The Beach Bum is a 2019 comedy following the the adventures of a famous poet who is constantly living the “high” life.
In a magical kingdom known as Florida, where liquor flows as much as the oceans and sex is more easy to find than getting arrested, we meet a man named Moondog (Matthew McConaughey). Once a very famous poet, but now just a local legend, enjoying every single vice known to man, our new hero tours his land like a king. A very grateful one though, who loves everyone and everyone loves him. It seems that anywhere Moondog goes, fun and good times await him around every turn. With his queen Minnie (Isla Fisher) by his side along with his prince Lingerie (Snoop Dogg) to help support his lifestyle, our hero’s story will always have a happy ending.
This latest feature from Harmony Korine (Gummo, SpringBreakers) taps into the memories of movies I enjoyed a lot when I first moved out and began living on my own. Friends and I would have a blast watching titles like Waiting, Old School, Super Troopers and more. These were movies that had everyone quoting lines … but of course, time moves on and my feelings for these have more to do with nostalgia than the actual feature itself. Now, with The Beach Bum, Korine creates a similar movie that I can only imagine will be played at a lot of parties, though unlike the other movies, this one doesn’t have much of a plot.
The whole structure of The Beach Bum – and this is something I have seen in all of Korine’s films except maybe Mr. Lonely and Julien Donkey Boy – is its use of multiple montages to progress the story forward. Most movies have one or two of these sequences, but this one has them everywhere. In another filmmaker’s hands, this would be a mess, but it works quite well here. It helps show the random thought process that Moondog goes through on a daily basis. His life is filled with drugs, sex, more drinking, and so much randomness in his mind that trying to tell this in any conventional sort of way would not work at all. This results in there being many funny moments that you can still understand without having to pay super close attention to the plot. But if you are like most of us that do enjoy a good story with strong character development, well, this technique may grate on your nerves.
There are a few key moments where things change in Moondog’s life and the tone switches abruptly. I wouldn’t mind this if it would try and stick with it for longer than just five minutes before it goes back to what it was before. If this is going to be the misadventures of a guy who can be drunk and high all the time without any sort of consequences than why show any of it if you are not going to commit to it. Most comedies have a moment right before the conclusion where it becomes somewhat serious. But it’s a gradual change that doesn’t come out of nowhere. How it’s used here really took me out of the movie.
This may be the best character McConaughey has played since his debut performance in Dazed and Confused. If you wanted to, you could look at this as a kind of sequel to that one. When high school ended, Wooderson became a poet and changed his name to Moondog. He may be wild and out of control at times, but there is a lot of charm to his character that is very easy to watch. The supporting cast zings with cameos by Zac Efron, Jonah Hill, Martin Lawrence and Jimmy Buffett. Yes, the Jimmy Buffett. They all do a great job making this a fun way to spend a few hours.
When I left the theater, I overheard some guy tell his friend, “I enjoyed it, but I don’t understand the point of it”. That best sums it up.