“We’re the worst.” Love for Asian Americans ripples inside his work. We’re sitting in Tokki, a “modern Korean” restaurant in Los Angeles where the menu is divided into “small” and “less small.” When he arrives, he tells me about how he went to a Korean hairdresser who told him, “Oh, I thought you were much cuter before you took your mask off.” “I hate us,” he laughs. Even though Fire Island is his first major-studio movie, with a budget at $10 million, there are stretches that are purely Ahn - like a dance scene at the Underwear Party, where our anti-monogamous lovers Noah (Joel Kim Booster) and Will (Conrad Ricamora) get pushed together by the crowd a hand moves onto a shoulder, abs press onto abs, and time slows.
His films, from his short Dol (First Birthday) to indie features Spa Night and Driveways, allow small intimacies to build with glances and gestures. Photo: Jeong Park/Courtesy of Searchlight PicturesĪndrew Ahn has a talent for allowing a feeling to linger onscreen like an afterglow on the water.
Andrew Ahn and Joel Kim Booster on the set of the film FIRE ISLAND.
