The Beach Bum

          The Beach Bum is about Matthew McConaughey playing a stoned version of Matthew McConaughey. That's pretty much it. You'd think it would either be the most boring movie ever the most entertaining. Who wouldn't want to watch McConaughey act high off his ass? As it turns out, at least for me, it's more in the middle.

           I thoroughly enjoyed the stoned presence of McConaughey...for about 20 minutes. I asked myself around this time if this was going to be the whole movie and about 30 minutes in my suspicions were confirmed. Nothing was happening except "Moondog" cross-fadingly wandering around Miami. Something does happen eventually that introduces a plot, but you would think that they would go about this in a cohesive way. It doesn't. You would think that by the end of the movie, the character would have a change of heart. I'm not gonna say, but it's not in a way you would think. By the time the movie ended, I wanted to be mad at how I just wasted two hours of my life. I wanted to feel outraged that all I paid to see was McConaughey smoke weed for two hours. I ended up leaving the theater feeling oddly relaxed.
          I've come to the conclusion that most of my gripes with this movie stem from the context in which I watched it. A) I saw this movie by myself and B) this movie may not be fitted for a theatrical experience. Unless you're seeing this movie with some friends looking for a good laugh then you might wanna wait till you can watch it at home. It's definitely a much more enjoyable experience at, maybe, a sleepover or a weed party or whatever the crazy kids do.
          My main gripe is with how the movie treated its plot. There was one, but they mostly chose to ignore it. However, that isn't entirely bad. Yes, the plot went mostly underdeveloped, but it strangely didn't feel like the most important thing. Rather than favoring something the audiences can easily follow, the film instead immerses you in an experience which is what drives this movie forward. Dazed, confused, and stoned experience is what ties this movie together and I wasn't that mad at it.
          McConaughey is fantastic once again, even if he is playing a character that so closely resembles his celebrity persona on steroids. His character is extremely eccentric and everyone he interacts with is eccentric. Anthony Lane from the New Yorker sums up this idea perfectly in his review. He states "What a pleasure it is to meet certain characters in the movies, and what a relief not to know them in real life." In the right context, this movie is very enjoyable and there are plenty of irreverent laughs to go around, but try not to get bored 20 minutes in. I can easily see this movie becoming a guilty pleasure in the future and I wish it had come out an earlier time in my life. I definitely would've watched this at a sleepover. 6/10