Summer may be far behind us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take one more trip back to the beach!
Filmed through a soft and sunny lens that perfectly captures the waning days of warmth, Dino At The Beach is a new, gay short film that’s sure to make you feel nostalgic in all the right ways.
Set in New England in the 1960s, we open on a young man named Dino (Devon McDowell), dozing on the sand. He’s awakened by a pair of legs (Mateo Correa) that confidently strut into frame, asking him, “Mind if I leave my things here?”
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Dino watches as the beach-goer takes a dip in the ocean’s cool waters. Once he returns, they exchange a few, brief pleasantries before he bluntly asks Dino, “Are you up for a f*ck?” Seconds later, they find themselves under the safe cover of the tree line, where the two strangers become, ahem, better acquainted… It’s only after that the visitor introduces himself as Sebastian.
At just over 10 minutes long, Dino At The Beach largely runs on vibes—but when the vibes are this good, who’s complaining? Writer-director Josh Cox has created an intimate and warmly inviting world that feels effortlessly timeless. Plus, his stars McDowell and Correa stars capture that instant spark, and have an easy chemistry that’s easy to swoon for.
With an ambiguous ending that will leave you lingering on their last kiss, it’s actually the footage during the credits that offers shades of complexity to the sexy cruising hook-up we just witnessed. Without spoiling too much, these final scenes will leave you guessing—was there more to their time together than what we saw? Is this a fantasy? And if so, who’s fantasy is it?
But even those question marks add to the sensual allure of this sun-soaked short. With winter just around the corner, you owe it to yourself to bask in the warm glow of Dino At The Beach.
The film is available to view now on YouTube via queer media company, Americana Media (where, by the way, you can also watch filmmaker Josh Cox’s other excellent recent shorts, Summer After, Summer Of Mesa, Touch me Not, and Honey):
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