The content of the story is not the focus of "Beach Mouse", it is just the inner entanglement of a deep cabinet boy on the beach in midsummer: he wanders in the city with a few teenagers who are on the verge of illegality, and on the surface is tender with the girl who fell in love with him at first sight Miyi, but his heart is constantly provoked by homosexual desires and can't control himself, but at the same time he is forced to suppress his inner strong desires under the scrutiny of the worldly eyes around him.
The meticulous display of the multiple and complex thoughts of the protagonist's inner world is the focus of the film. Although same-sex love has become an open and common phenomenon in Western society, in a country like the United States where Christian conservative forces are still strong, homosexuality and heterosexuality are still two distinct camps-even though they seem to be in harmony. Nothing, but in essence, they are full of strong hostility towards each other. This is precisely the dilemma faced by the young Frankie in the film: while growing up he realized his true sexual orientation, but in the face of the daily life circle (friends who are full of male hormones, girls who admire him and When his family members misunderstood his inner emotions), he didn't have the courage to make his true thoughts public, and he didn't want to face possible confusion, ridicule and even humiliation from around him. On the one hand, he could not restrain his inner urge to have sex with strange men through social networks. On the other hand, he took the initiative to date girls in order to conceal the facts of his sexual orientation, and even at the end of the film, he tricked other gays into robbery with several accomplices. Their belongings show that they are standing in the heterosexual camp, and at the same time they try to persuade themselves to ignore their true desires. Of course, what he cannot face in the end is the emotional/moral torment that he faces rationally and emotionally: because he lacks the courage to look directly at his true self, he can only continue to hurt those around him who trust him, love him, and treat him with sincerity. People, as the price of maintaining a fragile psychological balance. This is not only a personal tragedy in the shadow of the antagonism between the homosexual and heterosexual camps, but also a psychological portrait of a young man who could not help shrinking and cowardly when faced with a choice. Especially the latter point, it almost transcends the subject matter of gay movies and becomes a personal inner moral torture with universal significance.
Female director Eliza Hitman’s last work "Feeling Like Love" also described the inner anxiety of youth with a similar meaning: the self-esteem and inferiority mentality of a young girl who has just begun to love sex when facing sexual problems. However, this debut work is too straightforward and simple to express, and is trapped in constant repetition in terms of presentation and rhythm. In comparison, the overall level of "Beach Mouse" has reached a new level. Under the concise external form, it uses delicate and subtle brushstrokes to present the different complex thoughts intertwined in the characters' hearts. For example, the film arranged for the male protagonist Frankie to meet her young sister and her beloved boy several times. As the brother, his eyes were full of hostility; and until he finally rushed into his sister’s room and kicked her boyfriend out of the house, We realize that Frankie's "hate" mentality stems from his unwillingness to face up to his own same-sex identity. His rational desire is to restore himself to a heterosexual, but the embarrassment every time he has sex with the opposite sex reminds him of his true sexual orientation, which makes him feel more tormented, so he feels inwardly towards his sister and sister who are in a normal relationship. Her boyfriend grew jealous: He wished to have a spontaneous love relationship with the opposite sex like his sister, so he didn't need to blame himself for the predicament caused by the strong desire for the same sex. Such confusion about sexual orientation and the dual complex mentality of obsessive and hateful desire finally led him to deny his homosexuality by hurting his "kind".
"Beach Mouse" not only has a nuanced psychological level of the characters, it is also quite characteristic in the external form of the image: the film always uses a close-up hand-held lens as a means of expression, in conjunction with the composition of the editing discontinuous picture, using the image of " "Parallel" replaces our common "continuity", leaving a lot of room for imagination and aftertaste for the audience's experience of character behavior and psychological motivation. Particularly commendable is the film’s meticulous sculpting, shaping and presentation of the gay atmosphere and body language, including several paragraphs of unique portrayal of the physical temperament of Frankie and several of his male friends (especially the four-person beach play). The audience is immersed in the overall atmosphere full of male hormones and ambiguous and sprouting, and all of this is a repeated suggestion of Frankie's same-sex mental consciousness. Sometimes we even sigh, maybe only female directors know how to use images to perfectly present the charming moments of the male body.
Also in need of special praise is the actor Harris Dickinson, who plays the protagonist Frankie. His handsome appearance and shy and introverted expression form a very charming contrast. And his meticulous grasp of the character’s inner reversal of several times seems to be very measured-the audience did not feel disgusted by such a same-sex "traitor", on the contrary, we understood his inner doubts, anxiety and contradictions, and even produced him A little bit of consolation sympathy. This may be the purpose of director Eliza Hitman: this is a film focused on shaping the personal image of the young Frankie. Only plump and charming characters can put the theme on the peak of emotions.
The misunderstanding of many gay movies in the past is to treat “homosexuality” as a sensitive, controversial, topical event. They spend far more on the subject than shaping the inner world of the characters. The most unique thing about "Beach Mouse" is that it restores "homosexuality" to the contradictory entanglement of personal inner emotional and moral values, thus surpassing the externally labelled symbol of "gay male" and directing the core of the film to everyone. The question of life attitude choices that we will encounter: bravery or cowardice, sincerity or hypocrisy, it always tortures the soul of each of us, and such a problem will not automatically gain immunity because a certain group of people is "comrade" or not s answer. This is Eliza Hitman's superior choice.
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