Beach Rats does feel a little half-formed, but it swells with such passion that one longs to follow all involved on their subsequent journeys.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 1, 2017

It's slow, sensual and gorgeously observed.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 29, 2017

The film's mix of murky, up-close realism and dreamy vagueness is reminiscent of Gus Van Sant's and Larry Clark's detailed, faintly voyeuristic depictions of teen life, as well Matt Porterfield's unvarnished but elegant portraits of urban disaffection.

| Nov 28, 2017

Powered by a taciturn, soulful performance by its young star, this meditation on fear, shame and sexual repression packs a wallop.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 27, 2017

Hittman shares something of Claire Denis's gift for finding vulnerability in a chiselled male body and a kind of bruised poetry in the tough-guy swagger of these teenage kids.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 26, 2017

Writer-director Eliza Hittman's Beach Rats is a Brooklyn-set coming of age story made with a gritty lyricism bound to provoke comparisons with the work of French director Claire Denis.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 22, 2017

The 16mm photography is haunting and lustrous. It has the benighted grain of the world we knew before it went digital.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 22, 2017

Subtle, tragic and bracingly perceptive filmmaking.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 21, 2017

Hittman demonstrates a sure hand throughout, marking her as a filmmaker whose future work will be hotly anticipated.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 22, 2017

Dickinson is perfectly cast and the film's mix of skill gives it a gritty realism that heightens the emotional pitch.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 22, 2017

Hittman paints with a delicate brush, and gets a strong performance out of newcomer Dickinson, who gives Frankie a soft soul beneath his chiseled physique.

| Original Score: B | Sep 15, 2017

Let's call this what it is: a fetishistic After-School Special complete with closeups of trimmed pubes and squeaky-clean sphincters.

| Original Score: 0/5 | Sep 9, 2017

It's not the feel-good movie of the year, but it's a powerfully rendered reminder that coming of age can be harrowing, and hurtful to others, even in our purportedly more open-minded country.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 7, 2017

This very thinly sliced character study of beautiful if benighted adolescence is more a pre-coming-of-age tale, one that takes us close to, but not through, the transformative acquisition of good judgment.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 7, 2017

This movie hits the senses like fresh impact of salt-water air.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 7, 2017

What happens when a character who doesn't know what he wants loses control over what little understanding he already has? It's a crisis, and a risk, and Beach Rats navigates both with the best of them.

| Aug 31, 2017

Beach Rats [is] just plain haunting.

| Aug 31, 2017

[With] this second feature, writer-director Eliza Hittman comes across as a milder.

| Aug 31, 2017

There are no clear answers here for Frankie or for us, which might not be satisfying but is no less poignant.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 30, 2017

It's a predictable turn of events-Frankie's attempts to hide so much of himself away can't last forever-but since Hittman avoids such heavy-handedness throughout, the finale feels especially disappointing.

| Aug 30, 2017