Beach Town (2015)

BEACH TOWN  (2015)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Erik Hammen
    Sarah Winsor, Ahren Buhmann, Riley Neldam
    Kenna Kettrick, William Poole, Alyssa Kay,
    Mel Cafe, Zach Sanders, Maya Briller
This movie is like the cinematic equivalent of hanging out, and I mean that in a really good way. It was shot entirely in Seattle, mostly in Ballard, which really does have a beach in a park called Golden Gardens, and it's as close to plotless as a movie can be that has any kind of story arc at all. It recalls a time when the world was young and so were the people in it, when life revolved around record stores and bike shops and hand-to-mouth jobs and little hole-in-the-wall cinemas and little hole-in-the-wall clubs where you or somebody you knew sometimes played music. And, of course, the beach. It's a kicked-back movie to hang out in, if that's what you're looking to do, happy to wander around on foot, tuned to its own leisurely rhythm and going its own leisurely way. The water in the background in the beach scenes is Puget Sound, which is not exactly tropical, and explains why there are a lot of people chilling out on the sand and not very many people swimming.