“Do you think its hot when two guys make out?” a teen boy nervously asks his new girlfriend in a trailer for “Beach Rats.” Seconds before, Simone (Madeline Weinstein) told the boy (Harris Dickinson) that she’s made out with girls “lots of times,” since “it’s hot when two girls make out.” But Frankie doesn’t seem so sure she’ll feel the same about guys, and he’s not just asking out of curiosity — he’s trying to figure out what Simone would think if she knew about how he spends his time apart from her.

Written and directed by Eliza Hittman (“It Felt Like Love”), “Beach Rats” follows Frankie during an especially fraught time. He’s “aimless” and “suffocates under the oppressive glare cast by his family and a toxic group of delinquent friends,” the film’s official synopsis details. “Struggling with his own identity, Frankie begins to scour hookup sites for older men. When his chatting and webcamming intensify, he begins meeting men at a nearby cruising beach,” all while getting closer to Simone.

The trailer shows Frankie trying to navigate his desires (“I don’t really know what I like,” he tells a man) and dealing with family drama (“You can’t act this way,” his mom insists).

Hittman won Sundance’s U.S. drama directing award for the film. “I think there is nothing more taboo in this country than a woman with ambition, and I am going to work my way through a system that is completely discriminatory towards women,” she said in her acceptance speech. “And Hollywood, I’m coming for you.”

“Beach Rats” hits theaters August 25.