{"id":33654,"date":"2022-06-02T15:21:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T15:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/fire-island-remixes-a-classic-jane-austen-tale-while-blazing-its-own-path\/"},"modified":"2022-06-02T15:21:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T15:21:10","slug":"fire-island-remixes-a-classic-jane-austen-tale-while-blazing-its-own-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/fire-island-remixes-a-classic-jane-austen-tale-while-blazing-its-own-path\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Fire Island’ Remixes A Classic Jane Austen Tale – While Blazing Its Own Path"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The long journey of getting \u201cFire Island\u201d to the screen began with some vacation reading. In the summer of 2015, comedians and friends <\/span>Joel Kim Booster<\/span> and <\/span>Bowen Yang<\/span> went to Fire Island, the gay mecca off the coast of Long Island, New York. Booster brought a copy of Jane Austen’s \u201cPride and Prejudice\u201d to read during the trip. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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“As I was reading it on the island, it really struck me that Austen’s observations about class and the ways in which people interact with each other across class lines felt really prescient and really current to me, especially in the setting that we were in, \u201dBooster said in an interview.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Austen’s characters are often subtle and petty in their cruelty, \u201cin ways that leaves them plausible deniability about how cruel they’re actually being,\u201d he said. “I think it’s very current. I mean, it’s shade, you know? “<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Once Booster saw the parallels between the rigid social dynamics and unspoken rules that Austen critiques in her novels and the ones that play out every summer on Fire Island, he couldn’t unsee them. That became the basis for \u201cFire Island,\u201d which Booster wrote and stars in as Noah, a character inspired by Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Noah is also the movie’s narrator, guiding the audience through the island’s social scene, which is rife with classism and racism. As he explains at a party early in the movie: \u201cA lot of people think you have to be successful, white and rich, with 7% body fat, to vacation on Fire Island. Those people are all at this party. “<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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“Fire Island,” premiering on Hulu on Friday, continues the great tradition of movies that cleverly remix Austen tropes into modern retellings, like “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and “Clueless.” The latter was a north star for Booster when writing “Fire Island.” <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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At the same time, the movie is charting a new path. Released just in time for Pride Month, “Fire Island” is a rom-com with four queer Asian American stars: Booster and Yang as best friends Noah and Howie, Conrad Ricamora as Noah’s Mr. Darcy-like love interest Will, and Margaret Cho as Erin, who serves as a matriarch to Noah, Howie and their friends. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Erin has fallen on hard times and is about to lose her modest house, where Noah and Howie’s friend group stays every summer. By contrast, Will and his mostly white, finance bro friends have much fancier digs.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n