The Beach Bum Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since ‘Spring Breakers’ had been pretty wild, I thought I might as well check out Harmony Korine’s next directing effort. First of all, his previous movie made apparently enough waves so he had for the first time a cast filled up with well-known actors (Matthew McConaughey, Snoop Dogg, Isla Fisher, Zac Efron, Jonah Hill and even Martin Lawrence). Still, as usual with this director, Korine didn’t make it easy for us to really enjoy his new movie, that’s for sure. I mean, what were we supposed to feel about Moondog? Admiration? Disgust? Envy? Pity? I mean, sure, on one hand, the idea of going through life as some kind of endless party might sound pretty neat, even like the best thing ever for many people, on the other hand, even though it was rather unlikely that Moondog wouldn’t experience any physical issue with so much excesses, there was an obvious price to pay for his mind as you could see his mental state slowly deteriorating. Basically, what’s the point of all this fun if you’re going to become a vegetable in the process? How can you appreciate it if you can’t even remember your own name? But, maybe, that’s the whole point. Indeed, maybe, we should try to live for the fullest and die much younger and, as said by Jim Morrison who must have been an inspiration to Moondog, ‘I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames’. And, indeed, the whole thing was just so wild and so unpredictable, it was quite spellbinding to behold. Still, it was also rather dark, messy and chaotic. The fact that Moondog didn’t even really flinch following the death of his wife during a car accident (during which he was actually present) also displayed his complete disconnect with the rest of humanity. It is actually a common character trait to all drug addicts and alcoholics and it certainly didn’t make his lifestyle attractive after all. Anyway, to conclude, even if I can’t say I really enjoyed the damned thing, I still think it was a decent watch and I guess it might be worth a look, at least, if you want to see something slightly more original than usual.