Beach Rats

Beach Rats is a 2017 American coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Eliza Hittman. It stars Harris Dickinson in his feature film debut, with Madeline Weinstein and Kate Hodge in supporting roles. It follows an aimless Brooklyn teenager who struggles to reconcile his competing sexual desires, leaving him hurtling towards irreparable consequences.

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2017, where Hittman won the Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic. It was theatrically released in the United States on August 25, 2017, by Neon. It received positive reviews from critics, who particularly praised Hittman's direction, Dickinson's performance, and the cinematography. At the 33rd Independent Spirit Awards, it garnered two nominations: Best Male Lead (for Dickinson) and Best Cinematography (for Louvart).

Plot
Frankie is an aimless 19-year-old Brooklynite who spends his days hanging out and getting high with his macho friends as an escape from his troubled home life. His family includes his little sister and a mother who is mostly occupied with caring for his terminally ill father. At night, Frankie cruises Brooklyn Boys, a webcam site for gay men, but partially obscures his face with a hat.

When Frankie and his friends are at the Coney Island boardwalk watching fireworks, he catches the attentions of local girl Simone. Simone accompanies Frankie back to his place and tries to initiate sex with him, asking, "Am I pretty?" Frankie cannot perform and tries to make small talk instead, mocking and imitating her question. Insulted, Simone leaves. A few days later, Frankie and his friends are at the beach when they spot Simone with another guy. Frankie goes to apologize to Simone for his behavior the other night, and she tentatively forgives him. Meanwhile, Frankie uses the chat site to arrange hookups, particularly with older men as they are less likely to run into his friends and give away his double life. When a male partner asks about his penchant for older men, Frankie replies, "I don’t really know what I like."

Frankie suffers a loss when his father succumbs to his terminal cancer. Frankie takes his dad’s pills, which he and his friends have been abusing. On a day out with Simone, Frankie casually asks her if she’s ever made out with a girl. Simone replies she has, and makes an offhand comment that it’s hot when girls make out, but when guys make out, it’s gay. That night, Frankie forces himself to have sex with her. Later, after a hookup with a gay man at a motel, Frankie is asked about his orientation. Frankie says he is not gay and reasons he has a girlfriend.

Frankie’s secret life becomes increasingly at risk of being discovered when he happens to run into his male partners in public. Simone breaks things off with him when he becomes erratic while high on drugs. When Frankie and his friends are running out on their drug supply, Frankie proposes using the gay chat site, claiming that he uses it to find guys with weed. His friends show discomfort with the idea, but Frankie says all they need to do is pretend to be gay to get the drugs. Frankie lets the guys know he is meeting up with Jeremy, an out gay man closer to his age. Frankie invites Jeremy to come smoke with him and his friends, but Jeremy becomes wary when he catches sight of Frankie’s crew and leaves.

Later, Jeremy messages Frankie and says he wants to meet up and smoke with him, but alone. His friends see the message and insist on tagging along so they can steal Jeremy’s weed. When Frankie hesitates at the idea, his friends question why he even uses the chat site to begin with. Frankie again claims it’s just for drugs and says he will meet Jeremy at the beach. Jeremy arrives to pick up Frankie and during the car ride, Jeremy deduces Frankie is closeted, which Frankie resists with the belief that he does not think he is gay, and, in Jeremy's words, just "has sex with men".

On the beach, Frankie starts feeling remorse for bringing Jeremy there and suggests going back to his place. Just as Jeremy questions what’s going on, Frankie’s friends ambush Jeremy and demand the weed. When Jeremy refuses, Frankie’s friends beat him. Though Frankie retrieves the drug, his friends insist on continuing to beat Jeremy, whom they ultimately leave for dead in the waves.

At home, Frankie gets rid of all traces of the gay chat site on his computer, including shirtless selfies he’s taken. The film ends with him watching the fireworks again at the boardwalk, but with a look of anguish and uncertainty.

Production
In April 2016, it was announced Eliza Hittman would direct the film, based upon a screenplay she had written. Hittman said her inspiration for the film was a Facebook selfie of a young man from Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, a member of a group known as "beach rats." The selfie was shot "in a basement with ugly fluorescent lights and a dirty mirror and he was shirtless with a hat on that was covering his eyes...There was this tension in the image between something that was hypermasculine and simultaneously homoerotic, a feeling that he was hiding something because his eyes were in the shadow of this visor. He was about 19 years old and he looked dangerous and fragile at the same time, and I try to use images like that as character introductions. What we shot is almost a direct reframing of the image."

Hittman said the film was also inspired by real-life incidents, commenting, "I’ve had friends who have been attacked walking around certain areas of Brooklyn, and been totally knocked out. I’ve had people who have had Grindr experiences. I’m aware of all the types of violence that exist, and I’ve read about them and processed them. I think [the victim in the film] represents many types of victims."

Cinereach and Animal Kingdom produced the film, alongside Secret Engine.

Release
Beach Rats had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2017. Shortly after, Neon acquired North American distribution rights to the film. It was released in select theaters on August 25, 2017.

Box office
Beach Rats made $45,008 from three theaters in its opening weekend, an average of $15,003 per venue. The film ultimately grossed $471,286 in the United States and Canada, and $105,030 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $576,316.

Critical response


Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times remarked, "The film is so skilled at telling its story through visual detail and atmosphere that you can sense the gears shifting in the second half." Ben Kenigsberg of The New York Times stated, "The back-and-forths of the character's decisions feel real, and Mr. Dickinson's laconic blankness (you would never guess the actor was British) helps to give Frankie's existential crisis a charge. Ms. Hittman is also assured enough to know it can't be easily resolved." Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film 2 out of 4 stars and commented, "Although Hittman's often bold and occasionally uncomfortably honest movie takes us up to the threshold of that accounting, it doesn't have the nerve to cross it."

K. Austin Collins of The Ringer wrote the film strongly gives "the prevailing sense that masculinity is something learned—put-on and performed for the sake of fitting in with others." Collins also noted, "Like Beach Rats overall, the ending is a reminder of what can happen when a director trusts us enough not to offer easy takeaways and psychological absolutes." Victor Rocha of Out Write opined, "Beach Rats is not a happy movie, but it is a movie that captures emotion on film – genuine, inexplicable emotion. Overshadowed by far happier movies, Beach Rats offers a unique experience as one of 2017's most intimate films." Jay Kuehner, reporting from the 2017 Sundance Film Festival for the Canadian film magazine Cinema Scope, praised the 16 mm photography by Hélène Louvart, invoking a comparison to the visual aesthetic of Moonlight and Beau Travail, as well as the films of Robert Bresson and Philippe Grandrieux.

Though Dickinson's performance was praised, the film also sparked criticism and debate, with some critics saying the ending felt unearned and that its violence perpetuates the "bury your gays" trope, and others saying the film "risks reducing gay coming-of-age to seediness and shame." Some also pointed out the ending calls to mind real-life incidents of users on gay dating apps being targeted for violence. At the Sundance screening, Hittman was questioned by an audience member about whether she, a white heterosexual woman, should be allowed to tell gay stories. Hittman said she welcomed the dialogue and added, "I think it’s interesting...who gets to tell what story. I think it’s slightly complicated at this moment. I think that the conversation should be more about how we create more opportunity for people who don’t get to tell their story, to tell their story."