On the outskirts of Brooklyn, Frankie, an aimless teenager, suffocates under the oppressive glare cast by his family and a toxic group of delinquent friends. Struggling with his own identity, Frankie begins to scour hookup sites for older men. As his chatting and webcam extroversion intensifies, he begins meeting men at a nearby cruising beach while simultaneously entering into a cautious relationship with a young woman. As Frankie struggles to reconcile his competing desires, his decisions leave him hurtling toward irreparable consequences.

Shot on 16 mm film, Beach Rats is a poignant and beautifully constructed story about coming of age in the headlong pace of contemporary adolescence. Building on Eliza Hittman’s first film, 2013’s sexually charged It Felt Like Love, the award-winning (and darling of Sundance) Beach Rats is a powerful character study that is as visually stunning as it is evocative.