Too arty for its own good, writer/director Eliza Hittman resets SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER/’75 with a queer sensibility (as if SNF didn’t already have one) moving sub-text to text following a gaggle of buff shirtless beach besties in summer around the hangouts & sandy shores of Brooklyn’s boardwalk where the days are all buds, bods, bros & handball. Harris Dickinson draws focus as the ‘model’ son whose quiet behavior hides his internet cruising and hookups with daddy substitutes on the ‘down-low.’ (His father dies early in the film from cancer.) As cover for his pals, and himself, he pumps himself up to get something going with a girl who shows interest, but eventually a series of bad decisions (cash, drugs, pawn shop, dangerous late night outings) start to catch up with him and the lines of separation prove impossible to maintain. All this not without interest, but Hittmann asks for too much understanding and sympathy as his behavior significantly worsens. Without his looks, who’d give this ‘rat’ the time of day?
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Federico Fellini’s I VITTELONI/’53 is ground zero for scores of films charting the ways young men can’t quite grow up. It has yet to be bettered.
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