Disney tapped its Searchlight Pictures subsidiary to produce this extremely raunchy rom-com set on a resort island that its characters call a “gay Disneyland.” It appropriates a Pride and Prejudice-like storyline while labeling itself as an “examination of queer romance.”
The film seems intended to bring realistic depictions of gay culture and lifestyle to mainstream audiences. Along the way, Fire Island does pack in plenty of typical romcom formulaic beats. But, frankly, this pic’s bawdy gay jokes, foul profanities and extremely graphic sexuality is—as one TV show used to put it—not ready for primetime.
In fact, this depiction of the gay hook-up culture is so raw in spots that we deemed it inappropriate to describe and review in the way we normally would. However, because it’s streaming on Hulu, we also wanted to offer a strong warning to anyone who might inadvertently start watching it under the misconception that it’s a traditional romcom. It isn’t.
So we’ll just leave it at this: Fire Island is as hard-core and pornographic as an R-rating can stand.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
