Beach Rats 2017

                 Small intimate and sensual. This is Eliza Hittman’s second film and once again she explores teenage sexuality and the perils and landmines that goes with it. In her first film 2013’s “It Felt Like Love” she took us into the South Brooklyn life of a young female teen and her confused attempts at sexuality.
                      In her latest film “Beach Rats” we are still in the area of South Brooklyn, which by the way is where I grew up and still live. In this film she gives us the closeted life of Frankie a breathtakingly beautiful 19 year old who is living a dull but conflicted life of a closeted gay teen. Played with conviction by the British newcomer Harris Dickinson who has the Brooklyn accent down perfectly. He is by day a typical late teen who hangs out with his small pose of like minded teenage boys, all played by the way by non actors, it is however by night when like some vampire that he turns into a different sort of teen.
              He sits down in his basement trolling a gay website called Brooklyn Boys where he meets up on line with older gay men, and goes off into the night to meet up with them for sex. He is conflicted to say the least because while he is leading his secret gay life he is also dating a hot Sheepshead Bay teen babe knowingly played by Madeline Weinstein who knows the ropes when it comes to sex and also knows that something is not up with Frankie.
              She calls him a “fixer upper” which is not a good sign for their budding relationship and Frankie’s heart and soul along with another part of his body is just not into her. They go on a few dates to Coney Island even though she was hoping to go “into the city”.  This is an accurate and good sign that Hittman knows her New York City jargon because this is what we outer borough folks call Manhattan, never New York, but always “The City.” A small note but worth mentioning because it’s one of the many authentic things about this brightly colored and garish movie.
                  Frankie lives with his recently widowed hassled and harassed mom (this seems to be the season for hassled and harassed moms in the movies) and his little sister in a modest house again an authentic feeling resides here with them, and spends his summer loafing without a shirt most of the time.
                This is a sad film because of this beautiful boy’s terrible situation and the few options afford him. The film is erotic and sexual with bits and pieces of sex and nudity but it’s hardly a celebration of either. The director it seemed to me takes the easy way out on the way to the ending,  one that I saw coming early on, and wished that she didn’t pick this obvious road to take, because for me it mars the narrative and makes the outcome seems rushed and predictable.  Still this is an engrossing film and indicates that both Hittman and Dickinson are due for big career moves. One of the best films of 2017