Beach Rats (2017)

Three words for this effort: Coulda, woulda and shouda. This had so much potential and the director (?) blew it. A movie must tell a story. This just wandered until it ran out of gas. Too bad.

I was really excited to see the movie given the pitch and the actors, especially the lead. He's young, sexy and manly.Unfortunately, the movie turned a pain to watch on an endless series of painfully useless scenes. Who cares about seeing someone putting a cigarette in a bin, or bringing the garbage out?Only about 20% or so of the movie brings any value. What a waste!Really interesting story plots should have been explored. What about his coming out to his friends? How could he have done that (one by one, all at once)? Or maybe they could have discovered it by chance? Then, what about their reactions? This would have made excellent materials.Also, one of the lead's friend could seem ambiguous (given the way he looks), but it is hard to assess whether there is anything. The movie could have explored this path.But it's true that developing captivating stories is more difficult than filming someone walking on a street or smoking a cigarette...At the end of the day, a really frustrating experience with great materials (pitch + actors) thrown away...

I totally believed and attached to the character played by Dickinson... a role where not talking is probably more important than having dialogue. I must agree that the film lacked an ending - like the production ran out of money and had to stop? I have learned that one can not give much attention to KEY TAG LINES, by users? They are always deceiving about 'moral' things (exagerated). In this film, for instance, while Harris Dickinson was the real 'eye candy' if there was, not a lot of 'graphic frontal nudity'... other lesser characters had moments, but in today's standards, nothing gratuitous (it fit in telling the story). Might have like more of Dickinson nude, than others, since his character was pleasing to see and the story is about him. At any rate, he is certainly an actor to watch for - even in the nude.

Frankie (Harris Dickinson) is in his late teens and lives at his Brooklyn home with his family. He also lives a double life: he hangs out and does drugs with three macho friends while also living a closeted life of arranging sexual encounters with men (mostly middle-aged) on the Internet.While "Beach Rats" has a standard tone in its coming-of-age storyline, it can be given credit to going where most films dare not go: its man-to-man encounters are upfront. While this is courageous and rare, the movie suffers like many other recent ones including "Good Time" above: the main character is unlikeable.Franikie's gradual descent into drug dependence might have elicited sympathy but he lacks soul and character whether he's drugging with his friends, having secretive sex with men, trying to go "straight" with a young woman close to his age, or in the few encounters he has with his family.Some characters in smaller roles do show glimpses of depth but these moments are too few and far between. Director/writer Eliza Hittman uses a cool, distant approach to the characters but as the characters themselves are also cool and distant, there is an empty feeling by the end.