The Story of Beach Rats
Beach Rats follows Frankie, an aimless Brooklyn teenager who's caught in the grip of competing desires he can't reconcile. By day, he's a macho guy hanging with his homophobic crew, dating a girl named Simone who adores him. By night—often on his phone, sometimes down at Coney Island—he's meeting older men for casual sex. The film doesn't judge him for this double life so much as it watches him suffocate under the weight of it. What begins as an escape route gradually becomes a trap. Frankie's decisions ripple outward, touching everyone around him, and the film moves toward consequences that feel inevitable and devastating in equal measure.
How Beach Rats Came Together: Production, Cast, and Awards
Beach Rats marked the feature directorial debut of Eliza Hittman, a filmmaker with a sharp eye for intimate, unglamorous storytelling. She wrote and directed the film, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and went on to earn significant critical recognition. Harris Dickinson, then a relative unknown, carried the entire film on his shoulders in his feature debut—a gutsy move that paid off. The supporting cast, including Madeline Weinstein as Simone and Kate Hodge as Frankie's mother, anchored the family dynamics that feel suffocatingly real throughout.
The film's modest box office return of $473,771 didn't reflect its artistic impact. What it did earn was respect: 11 wins and 19 nominations across major festivals and award ceremonies. The Metascore of 78 and a Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes (84%) signaled that critics took it seriously. Rated R for language, drug use, and some sexual content, the film never shies away from the messy, unglamorous reality of adolescent sexual confusion. That willingness to stay uncomfortable is part of what makes it matter.
What Makes Beach Rats Stand Out: Performance and Honesty
Here's what's striking about Beach Rats: it refuses the easy arc. Dickinson doesn't play Frankie as a closeted kid waiting for his big liberation moment. Instead, he plays him as someone genuinely torn—not between two identities, but between what he wants and what he's terrified of becoming. That internal conflict, barely visible on the surface, is where all the tension lives. Watch the scene where Frankie's with his friends and they're riffing on gay men; the way Dickinson's jaw tightens, the way he laughs along while something dies inside him. That's the performance.
What critics responded to wasn't just Dickinson's work, though it's exceptional for a debut. It's Hittman's refusal to make this a story about acceptance or self-discovery in any uplifting sense. The marijuana use, the older men, the lies to Simone—none of it gets redeemed by a final scene where Frankie comes out and everyone claps. Instead, Hittman tracks how shame operates, how it calcifies, how it makes people hurt the people closest to them. The film's melancholy isn't sentimental. It's earned. I keep coming back to how unglamorous it all looks: the boardwalk at night, the cramped apartment, the fluorescent-lit diners. There's no soft-focus romance here—just the gritty texture of a kid's life falling apart.
Audience reviews have noted that Dickinson "pulls off a convincing effort as a sexually repressed/confused teenager who leads a triple life." That's exactly it. He doesn't play confusion as angst. He plays it as paralysis.
Where to Stream Beach Rats Online
Beach Rats is available on a range of streaming platforms, making it more accessible than its theatrical run suggested. You can watch it on Paramount+ (both Essential and Premium tiers), Prime Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, and several specialty services including BFI Player, Curzon Home Cinema, and the Queer Cinema Amazon Channel. If you're in the UK, it's on Sky Go, Now TV Cinema, and Sky Store. Movie OTT tracks current availability across all these platforms, so you can check the "Where to Watch" widget at the top of this page to see which service has it right now in your region. Availability varies by country and subscription tier, so it's worth checking before you settle in.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Who directed Beach Rats?
Eliza Hittman wrote and directed Beach Rats in her feature film debut. The film premiered at Sundance 2017 and earned her significant critical recognition for her unflinching approach to the material.
Q: Is Beach Rats based on a true story?
No, Beach Rats is a fictional narrative written by Hittman. While it explores universal themes of sexual confusion and adolescent shame, it's not adapted from a specific real-life account.
Q: What's Harris Dickinson's role in Beach Rats?
Dickinson plays Frankie, the protagonist—a Brooklyn teenager juggling a straight relationship and secret encounters with men. It was his feature film debut, and he earned widespread praise for the nuanced performance.
Q: How long is Beach Rats?
The film runs 98 minutes, making it a lean, focused piece that doesn't waste time on exposition or subplot padding.
Q: Is Beach Rats appropriate for teens?
Beach Rats is rated R for language, drug use, and sexual content. While it's about a teenager, it's not a film made for teenagers. Parents and guardians should be aware of its mature themes around sexuality and substance use.
Final Thoughts on Beach Rats
Beach Rats isn't comfortable to watch. That's kind of the point. It's a film about someone who isn't comfortable in his own skin, and Hittman refuses to let us off the hook by offering easy answers. If you're looking for a coming-of-age story about self-acceptance and pride, this isn't it. But if you want to see a young actor at the top of his game and a filmmaker with something real to say about shame, desire, and the lies we tell ourselves, Beach Rats demands your attention. It's the kind of film that stays with you, not because it's uplifting, but because it's true.
