Nov 9, 2026 · 2h 11m
Jordan Firstman turns queer coming-of-age into Club Kid
The Terror of ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ and Sean’s Favorite Godzilla Movies. Plus: The Joy of ‘Club Kid,’ With Jordan Firstman!
The episode connects Godzilla’s postwar spectacle and franchise mythology with a filmmaker’s account of making a deeply personal queer debut.
- 1Godzilla Minus Zero pairs spectacular kaiju action with a postwar human drama the hosts find repetitive and overextended.
- 2Club Kid transforms Jordan Firstman’s nightlife world, family history, and creative influences into an unusually specific coming-of-age film.
- 3Firstman explains how casting, 35mm cinematography, music clearances, and visual references shaped the film’s emotional identity.
Don't miss
Jordan Firstman describes using Club Kid to reveal a more sincere self than his online persona suggests, while directing himself as Peter.
The brief
Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins survey a crowded movie week, from DC Studios’ leadership uncertainty to Godzilla Minus Zero, Club Kid, The Cat in the Hat, and Misty Green.
Godzilla Minus Zero arrives as a Japanese-language box-office success with spectacular kaiju action, but the hosts find its postwar family drama more repetitive than Godzilla Minus One.
Club Kid earns warmer consideration as a sincere, highly specific coming-of-age story about queer community, found family, and the difficult transition into adulthood.
Jordan Firstman explains how failed television development, New York nightlife, personal history, and a desire for authenticity became his first feature film.
Firstman details casting Reggie Absalom and established actors, shooting on 35mm, clearing music, and using references from Kramer vs. Kramer to My Own Private Idaho.
The interview’s central tension is how to reveal a sincere self without abandoning humor, reinvention, or the public persona that made Firstman recognizable.
Books & mentions
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