Summary
An aging stoner poet struggles to write a book and navigate the storms caused when his slacker philosophy meets ordinary and not so ordinary folk.
My Thoughts
This movie was a blast for me. I know most people won’t feel it as much as “Spring Breakers” (myself included) but Beach Bum has a lot going for it that “Spring Breakers” didn’t: Characters.
That isn’t to say that there were no interesting characters in that film. There were. The problem was that there were only a couple really well fleshed out and interesting ones. In “Beach Bum” every character is as shockingly unique as Alien (James Franco, “Spring Breakers”).
Unfortunately, that’s really the extent of the positives for this movie. The characters are where the variety and humor comes from and there is plenty of both but one of the big issues for this film is that Moondog (Matthew McConaughey, “Dazed and Confused”) is so much less interesting than much of the rest of the cast.
I could have watched a movie about any of at least three other characters in this film from the passive aggressive literary agent (Jonah Hill, “How to Train Your Dragon”) to the scamming dolphin tour boat captain (Martin Lawrence, “Bad Boys”) to the on-fire-for-Jesus tiger channeling rehab patient (Zac Efron, “The Disaster Artist,”) every character in this film makes me want to spend more time with them after they’ve said goodbye. Everyone that except Moondog.
One of the main reasons for this is that there is no growth in this character at all over the course of the film. He is selfish. Largely unaffected by circumstance. He seems to care about his family yet doesn’t care at all about what they want. The film itself seems more in love with him and his apparent legendary status than he does. Despite that, if he showed any growth it might make the movie at least interesting. The problem is that he doesn’t arrive at any of these traits or attitudes within the context of the film. He already is that person when the film starts.
Getting to the end of the film feels like they just got tired of shooting and they called it a day. As far as I can tell there is no good reason for the film to start or end when it does nor for its focus on Moondog throughout.
This film was a big disappointment for me. It has its moments; Zac Efron is the real standout of the film, but it just doesn’t justify itself as anything other than a movie where a bunch of pot smokers got together and partied their way around Florida while they dragged a camera around with them.
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