While I’m not the target audience for a gay rom-com, I’m still human and this Hulu original was charming and occasionally funny. I’m sure I missed out on some nuance and in-jokes and the politics of various gay male subgroups may have been foreign to me. But that’s ok – a movie is a movie and human behavior, relationships, and comedy are universal (or universal enough).

The flick follows a long-time friend group of gay dudes as they head out on vacation on New York’s Fire Island. The various characters meet others, fall in lust and maybe love, and have various rom-com adventures.

I reasonably enjoyed this film and I laughed and/or chuckled at various times, smiled with amusement at others. Not everything worked, but it worked well enough to get along and go along. And I even had my heart grow a quarter of a size at the movie’s acknowledged cheesy 90s rom com moments.

I liked the lead actor and his potential boyfriend, a more buttoned-up lawyer from the other side of the country. Their relationship was interesting and more nuanced than I usually expect from a rom com.

I don’t think this movies the needle much on rom-coms but if it can move it a little on gay cinema, then that’s a net positive. As a straight dude – and a human, I found some inroads to appreciate the more foreign aspects of it while engaging with the humanity all of us upright apes share. It’s a pretty good watch.

Score: 80