Club Kid review – Jordan Firstman’s heartfelt comedy is irresistible

New York film festival: the actor impresses with a directorial debut about a club rat who discovers he is father to a 10-year-old boy

In a grungy backroom of a Brooklyn warehouse, a group of glamorously dishevelled clubbers raise their voices in a secular chat. “What do we want? Drugs! When do we want them? Now!” So begins Club Kid, an irresistible helter-skelter ride through the New York club scene from the comedian, actor and first-time director Jordan Firstman. A portrait of the importance of blood family and chosen family, it’s also one of the most bewitching debuts in recent years.

Peter (Firstman) is the life of the party and has been running his raucous Club Labor for over a decade. He always gets the drugs in, rolls up with the best-dressed crew and knows everyone. But the comedowns – bed-rot days of anime porn, takeout and self-loathing – aren’t getting any easier, and he is screwing up opportunities for the party to get to the next level. “You’re a fucking child,” spits his business partner Sophie (Cara Delevingne in her best performance yet) after he shows up to a lunch meeting with potential investors straight from the rave.