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Beach Rats Movie Review

Beach Rats is a 2017 indie drama film directed by Eliza Hittman and starring Harris Dickinson. It’s a well made, but only solid flick.

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“Two girls can make out and it’s hot,

but when two guys make out, it’s gay“

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An aimless teenager on the outer edges of Brooklyn is having a miserable summer. With his father on his deathbed and his mother wanting him to find a girlfriend, Frankie escapes the bleakness of his life by causing trouble with his delinquent friends and flirting with older men online. I personally prefer ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ from this director as that film is stronger in terms of storytelling, though both share that meticulous attention to immediate details when it comes to their characters and settings.

The film does portray really well what it’s like feeling confused in your sexuality and trying to hide it to still retain your friendships. It deals also with camming and chatting and those scenes were very realistic and dramatic, though I would have liked to have seen more of those.

The sex scenes are suitably grounded in reality as the film showcases the emptiness of gay sexual lifestyles and how most young gay men do not even think of starting a relationship. However, the movie in its entirety turned into decadence way too much without making a comment upon it in any larger capacity. That led to that very empty ending, which I did realize is the point, but still I wanted a more memorable, more meaningful finale.

As for the acting, it’s quite strong. Harris Dickinson is pretty much a newcomer and his performance here is so strong. Not only that, but his look is perfect for this role and the entire emphasis on physicality and outer appearance is truthful when it comes to this toxic community.

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However, I found his mother too terrible of a mother and his friends are such annoying rednecks with that third act feeling somewhat forced in their inclusion, albeit those scenes are realistic as is the whole film. Beach Rats is also well shot, solidly directed and very sensual, but thematically speaking, it suffered in my opinion.

Albeit Beach Rats is suitably sensual and meticulously detailed as you would expect from Eliza Hittman, it’s lacking thematically speaking. It is very well acted and shot. Most of the movie is also very grounded in reality with many scenes being quite memorable, but still it needed more emotion and depth as the ending itself was quite disappointing.

My Rating – 3.5

You can get Beach Rats on Amazon.