully offbeat buddy comedy, their chemistry becoming the beating heart of the film.

Yes, the premise is familiar, the emotionally stunted man unexpectedly forced into parenthood is hardly new territory, but Firstman injects it with such a specific modern sensibility and unapologetically queer perspective that it feels completely revitalised. The film never treats queerness as decoration or statement (hallelujah); it’s simply embedded into the texture of its world, of Peter’s world of stroboscopic lights, drag queens and coke, allowing the comedy and emotional stakes to emerge organically.

Eventually Club Kid works so well because it doesn’t strain for profundity or chasing stylistic grandeur. There are no showy formal tricks, no desperate attempts to manufacture importance. Instead, it understands the rare value of simply being deeply enjoyable, and genuine affection for its characters, creating an atmosphere so inviting that you sink into it almost instantly.

It’s easy to see why A24 moved quickly to acquire it. Club Kid has all the ingredients to become one of the breakout titles of the year.