Sometimes an actor or actress will find themselves in the part they were born to play. Ben Affleck’s personal life made him the perfect choice to play Nick Dunne in Gone Girl. Anna Kendrick was always going to crush it as an a capella singer surrounded by sass. But dare I say, no role is more perfect for anyone than Matthew McConaughey to play a carefree druggie poet named Moondog. Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum builds itself around the talented McConaughey, who probably couldn’t believe he got paid to work on this movie.
Yep, that’s really McConaughey’s character’s name. Moondog. At one point, he was a brilliant poet. So brilliant that he married a crazy rich woman in Miami, Minnie (Isla Fisher). This awesome set of circumstances allows him to traverse the Florida Keys at his leisure, hanging out with various people including his best friend Lingerie (Snoop Doog, another perfect casting) and eventually show up at his daughter Heather’s (Stefania LaVie Owen) wedding. Eventually good will toward Moondog runs dry, forcing him to finish a 2nd book in order to cash in. In order to write the book though, he needs to drink, snort, and hook up to excess, which isn’t exactly cheap.
Harmony Korine’s last film was Spring Breakers, which generated one of the great supporting characters of the decade, James Franco’s Alien. That film, like all of Korine’s films, peddles in the awful dregs of humanity, and how deep down most of us are pretty despicable in one way or another. Movies about awful people that are never happy don’t exactly sell well, but Korine has found a neat way to package his thesis: 24 hour party culture. The Beach Bum could technically be called an adventure movie, with all the crazy scenarios Moondog finds himself in, all of which are pretty hilarious at some point. During the Moondog adventures, Korine puts McConaughey around people who are either poorer, lamer, or more crazy than he is. The point Korine is making is after the adventure is over: Moondog basically gets off scott free, and other people suffer, are hurt, or heck, even die. Everyone sorta shakes their head and laughs at this, completely missing the point: the only reason we laugh at Moondog and don’t punish him is because he’s a genius/rich. Korine, as he does, belabors and beats his point into the ground, but it’s still a compelling one that will stay with you for at least a little bit after The Beach Bum ends.
Also helping us sorta laugh at Moondog is watching McConaughey playing the perfect role for all of his talents and personality. Lincoln commercial McConaughey can be seen when Moondog pontificates after his lifestyle of consumption finds nirvana. Wooderson McConaughey can be seen in all of the inappropriate flirting everyone in Miami seems to tolerate because of his raw sexiness. And McConaissance McConaughey can be seen all over the place: with as good of a drug induced stupor I have seen anyone pull off for 90 minutes. Korine helps his star by giving him truly great performers to play off of too. Snoop is basically himself, just with the name Lingerie. Watching McConaughey and him bounce off each other is high entertainment everytime it happens. Isla Fisher channels a settled down version of her Wedding Crashers character. Jonah Hill is doing Foghorn Leghorn. Jimmy Buffet gets wasted in Margaritaville. Even Martin Lawrence is great with the 10 minutes he is given to be Captain Wack. The standout for me though is Zac Efron, who with 7 minutes creates a psychopath that I at least considered wanting to follow instead of Moondog, high praise for Efron and how far he’s come as an actor.
The Beach Bum seems destined to be misinterpreted a la Wall Street. Matthew McConaughey is too good at playing a stoner poet, that people will probably miss Korine’s message about how cruel Moondog’s life is. Instead, it will inspire people to come up with adventures similar to the ones Moondog experiences to find his genius. Ok Harmony Korine, you win. I might be becoming as cynical as you are to the human race.