Review: A party animal becomes a dad and a real filmmaker is born in 'Club Kid'

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Set us as preferred Hollywood has been cranking out films about unprepared men thrust into fatherhood since the silent movie days when Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp found a littler tramp on his doorstep and raised the ragamuffin as his own in 1921’s “The Kid.” Since then, we’ve seen unwitting uncles (John Candy’s Buck), a triad of dads (“Three Men and a Baby”) and self-absorbed workaholics rethinking their priorities (Dustin Hoffman in “Kramer vs.Kramer”).

But we’ve never seen an instant parent quite like Jordan Firstman‘s party promoter Peter in “Club Kid,” the Cannes Film Festival sensation that Firstman impressively directed and wrote for himself.We meet Peter in a whirlwind, strobe-heavy blur of an opening sequence that takes us through a disorienting parade of coke-and-ketamine-fueled nights in New York’s underground queer club scene.Everyone wants a piece of Peter.

His energy (and the drugs he sells) guarantee a good time.It’s a thrilling introduction, shot on 35mm on location in New York City, and the throbbing bass is still bumping around my skull.

Movies A real screenwriter and director emerges with his feature debut, a Cannes knockout coming from A24.But getting there required a pivot to the heart.When Peter stumbles back to his rent-controlled apartment, his downstairs neighbor Evelyn (Colleen Camp) gives him the once-over while telling him that she just finished Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” and that “it’s as good as they say.” Peter doesn’t hear her.

(Probably the bass is ringing in his ears too.) “You ever just lose 10 years?” he asks Evelyn.It turns out he has done just that.

The night we’ve witnessed actually took place a decade ago.And one of its episodes included a hetero hookup, part of what began as a threesome with a hot dude and British tourist, ...