In the small beach town on the New Jersey shore where “Low Tide” plays out, there’s not much for teenage boys to do except loiter at the fairground and pick fights with the summer visitors whose money is both needed and resented. From time to time, Alan ( Keean Johnson ) and his friends Red ( Alex Neustaedter ) and Smitty ( Daniel Zolghadri ) break into vacation homes and steal what they can. Yet we get the sense that these amateur raids are conducted as much to alleviate boredom as provide pocket money.

The laid-back sheriff ( Shea Whigham ) is on to them, but is most concerned about the volatile Red — the kind of kid whose rough, menacing glamour goes quickly to seed. Red’s flares of rage are already alienating his friends, especially Alan, whose attention has strayed to a cute vacationer ( Kristine Froseth ). Even so, he agrees to participate in a final burglary, reluctantly conscripting his younger, smarter brother ( Jaeden Martell ) as a lookout. What happens next will yank the film from observant coming-of-age drama to trite crime caper — a disappointing swerve into snitching, double-crossing and discordant violence.