美国国家公共电台 NPR A Closeted Teen Struggles To Maintain His Double Life In 'Beach Rats'

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

When the film "Beach Rats" won the best directing prize at Sundance in January, there was snow on the ground. The film's suntanned teenagers are more in sync with the season now. Critic Bob Mondello says one of them is still not comfortable in his own skin.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE¹: Frankie is a good looking kid, late-teens, tall, buff, bronzed, a surfer type killing² time at Coney Island. At night, though, what Frankie surfs is the web, sitting in the dark, experimenting with things he doesn't dare to by day.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEACH RATS")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Are you just going to watch?

HARRIS DICKINSON: (As Frankie) Maybe.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Turn on more light. I can't see you - pretty.

DICKINSON: (As Frankie) Thanks.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Do you like what you see?

DICKINSON: (As Frankie) I don't really know what I like.

MONDELLO: As if to establish how true that is, he heads back out to the beach, where the flirting³ is more conventional, illuminated⁴ by fireworks.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEACH RATS")

MADELINE WEINSTEIN: (As Simone) I think they're romantic.

DICKINSON: (As Frankie) Fireworks are, like, the opposite of romantic.

WEINSTEIN: (As Simone) So what's your idea of romance?

MONDELLO: Frankie will be more pursued than pursuer here. But when Simone climbs first into his Coney Island bumper⁵ car and then into his bed...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEACH RATS")

WEINSTEIN: (As Simone) Do you think I'm pretty?

MONDELLO: ...He goes along willingly enough, anything to escape his home life - a father who's dying of cancer, a mother who can't figure out what's going on with her son, possibly because what's going on with her son changes by the hour.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEACH RATS")

KATE HODGE: (As Donna) Are you on drugs?

DICKINSON: (As Frankie) Right now, yeah.

HODGE: (As Donna) What drugs are you on?

DICKINSON: (As Frankie) Good ones, the best.

HODGE: (As Donna) Do you need help?

DICKINSON: (As Frankie) No. I feel so good right now. I just...

MONDELLO: Director Eliza Hittman has set "Beach Rats" in a cruisy, rundown, working-class neighborhood that feels worlds away from the hipster Brooklyn that audiences know from TV. And she populates the fringes of her film with non-actors, which gives it a rough, lived-in quality, enough so that you worry about Frankie as he drifts in confusion, hormone-fueled but basically innocent from his beach rat buddies⁶ and their quest to stay high to his fraught⁷ encounters with Simone and with older male partners.

Actor Harris Dickinson makes Frankie almost charismatic in his ambivalence⁸, intriguingly⁹ hard to read, with an easy New York drawl that's so persuasive¹⁰ you'd never guess the performer is British. He and the filmmakers have perched Frankie right on the cusp of adulthood¹¹ at a moment where his conflicting desires will lead to physical conflict unless he makes choices even, as it turns out, if he makes choices, which leaves Frankie haunted by doubts and makes "Beach Rats" just plain haunting. I'm Bob Mondello.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 flirting   

v.调情，打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Don't take her too seriously; she's only flirting with you. 别把她太当真，她只不过是在和你调情罢了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• 'she's always flirting with that new fellow Tseng!" “她还同新来厂里那个姓曾的吊膀子！ 来自子夜部分

4 illuminated   

adj.被照明的；受启迪的

参考例句：

• Floodlights illuminated the stadium. 泛光灯照亮了体育场。
• the illuminated city at night 夜幕中万家灯火的城市

5 bumper   

n.(汽车上的)保险杠；adj.特大的，丰盛的

参考例句：

• The painting represents the scene of a bumper harvest.这幅画描绘了丰收的景象。
• This year we have a bumper harvest in grain.今年我们谷物丰收。

6 buddies   

n.密友( buddy的名词复数 )；同伴；弟兄；（用于称呼男子，常带怒气）家伙v.（如密友、战友、伙伴、弟兄般）交往( buddy的第三人称单数 )；做朋友；亲近（…）；伴护艾滋病人

参考例句：

• We became great buddies. 我们成了非常好的朋友。 来自辞典例句
• The two of them have become great buddies. 他们俩成了要好的朋友。 来自辞典例句

7 fraught   

adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的

参考例句：

• The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions.未来数月将充满重大的决定。
• There's no need to look so fraught!用不着那么愁眉苦脸的！

8 ambivalence   

n.矛盾心理

参考例句：

• She viewed her daughter's education with ambivalence.她看待女儿的教育问题态度矛盾。
• She felt a certain ambivalence towards him.她对他的态度有些矛盾。

9 intriguingly   

参考例句：

• Intriguingly, she gave to the music a developed although oddly malleable personality. 最神奇的是，她的音乐具有成熟却又很奇怪地极富可塑性。 来自互联网
• Intriguingly, the patients brains were riddled with tangles, but not amyloid plaques. 有趣的是，患者的大脑中充满了各缠结，但并没有粉斑。 来自互联网

10 persuasive   

adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的

参考例句：

• His arguments in favour of a new school are very persuasive.他赞成办一座新学校的理由很有说服力。
• The evidence was not really persuasive enough.证据并不是太有说服力。

11 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。