The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

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DarkImbecile
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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#27 Post by DarkImbecile » Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:34 pm

Come on, man... no spoiler tag? I guess there's no reason to see it now.

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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#28 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:09 am

The Deodato version of "Zarathustra" is a nice touch

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Omensetter
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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#29 Post by Omensetter » Sun Mar 10, 2019 3:54 pm

Reviews for Harmony Korine's The Beach Bum are trickling in from South by Southwest:

Variety
Screen Daily
Hollywood Reporter
------
The above reviewers aren't much into it or they admit they aren't on its wavelength, but Twitter reactions seem a lot more positive. The constants seem to be that McConaughey gives a committed performance regardless of similarities to himself and that it's, well, certainly a Harmony Korine film, albeit significantly more cheerier than Spring Breakers. It seems as chill a time at the theatres than anything---artful, yet devoid of pretension; hopefully, NEON can get it out there and it can find traction later this month.

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Omensetter
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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#30 Post by Omensetter » Sat Mar 23, 2019 2:08 pm

NEON's set to put this in wide release next week.

I hope they know what they're doing, especially after Vox Lux, although this is certainly an easier sell.

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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#31 Post by mfunk9786 » Sat Mar 23, 2019 7:30 pm

Sounds like they want it out of theaters faster.

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Never Cursed
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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#32 Post by Never Cursed » Fri Mar 29, 2019 2:57 am

In no way is this close to what you could call a "good" movie or one with a lot of narrative thrust, but I mildly enjoyed this as a big dumb adventure, and there are some stupid, stupid charms in some of the more outlandish sequences (including one shocking use of gore that brought the entire house down). McConaughey is good, if that's the right word, at embodying the whole of the Florida Man meme as a person, and the movie on the whole looks like it was an absolute blast to make, so there really isn't any way for me to argue against this one's existence, even if most people, myself included, are not quite on its wavelength.

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Mr Sheldrake
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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#33 Post by Mr Sheldrake » Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:23 am

It is irrelevant to point out how stupid The Beach Bum is as it is meant to be stupid, at least in terms of plot, believability etc. Moondoggie won't supplant the Dude in the stoner hierarchy but he certainly challenges Cheech and Chong for the amount of dope consumed in 90 minutes, he (and practically everyone else) is puffing away in every scene.

I lost the thread of his joyfulness when after escaping with a scary dude from rehab, the pair assault an old man in a wheelchair for his money and leave him helplessly sprawled on the ground (all in good fun). The gleeful anarchy is further subverted by the gooey sentimentality of the scenes when Moondoggie confronts wife, daughter, friends, sunsets. This Hollywood conventionality, strangely enough, is the only thing that feels authentic in the movie.

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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#34 Post by cantinflas » Tue Apr 23, 2019 9:14 pm


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TraverseTown
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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#35 Post by TraverseTown » Tue Apr 23, 2019 11:15 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:
Sat Mar 23, 2019 7:30 pm
Sounds like they want it out of theaters faster.
This prediction was spot on. Box Office Mojo: Between Week 2 and Week 4 of it's theatrical run it dropped from 1000 theaters to just 36, which is a massive drop even by indie standards.

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knives
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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#36 Post by knives » Fri Aug 09, 2019 3:52 pm

Admittedly I love Korine's other features, but this is a great continuation of many of his previous ideas. He delivers everything wrong and right about Florida in one loving package. Moondog is a pretty terrible person, but Korine gives so much empathy to him that it is hard to hate him even though he is so severely flawed. If Spring Breakers was about the social damage of outsiders then this is about not taking in alternative modes of expression. Baudelaire is probably the most telling part of the movie. I also love that this movie loves in equal measure Snoop Dogg and Jimmy Buffett.

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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#37 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Aug 13, 2019 4:27 pm

I loved this. The cinematography is absolutely dazzling, and the film feels borderline life affirming as a portrait of those living on the fringes of society. I started out as no fan of Korine's, but Spring Breakers was pretty good and this is even better. It seems like it's finally getting to the point where he really has something to say as a filmmaker outside of merely trying to provoke. I am looking forward to whatever's next.

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Re: The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019)

#38 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Jan 20, 2021 11:01 pm

As if I needed another reminder of the power of revisits, I finally acclimated to this film's wavelength on a second go for similar reasons as knives and mfunk summarize so succinctly. Korine manages to convey an intimacy between man and his world as he moves through it, with it, in alternate dimensions we don't often observe because we don't possess the flexible schemas to perceive or believe we can mentally access against social norms. And yet, it's not an intimacy the audience is completely invited in on, to contrast with that which we were smothered with in Spring Breakers- Sure, we are included but mostly in pieces of montage that end in jarring abrupt shifts or deflating transitions that demonstrate how moments are fleeting, highs aren't permanent, and that iconoclasm's simplicity is illusory. The film addresses complacency, the merits and harms of a selfish unapologetic lifestyle, and the struggles with moving in a world where the currents move with and against us, and vice versa, all without didacticism or taking anything beyond a neutral, interested and passionately humanistic position, taken to extremist perversity. The rehab section could be so offensive, but is shot in a manner that reflects the self-diagnosis of the characters who aren't ready for it, and the film has the boldness to accept this (and even celebrate it!)- a choice I found admirable to counter my own context. Zac Efron's character reminds me of specific people I've known in my own life who by being close to them have led to invaluable experiences and greater appreciation for wonderful sides of humanity under the guise of being only red flags- a dehumanizing view that's unfair no matter how problematic they are.

The many stages of drug experiences are basically the editing and narrative structure, as Korine transmits by choosing when to move in with firm involvement into the trip and when to remove us with some sobriety transmitted in technique. The plot intrusions that force development mirror as these waves of ocean current that impede our derelictions and aggressively work to promote change- though Korine recognizes that even within these crossroads (which he gives us in the most recycled cinematic constructs as a kind of cheeky wink at the banality of these "problems" for a "great and brilliant" unique man like Moondog) there are limitless methods by which we can respond including many of compromised rejection, and that's what illustrates for one the singularity of their identity. Only in the magic of the movies is everyone rooting for the main character like this, the world revolving around him, which to Korine's credit has some truth in that we are the center of our own worlds and subject to a spectrum of infinite degrees in our own personal contextualizations of morality, rather than the two or three choices we believe exist in societally-informed neat boxes. This is truly a film that comprehends the corporeal world as far more cosmically boundless than most films do, and is probably a lot closer to the truth too, which is so ironic to write after the fantastical stimuli we're flooded with here. Korine, who has no qualms about surrendering from the confines of propriety, has made a character resembling his ethos- who outright states that the expressions of art pour out when he lets himself loose, is his authentic self, and takes an attitude of appreciation for the endless particles of beauty around him; making energy tangible that most of us never imagined could be.

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