The Beach Bum

Full-on disaster and total utopia both tend to feel close at hand in the films of visionary director Harmony Korine. The same is the case with The Beach Bum, where Matthew McConaughey plays the constantly weed smoking, pink-cocktails-and-beer-slurping, wealthy poet bum Moondog. Even when he winds up on the street, and then on to rehab, and is forced into finishing his great unfinished novel, Moondog always keeps a steady course for the next easily attainable pleasure. Or maybe, just maybe, he is secretly wondering if life should sometimes be more than just fun and games?

The Beach Bum is a diagnosis of contemporary society, disguised as pure entertainment; an image of a world in which no one seems to care that their world is facing certain demise. It is a leisurely party film, but contains glimpses of pure audiovisual magic. If sleazy humour, tits and hairy legs make you uncomfortable, this probably isn’t the film for you.