Neon, the upstart specialty outfit founded by former RADiUS co-chief Tom Quinn and Alamo Drafthouse co-founder Tim League, appears to coming out of the gates guns blazing. Following their acquisition of the buzzy fall festival Anne Hathaway genre buster Colossal, Neon made an impression at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, picking up Ingrid Goes West and admired Roxanne Roxanne. The new distributor has added another Sundance entry to their roster – the critically praised and award winning Beach Rats.
The deal for Neon to pick up North American rights to the film settled shortly before Eliza Hittman won the Best Director prize at Sundance; the film premiered in U.S. Dramatic Competition. All of Neon’s Sundance acquisitions won prizes at Sundance in fact, as Ingrid Goes West picked up the Waldo Salt Screening Award and Roxanne Roxanne was acknowledged with a Special Jury Prize for Chanté Adam’s breakthrough performance.
Beach Rats, which The Hollywood Reporter called “dark, dreamy and entirely engrossing” is a coming-of-age tale centering around a Brooklyn youth named Frankie, played by rising young actor Harris Dickinson. The film focuses on Frankie’s desire to run away from a painful home life as he is plagued with continual questions of his true identity and is pulled in an array of directions over one particularly aimless summer – of which include a team of trouble-making friends, a potential new girlfriend as well as older men he encounters online.
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