Frankie, an aimless teenager living on the outer edges of Brooklyn, is having a miserable summer. His father is terminally ill and his mother is keen for him to find a girlfriend, and so Frankie escapes the bleakness of his home life by causing trouble with his friends and flirting with older men online.

He begins hooking up with men at a nearby cruising beach, while reluctantly entering into a relationship with a girl, Simone. As Frankie struggles to reconcile these competing desires, his decisions leave him hurtling toward unavoidable consequences.

Beach Rats is the winner of the 2017 Sundance Directing Award (U.S. Dramatic).