Hulu movie: “Fire Island” with SNL’s Bowen Yang

Fire Island National Seashore (known mostly as Fire Island ) is one of the premiere destinations for New Yorkers eager to escape the heat and torpor of a New York summer. Many different residential communities make up FI but two of them, The Pines and Cherry Grove, are primarily LGBTQ.

When you take the 20-minute ferry ride from the mainland to the Pines (nicknamed “Disneyland for gays”), you feel a delightful sense of relaxation, as well as a feeling of separation from the cares of the real world. Especially if you have a share in a home waiting for you once you arrive.

For the six friends in the Hulu movie “Fire Island,” (henceforth referred to as “our crew”), relaxing is the last thing they want to do. These twenty- and thirty-somethings want to party. Their annual summer ritual is to fly in from all parts of the country and bunk for a week at the home of Erin, a lesbian (Margaret Cho) to swim, drink, do drugs—and hook up.

Howie (SNL’s Bowen Chang) has something else on his agenda, however: find the man of his dreams. His ripped Korean buddy Noah (standup comedian Joel Kim Booster, who is also the film’s writer/director) wants Howie to get laid, and won’t hook up until Howie hooks up first. Noah is not big on relationships, you see.

Lo and behold, as soon as the ferry arrives, our crew catches the eye of cute pediatrician Charlie (James Scully from the Netflix series  “You”) and Will, (Conrad Ricamora), an uptight lawyer visiting from LA. Tails start wagging, and sooner than you can say “Sip n Twirl,” our crew is soon invited to Will’s fancy house which not only has a glorious swimming pool, but is also awash in hot studs, equally ready to party.

What follows are, in no particular order, scenes in the movie that depict the usual range of activities of those visiting FIP: Watching the sun set. Hosting dinner parties where someone gets drunk and says something uncomfortable. Attending underwear parties. Walking through the “Meat Rack” (nicknamed Judy Garland State Park). Taking water taxis to Cherry Grove where sex parties go on in back rooms. Etcetera. There’s also lot of romantic angst going on between the gents, as well as a few drug overdoses to make things interesting.

I should mention at this point that the movie is loosely based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” But don’t feel bad if you didn’t know this: as one character points out, “you don’t come to Fire Island to read a book.”  I should also mention that film also reveals the subtle but palpable class distinctions that exist among Pines gays : the privileged white guys vs. our crew who are mostly POC.

Full disclosure: we went to the Pines for years, off and on (mostly off) as deadly “day trippers.” That is, we’d lug our ice chest and blankets out in the morning from NYC and return by late afternoon. Thus, much of the activity in this film serves as kind of a tutorial on all the things we’ve missed. (Lucky us: we also missed 3-hour round trips on the LIE Sunday night.)

“Fi” in short is an enjoyable summer LGBTQ rom-com whose wit and references to matters familiar to Pines visitors (like the extortionate prices at Pines Pantry) will have you nodding in recognition. And to prove to you I really did visit back in the day, here’s a picture of me taken on FIP. No summer share needed.