Sensational film debut by Harris Dickinson who has since quickly escalated up the ladder of more mainstream films including one that has just won the Grand Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. That success is no surprise as his performance here is as honest and authentic as they come from someone with as little experience as he had before this. His touching and vulnerable performance along with his character gets a little lost as this film nears its ending. A story of a youth struggling with all sorts of things, but primarily his sexuality, is very interesting until it sort of loses its way with an odd and not very believable twist of him introducing his straight beach bum buds to a gay man for weed. It may be my limitation, but the very final scenes are meaningless to me and I wish that were not the case as I really liked it a lot up until then. Nevertheless, I found the majority of it honest and moving. I didn't know when watching this that Dickinson was British, but you would never know it. I seem to say that a lot. I am endlessly surprised and impressed by British actors at the beginning of their careers or at the end. Their training for performing seems unparalleled.
Review of Beach Rats
