The Beach Bum

Just wanna do a real quick shoutout on Harmony Korine’s follow up to Spring Breakers called The Beach Bum.  Matthew McConaughey (Killer Joe) plays Moondog, a guy who floats from bar to bar in Key West incessantly drinking PBR tall boys and smoking weed.  Sometimes he goes fishing, sometimes he bangs away on an old typewriter piecing together short poems.  He’s on permanent vacation.  When his wife/girlfriend/lover character Minnie (Isla Fisher (The Lookout)) asks that he come up to Miami for their daughter’s wedding he’s reluctant but knows he has to make an appearance.  I don’t wanna say much else on the plot because part of the beauty of this film is not knowing what lies ahead on Moondog’s travels.

The thing about Moondog is he’s enviable on one hand but a wreck on the other.  You wish you could lead his kinda life where you do whatever you want whenever you want seemingly without consequence.  You have a ton of friends and everyone loves you.  But Moondog is also a serious asshole who hurts people.  And he doesn’t care who he steps on if it permits him to continue to live the lifestyle he created for himself.  In a few instances he’s flat out mean to some folks for no reason like when he pushes a guy playing a tuba off a pier into the water.  He cackles to himself at the accomplishment.  This is a character we should either loath or admire.  Somehow I feel both.  Korine pulls off the damn near impossible by masterfully handling the complicated emotions we can have towards others.

Of course McConaughey is spectacular as the titular bum.  He was born to play this role.  The whole picture rests on his shoulders and requires a range of emotions which he nails perfectly.  When he’s blitzed (which is most of the time) he can be affable as hell and when he’s down he can be completely unreasonable.  McConaughey gets the balancing act right.

Another charming aspect is the good cast of supporting characters that show up.  Snoop Dog (Training Day) plays an R&B artist who’s best friends with Moondog and Minnie.  He basically plays himself but that’s what you want from Snoop.  His dialogue feels adlibbed and results in some pretty funny scenes (that goes for all the side characters really) especially when we discover he might also be a drug lord which would explain the armed guards he’s always surrounded by.  Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) is Moondog’s publisher or agent or something and he sports a ridiculously thick Louisiana accent.  And Martin Lawrence (Boomerang) is a seedy dolphin boat captain who’s probably the funniest I’ve seen him in forever.  Again, I won’t divulge too much here because it’s better if you’re surprised with what happens when these folks get involved.

This is a gorgeous looking movie too by the way.  Lots of bright neon, setting suns, deep blues of the ocean, awesome production design with the gaudy clothing, tricked out boats, glamourous mansions, cars and etc.  And it has a killer fuckin’ soundtrack to boot featuring The Cure, Edgar Winter, Van Morrison, Jimmy Buffett and…Creed (in a funny scene where we’re not sure if Moondog actually likes the song “Higher” or if he’s only humoring the douche who put it on).  All around a very nicely made film.

Don’t fret if the movie seems plotless for a long stretch because Korine sneakily unrolls one without you realizing it.  As we tag along with Moondog and drift from one situation to the next the pieces eventually come together and by the end I didn’t want to say goodbye.  It’s part cautionary tale, fairy tale, comedy, drama, slice of (extraordinary) life, dream-like, sobering and everything in between.  It’s really impressive filmmaking.

Honestly this picture deserves a deeper dive than this short piece but well, I’m just not doing that.  I didn’t initially plan on writing anything but the more I thought about this movie the more I liked it.  I think I love it now.  So yea, go check it out.  It’s a good/sad/funny/poignant time.