Film Club Kid subverts familiar sad-man-finds-a-kid genre at TIFF

TORONTO · Jordan Firstman's feature film debut Club Kid follows a disaffected party promoter whose life is upended by the arrival of a son he never knew he had. The film, which stars Firstman as Peter and Reggie Absolom as the boy Arlo, is playing at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. It is a deeply affecting melodrama that subverts the familiar tropes of its genre, according to its creator. Firstman told a TIFF press conference that he intentionally made it seem easy for Peter to care for the child before revealing the deeper complexities.

Peter is a shiftless thirty-something living in his dead mother's rent-controlled New York loft, arriving still high to meetings for his party-promoter business. Arlo, a little broccoli-haired waif, arrives on his doorstep a decade after a half-conscious, fully regretful orgy Peter had with a British woman at one of his parties. The wide-eyed, infinitely vulnerable preteen is ferried there after his mother's sudden death, dropped off by a friend of Arlo's mom who claims there are no other relatives. She then promptly disappears despite Peter's loud, confused protestations.

The setup follows a familiar narrative cycle of a sad adult forced to care for a child whose sadness mirrors their own. The film shows the expected comedic chaos of mishandled domestic duties, like serving pizza for dinner followed by a quick trip to the toilet. Peter quickly monologues about how easy parenting is, telling Arlo that caring for him has fixed his lifelong self-hatred and self-esteem issues in under a week. Arlo, preternaturally mature with a taste for Elliott Smith and the Cocteau Twins, calls Peter "dad" easily and seems to harbour no trauma from his mother's recent death.

"I think it was intentional for me, for it to seem like it was easy," Firstman said at the press conference of his decision to work with, then flip, the conventions of these movies.

Firstman said his main filmic inspiration was Auntie Mame. A series of subversions question Peter's actual suitability as a parent while intentionally keeping Arlo's interiority a mystery. These subversions suggest the boy is deeply wounded and unsettled by trauma he has gone through, trauma that shows Peter cannot understand the depth of a child's mind through simple paternal displays of affection. Beyond the riotous comedy, honest performances and uniquely authentic New York party subculture, Club Kid's strongest triumph is its refusal to turn the child into a kid-shaped prop. In the film, he is a real kid named Arlo, and he just might make you cry.

With files from CBC News