DOWNBEACH

1988. On the real streets of Monopoly…

The world around sixteen-year-old Mike Gibbon is one of stark contrasts. Atlantic City is simultaneously a place of great wealth and deep despair. Despite playing host to major events like Mike Tyson fights and Wrestlemania, it has just been named by Time magazine as the worst place to live in America.

Gibb, as his friends call him, is one of the most popular kids at Atlantic City High School, and an orphan. That confusing combination forces him to keep his emotional guard up. For support, he relies on his two best friends Dogg and Dougie; they always have his back.

Gibb has two goals this summer, keeping up with the girl of his dreams and sneaking into the Mike Tyson fight. With two hands, he is trying to hold onto the last days of innocence. He feels the world outside his door. The little mischiefs he and his friends partake in keep escalating. Until one fateful night, his door gets kicked in. Before senior year even starts, Gibb must learn to cope with loss, his own culpability, and the first taste of real life.

These kids don’t have to imagine Boardwalk and Park Place, nor ask why Baltic and Mediterranean only cost sixty bucks. They know the next get out of jail free card is never coming!