Beach Rats-2017

Director Eliza Hittman

Starring Harris Dickinson

Scott’s Review #719

Reviewed January 26, 2018

Grade: A-

Beach Rats is a 2017 coming of age film penned and directed by Eliza Hittman, a young female director from Brooklyn, New York, who incorporates her familiar geographical settings into only her second feature film.

2013’s It Felt Like Love received two Independent Film nominations, and Beach Rats has followed suit, garnering a Best Actor nomination and a Best Cinematography mention.

The film is a terrific story of conflict that its target audience will surely relate to.

The film is very low-budget but a successful character study of a young man named Frankie, played by newcomer Harris Dickinson, who wrestles with family issues and his sexuality while hanging out with his troubled friends and dating his sometime girlfriend.

Beach Rats is not a downer but rather an interesting glimpse into a teenager’s life and struggle with self-identity.

Mirroring It Felt Like Love, Hittman uses plenty of locales unique to Brooklyn, the most identifiable being the borough’s watery, nighttime beaches, which gives the film an authentic feel.

Many scenes are shot outdoors, which is a strong point of the film. Like many independent films, Beach Rats uses several “non-actors” in small roles, adding depth to the blue-collar, sometimes harsh, Brooklyn feels.

With only two features to her credit, Hittman is successful at having her hand-print on her films, making them identifiable as her own.

It is interesting how the director chooses a male character to write for. Similar to the female Liza in It Felt Like Love, both she and Frankie are vulnerable and coming to terms with their sexual feelings and desires.

The fact that Liza is straight and Frankie, at most, bisexual, is the only strength of the complex writer/director.

Dickinson is perfectly cast as Frankie. Good-looking, with chiseled features and a lithe, toned body, his bright blue eyes are expressive, as the audience empathizes with his many dilemmas.

Beach Rats is much more than a traditional “gay film”, which is admirable, it is more complex than that.

By 2017, the common theme of coming to terms with one’s sexuality has been explored.

According to Frankie, he “just has sex with men” and refuses to identify as either gay or bisexual. It is implied that because of his group of trouble-making friends, who only want to get high, he might be faced with resistance if he ever came out to them.

The supporting cast is well represented, Frankie’s mother, Donna (Kate Hodge), is faced with a tricky predicament as her husband, Frankie’s father, has just died of cancer, ripping the family apart.

She knows that Frankie keeps things from her, is she figuring out Frankie’s sexual secrets?

Donna implies that it is okay for Frankie to tell her anything, admirable, combined with her problems. Frankie’s girlfriend, Simone, is coming into her own as Frankie is, and even though the duo shares a sweet relationship, it appears doomed for failure.

The most interesting scenes in Beach Rats occur between Frankie and the mostly older men he meets virtually or in person. Though Frankie is quite nervous, Dickinson always makes the character appear confident and well beyond his years.

Being street-smart, he is never taken advantage of, as he is familiar with young men and older men. Why he mostly prefers older men is never explained, but it might have anything to do with seeking to fill the void left by his deceased father.

Or is it simply to reduce the risk of running into anyone he might know within his age group?

Hittman is not shy about featuring nudity, yet each scene is tastefully done and never seems to be for either shock value or to elicit a gasp. Full frontal nudity is featured, as well as scenes of Frankie engaging in sexual acts with both the men and his girlfriend.

Sure, Dickinson has a perfect body, but his assets are not on display unnecessarily.

More often than many “box office” films, independent films are given much creative freedom to tell a good story. Thankfully, in the case of Beach Rats, the audience is lucky enough to view a quiet, introspective tale of a conflicted adolescent and how he deals with demons and complex feelings.

Particularly for the predominantly LGBT audience who will see the film, Beach Rats (2017) will have much to offer.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best Male Lead-Harris Dickinson, Best Cinematography