Beach Rats is making waves at various film festivals in its portrayal of navigating blossoming sexuality. The story follows a troubled teenager trying to escape his home life. In the trailer we see his mom badgering him with questions. He’s been staying out until sunrise, and she wants to know why.
Well, when he isn’t hanging with his friends – a bunch of straight bros, smoking and constantly wandering Coney Island – or spending time with who could be his new girlfriend, he’s meeting older guys online and at local cruising spots. The movie has been described as both dark and sexy. The trailer shows why.
First, we need to talk about the lead. Harris Dickinson has made the move from modelling to acting, and we’re sure glad he did. This movie is full of shots of him in tank tops, wearing no shirt, and almost losing his bathing suit.
Mixed in with these steamy shots are more tender moments of intimacy with older guys, providing a deep portrayal of a young man navigating adult sexuality.
In fact, even some of the sexier scenes have a dark undertone. Just look at this frame from Dickinson’s character’s shirtless selfie photoshoot. It’s dark, it’s moody, and we are 100% here for it.
Beach Rats comes out on August 25th. Watch the trailer down below:
are the ONLY gay films allowed to be made about teens navigating their sexuality???? And more creepy old pervs seducing them, no wonder some people have such a bad opinion of us- we’re just a bunch of old dudes laying in wait to ponce on some teen.
Yeah, cause NO “straight teens navigating their sexuality” EVER featured straight teen boys hooking up with (or, at least, trying to hook up with) older women.
Oh. Wait. That happens all the fucking time and almost nobody loses their shit over it.
And, I do believe Kevin Spacey won an Oscar for playing a married man perving on a teenage girl (his daughter’s best friend) in “American Beauty.”
But, yeah. Let’s just assume a SINGLE story is going to be taken as a representation of the whole community. Face it. People who don’t like gays aren’t going to care if there’s one film or a hundred showing nothing but “wholesome gay adult male relationships.”
Or did you think that “Moonlight” was an accurate representation of the Black gay community as a whole?
The trailer looked good.
Interesting.
Star is hot
Some people need to chill out – this is just a film ! it is telling a story ! ! it doesn’t represent all of us or even need to represent us – it is just a film telling a story – we really don’t need to load a film with the responsibility of representing ‘us’ – because ‘us’ are hugely diverse and varied – in case some people hadn’t realised – some of us are monogamous – some of us are horny fuckers – some of us are celibate – but back to the film itself it looks well made and well acted based on the trailer – hope to catch it at some point
str8 or gay- teens with adults is creepy- MY POINT was this seems to be the ONLY types of gya movies coming out these days….pity the films about us aren’t diverse and varied- it’s the same shit every year.