Shirtless boardwalk boys, drag detectives, and more beach-set movies to stream this weekend

Welcome to your weekend streaming recommendations, a.k.a. the Weekend Watch, a handy guide to the queerest film and TV content that’s just a click away!

Get your boomboxes out, find a spot on the sand to lay your blanket and get ready to dance to “Padam!” It’s beach season, baby, and this week’s streaming picks all include fun (and peril and heartbreak and everything in between) in the sun. Just remember to bring SPF, iced coffee, and your cutest bathing suit. If it rains, these movies will provide the ultimate beach fantasy.

Read on for beach-themed movies to stream this weekend.

Psycho Beach Party

This 2000 comedy, directed by Robert Lee King and starring the one and only Charles Busch as Captain Monica Stark, is based on Busch’s play of the same name. A wackadoo, camp send-up of 1960s beach movies mixed with a murder mystery, Busch plays Stark like a diva from the Hollywood studio system, while Lauren Ambrose is “Chicklet,” a parody of Gidget who may or may not be a serial killer with multiple personalities. This hilarious, often-absurd flick also features Amy Adams before she was, you know, Amy Adams. Fun fact: Busch played Chicklet in the stage version of Psycho Beach Party!

Streaming on Tubi. Rentable on AppleTV, Google Play, Prime Video, YouTube, and Vudu.

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Shelter

Let’s get one thing out of the way: this 2007 drama by Jonah Markowitz is schmaltzy. Very schmaltzy. If you can get past the almost ludicrous amount of wish fulfillment and sweetness, there’s a sexy, tender romance to be found here. Zach (Trevor Wright) is a closeted aspiring artist who lives by the beach in Cali, waiting tables and taking care of his father, older sister and her cloyingly sweet son. When Zach runs into and falls in love with his friend’s older brother, the openly gay Shaun (a dreamy Brad Rowe), Zach finds himself faced with staying in his small town and caring for his less-than-grateful family or choosing happiness. Shelter feels like a really sappy romance novel, and that’s okay! Also, everyone in this movie surfs like it’s not the hardest thing ever.

Streaming on Here TV.

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Beach Rats

Daddy issues, drugs, sex, and sunned boys are the name of the game in this 2017 dark coming-of-age flick by Eliza Hittman. Starring Harris Dickinson as Frankie, a confused young guy who spends his days hanging with his loser stoner friends on the Brooklyn boardwalk by day and camming at night for guys with his face partially obscured. Frankie’s world starts to spiral after his ill father dies, and he begins hooking up with older guys to cope with his loss. When Frankie meets Jeremy (Harrison Sheehan), a brighter future may await, but don’t expect a fairytale ending in this harsh, sun-soaked drama that doesn’t offer any easy answers.

Rentable on AppleTV, Google Play, Prime Video, YouTube, and Vudu.

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Ammonite

This 2020 historical romance directed by Francis Lee is a fictional take on real-life paleontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and geologist Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) in the 1840s. Mary lives by the sea in England and searches the rocks for fossils, and her passion for paleontology (and women) is ignited when she meets Charlotte, a depressed woman who is brought back to her senses by Mary. As Mary and the very married Charlotte fall in love while… looking for fossils, both women face losing everything. Mary learns some surprising truths about her mother, Charlotte comes into her own, and a bittersweet ending ensues. Winslet and Ronan do THE WORK in this fabulous, moody film.

Streaming on Kanopy and Hulu. Rentable on AppleTV, Google Play, Prime Video, and Vudu.

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Beaches

Gay icon Bette Midler stars in this weepy 1988 friendship drama with Barbara Hershey. Directed by Garry Marshall, this movie is about two women who embark on a lifelong friendship. The two girls meet on the boardwalk in Atlantic City in the 1950s, and one of them (Midler, obviously) goes on to become a famous singer. Beaches is a tad melodramatic and overly sentimental, but the movie gave us Midler’s timeless and legendary anthem “Wind Beneath My Wings,” which won a Grammy! Younger gays who don’t know Midler should check this movie out immediately. And don’t even think of skipping the original in favor of the bland Lifetime remake starring Idina Menzel.

Rentable on AppleTV, Google Play, Prime Video, YouTube, and Vudu.

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The Kicker…

Did you know? Saturday Night Live once received thousands of complaints after airing a sketch starring Matthew Broderick trying to fit in a nude beach. The word penis is uttered more than 40 times over the course of the four-minute sketch, and the scene was such a point of contention behind the scenes that Tom Hanks’ earlier version of the sketch never aired.

Related:

Strangers By The Lake: 10 queer lakeside stories perfect for a summer watch

Whether taut thrillers or steamy romances, queer lakeside cinema is a subgenre all its own.