Beach Rats

Director: Eliza Hittman

2017 / 98min / DCP

Frankie (Harris Dickinson, in his breakthrough role), a terminally bored boardwalk-dweller in seaside South Brooklyn, drifts through shapeless summer days spitting game at girls with his perennially-vape-penned neighborhood cronies—but when the boys aren’t around, he’s scrolling into gay webcam sites, experimenting with IRL meet-ups, and struggling to come to grips with a sexual identity he barely understands. Hittman’s sensitive sophomore film anchors a universal story of self-discovery and self-denial with a local’s intimate sense of place, evident in the film’s off-the-beaten-path locations, serendipitous street-casting, and the atmospheric 16mm photography of DP Hélène Louvart, which captures the singular urban-rustic quality of tideland New York.

Part of Summer at Sea