Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a rewatch.
The Sweaty: Beach Rats
Harris Dickinson made a splash with his debut performance in Beach Rats, the darling of the 2017 film festival circuit. Given that he spends the movie half-naked, it’s not hard to see why.
Beach Rats follows the life of Frankie (Dickinson), a beach-loving bodybuilder that enjoys hanging with his other shirtless buds, going on dates with his girlfriend while secretly meeting up with other men for sex and drugs. For Frankie, the double life allows him to compartmentalize his own attraction to men; in essence, he can lie to himself. As his thirst for sex and drugs grows ever stronger, though, Frankie’s dual identity becomes harder and harder to mask, and threatens to upend his carefully cultivated image.
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Writer/director Eliza Hittman approaches Beach Rats with a near-voyeuristic style; we often feel like a fly on the wall watching Frankie on his quest for sex. The film also has a surreal quality about it. At times, Hittman floods us with dreamlike images that reflect Frankie’s own flood of emotions. Elusive, sensual, and erotic, we recommend Beach Rats for the story.
The shirtless boys are just an added bonus.
Streams on Amazon, Hulu, YouTube, iTunes and VUDU.
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Doodler72
Beach Rats was a great movie. Harris Dickinson is a great actor. You can see some of his interviews on Youtube. I bought the movie it was so good….
ptb2016
I hated Beach Rats in spite of lusting after Harris. There is absolutely nothing about the character he plays that is sympathetic, and his gang are also pretty ghastly. He plays a much nicer character in Postcards from London, and of course he’s in the latest Kingsman movie. He also replaced Brenton Thwaites in the Malificent sequel. Was also rather good as the kidnapped Getty boy in the tv series Trust. Though it’s only in Beach Rats that he spends so much time shirtless.
ronniebs
Dickinson and the movie were hot. Even better, it had substance. Yes, he was a flawed character but the movie showed why he was like that. Hopefully, he lives up to the promise.
Michael1500
Beach Rats is one of (those many) weak-scripted gay-themed movies that we endure because of a sexy actor. I know we all have our “types” to whom we’re attracted, and Harris Dickinson definitely rings my bell BIG TIME. I saw Beach Rats twice because of this super-sexy stud. But his movie “Postcards From London” shows off his physique much more. There’s a scene in that movie wherein he’s role-playing in “gay for pay” and is standing with his hands tied behind him, while this Cupid-like fat guy wields his bow and arrow, and a more handsome, hotter guy you couldn’t find.
Terrycloth
That trailer dosent make me interested in seeing this movie. This is what they chose to tease us with .?
Hillers
That trailer actually made me laugh out loud because it was just so utterly stupid. Like some cheap Abercombie ad, not a trailer for a moving, gritty motion picture.
G-Man
I agree the trailer was really stupid.
jasentylar
I saw the movie and while his performance was great, the movie was uneven. He has a smaller role in Xavier Dolan’s “Matthias & Maxime”. A better performance and also gay themed.
Cam
His character reminded me of the character in the British film Shank
Jared MacBride
It’s an awful movie. The writer-director wrote Dickinson’s character to be unredeemably despicable, like some of the characters from the old “homos prey on the children” movies. Well before the end of the movie the only thing you’ll feel for the guy is a strong desire to see someone slug him in the nose.
But if you’re looking for eye candy, and you like white guys with muscles and great faces, Dickinson is your guy. He’s stunning. And he can act, and he for sure deserved better than this mess.
Daggerman
…unbelieveable! The film was total crap, really disappointing, why because it simply sends out the message how morose and pathectic GAY men are. A sad and ignorant ending of a film tells you that gay men end up ‘deservingly’ getting tricked and subsequently beaten to death or in this case beaten and drowned.
mz.sam
What were the Gay film critics thinking?? Beach Rats is waaay overrated. Period. This film does not even deserve a free YouTube watching. Instead, spend your precious pandemic time watching Oscar-winning indie Moonlight. I have the Blu-ray version in my collection.
whateverokok
Wow. This movie must be really good then. What with all the negative reviews. If the sheep don’t like something, that something must be great.