Beach Rats (2017) on Netflix
Aimless Brooklyn teenager Frankie gets high with his friends and escapes a home troubled by his father's illness. At night he cruises a gay webcam site and meets Simone on the boardwalk.
- Netflix2.8/5
- IMDb6.4/1018,159 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes85%
Trailer
Plot summary
Frankie is nineteen and drifting through Brooklyn, spending his days getting high with his friends and escaping a home where his mother cares for his terminally ill father and his younger sister. At night he visits Brooklyn Boys, a webcam site where gay men meet, keeping his face partly hidden under a hat. During a fireworks show at the Coney Island boardwalk, he draws the attention of Simone, a local girl who comes back to his place and attempts to have sex with him; when he cannot go through with it, she leaves insulted. He later apologizes, and she tentatively forgives him. Frankie arranges encounters through the site, choosing older men so his friends are less likely to cross his path. Asked what he likes, he says he does not really know.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Beach Rats (2017)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Eliza Hittman said her inspiration for Beach Rats was a Facebook selfie of a 19-year-old man from Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, part of a group known as "beach rats," shirtless with a hat covering his eyes in a basement; she described a tension between hypermasculine and homoerotic.
- Hittman said real-life incidents also inspired the film: friends of hers were attacked and knocked out in certain areas of Brooklyn, and she knew people with Grindr experiences; the film's victim, she said, represents many types of victims.
- At the Sundance screening, an audience member questioned Hittman about whether she, a white heterosexual woman, should be allowed to tell gay stories; she said she welcomed the dialogue and that the conversation should be about creating more opportunity for those who don't get to tell their stories.
