By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Eliza Hittman
Starring: Frank Hakaj | Harris Dickinson | Kate Hodge | Madeline Weinstein | Neal Huff | Nicole Flyus
Country: united_states
Year: 2017
Running time: 98
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6303866/reference
Thom says: “Here’s a strange film to review as I have no idea how anyone would react to the film. A friend in Boston didn’t like it at all. My dentist liked it, his wife no, & a dear friend loved it. I have many reservations but I find them easy enough to overlook remembering the first-class artistic integrity of the film. Frankie is a reckless, drug-addicted teenager (out-of-school?) spending most of his supposed summer vacation at the beach with his three pals (?) trying to acquire drugs or supposedly hitting on chicks. He lives with his frustrated mother, his dying pop, & his younger sister. The film is 100% focused on Frankie, and we get to know him far too well. While he’s got sensationally good looks & a smile that could light up New York City after dark, he’s got an ugly, ugly heart. His dirty, little secret is that he trolls the Internet for older men, looking for hook-ups which include drugs & casual sex.
“On an early outing with his homeboys (which he insists to his mother, ‘They’re not my friends’) he notices a pretty teen’s interest in him and he picks her up. When he takes her home & they try to have sex he can’t obtain an erection and ends up insulting her as she leaves in a huff. He goes to her place of employment to try to make things right and partially succeeds, but you always know that the relationship is headed nowhere. In one scene he runs across an old trick that gives all of Frankie’s friends a free drink, much to Frankie’s consternation. Why Frankie only likes older men is frankly never addressed but what we do find out about him is a dire condemnation of this selfish boy. He steals his dad’s cancer medication, tries to refill the prescription after his father dies, is cruel to his sister, steals jewelry from his mother to pawn, tells nothing but lies to his would-be girlfriend, & even participates in a gay-bashing to obtain more drugs. One of his crew might be in love with him but Frankie is too self-absorbed to notice. The film ends nowhere because this useless beauty has nothing to offer that is true or beautiful or loving.
“Usually films about such unlikable people irk me horribly and cast a pall over my appreciation for the art of the work. This isn’t true here for me because I thought it was a serious criticism of much of American youth. This gorgeous lad had no interests but drugs, no real friends, no sense of family, no sense of guilt and a dark, black heart. 4.5 cats”
Chris says: “Much has been made of Eliza Hittman’s second feature being directed by a woman, even though the protagonist is a Brooklyn male teen who, when not hanging out at Coney Island with his loutish buddies, visits gay chat sites in private, meeting men he has sex with. Also, he’s trying to date a girl, and his father is in home hospice care for terminal cancer. It’s a lot to unpack, but the beauty of BEACH RATS is in Hittman’s direction—she approaches the tale with enough care and generosity as if it were her own, even if it’s obviously not. Her feel for lived-in intimacy and everyday (but potentially transcendent) poetry reminds me a little of Andrew Haigh (WEEKEND, 45YEARS); also, she coaxes a stirring lead performance from British(!) actor Harris Dickinson. 4 cats“