The Beach Bum
Neon | Release Date: March 29, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
11
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
89
Austin ChronicleDan GentileMar 27, 2019
There’s a moment in The Beach Bum when aging wastrel Moondog smokes a joint in a hammock, surrounded by naked women, with two hands on a bongo drum and a mouthful of gibberish poetry. That moment lasts 95 minutes, and it is glorious. Read full review
83
The PlaylistRyan OliverMar 10, 2019
The hedonism on display is very much of a piece with “Trash Humpers” and “Spring Breakers,” but in a surprising change of pace for Korine, the film is more at ease with itself, and more emotional than either of those two provocative efforts. Read full review
80
TheWrapDave WhiteMar 28, 2019
McConaughey dives headfirst into the well here, howling all the way, and his committed performance is one to admire even if it’s not one to like. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 28, 2019
Somehow, The Beach Bum is even nuttier, less logical, more visually beautiful and down-in-the-gutter uglier than the film you just imagined from that description. Read full review
80
The GuardianKristy PuchkoMar 11, 2019
Joyous, outrageous and slyly mournful. Read full review
75
Slant MagazinePeter GoldbergMar 28, 2019
With the film, Harmony Korine solidifies his position as the premier cartographer of the Sunshine State as a place of unhurried pursuits. Read full review
75
The AtlanticDavid SimsMar 28, 2019
The most shocking thing about the film is its unabashed cheerfulness. For all Korine’s trademark provocation, The Beach Bum somehow manages to be an upbeat, triumphant tale of creativity and free-spiritedness. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 10, 2019
Korine’s visual gifts are on full display, capturing both the opulence of Florida and its scuzzy side in a way that finds beauty in both. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekMar 28, 2019
The Beach Bum is barely a movie; it’s more of a joyous squiggle adorned with a paper cocktail umbrella, a “What did I just see?” dollar-store trinket. But in these dark times, it’s just the ticket. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMar 28, 2019
This is a comedy whose laughs seem to arise as much from the silly, sun-drenched atmosphere as from individual gags, and whose pleasures can feel as sweet and impermanent as marijuana smoke. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Mar 27, 2019
The Beach Bum, by turn, seems to exist in the hazy headspace of its protagonist, a kindred spirit in less-than-lofty, party-till-you-puke ambition. But there’s a bummer relevance lurking in his fantasy of a rich idiot who does whatever he wants and faces no consequences for his actions. Read full review
67
The Film StageJohn FinkMar 18, 2019
The Beach Bum is a skillfully crafted and often hilariously entertaining, but like an evening with Moondog, it might leave you with a hangover. Read full review
67
IndieWireMichael NordineMar 9, 2019
[McConaughey]’s so entertaining, in fact, that it takes nearly the entirety of “The Beach Bum” to fully absorb how little else there is to the film once the initial high of basking in Moondog’s perma-stoned glory wears off. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 27, 2019
Thus the hapless hordes of college kids who went to see “Spring Breakers” hoping for a mindless good time and were appalled when the fun got spit back in their faces with candy-colored brio. That movie was and is a conceptual masterpiece, a movie specifically built to cross an audience’s wires. The Beach Bum, by contrast, isn’t close to that level. Read full review
63
The Associated PressLindsey BahrMar 26, 2019
A bizarre and transfixing carnival of vulgarity and vice. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Simran HansNov 5, 2019
It’s not unfunny watching McConaughey smoke a joint from between Isla Fisher’s toes, but some viewers may find themselves less enamoured of Moondog than the film is. Read full review
60
Film ThreatBobby LePireMar 15, 2019
The Beach Bum is not a terrible movie. The directing is competent, the score is excellent, and the cast is game and hilarious. However, considering who was at the helm, it is not focused enough and winds up with nothing to say. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterJon FroschMar 9, 2019
Bu I, admittedly, had a hard time getting on its woozy wavelength. But The Beach Bum is a work of undeniable commitment and craft — a gonzo picaresque, soaked with booze and filled with gyrating, jiggling flesh, that will play well to the not-negligible segment of the population where cannabis lovers and cinephiles overlap. Read full review
58
Original-CinJim SlotekMar 27, 2019
Though Korine (Spring Breakers) doesn’t figure out how to make his protagonist breathe (at least smokelessly), he does do a commendable job of making the Florida Keys come alive with sunshine, pastel colours and partying. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 1, 2019
In short, the pursuit of pleasure is not confined to our hero alone but extended to all comers, with a horny democratic good will, and it’s typical of Korine to suggest that, in an era as acrimonious as ours, the true provocation is to harbor no grudges, to forgive us our trespasses, and to drift along, catching the tide of contentment. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 29, 2019
I can’t tell if Korine is a true dramatist or a simpleminded provocateur who lives to mess with our heads. Both, probably. To him, the joke is that it’s all movie fodder. Moondog is an existential hero for a weightless universe. Read full review
50
USA TodayBrian TruittMar 28, 2019
It isn't good and it isn't bad – it is, to borrow a fitting adjective, "all right." But the film might as well be called “Matthew McConaughey: The Movie,” as it casts McConaughey in a role seemingly tailor-made for his famous style and yet, like the actor himself, also upends those same expectations. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 28, 2019
The Beach Bum feels like a similar display of prized possessions – only that one of you (Matthew) is taking us on a tour of his bongo- and bong-filled bedroom, while the other (hi, Harmony) is just leading us to his toilet. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 27, 2019
A fun-for-a-while attempt by writer-director Harmony Korine, American indie cinema’s effrontery kingpin, to go a little bit mainstream. Matthew McConaughey is the reason it’ll get by. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonMar 9, 2019
While one can’t argue with the Oscar-winner’s commitment, there’s far more mannerisms than inspiration — a criticism that also applies to this self-indulgent, infrequently transfixing stoner comedy. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 9, 2019
Simultaneously shaggy and hyper-stylized, The Beach Bum plays like a less-coked-out “Scarface,” the collected works of Charles Bukowski, and a Cheech & Chong movie all rolled up in one — an epic goof in which the cast (not just McConaughey but Snoop Dogg, Martin Lawrence, Jonah Hill, and Jimmy Buffett) play elaborate, semi-improvised caricatures of outlandish tropical fruits. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 2, 2019
McConaughey, as I mentioned, has an Oscar. But this “performance” seems so unerringly stoned and slack-jawed that you can’t believe it’s not filmed reality. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMar 27, 2019
Hard on the heels of January’s god-awful "Serenity," we’re now treated to The Beach Bum — a shambling, self-indulgent inside joke about a perpetually stoned holy fool from the Florida Keys named Moondog. I’ll give you one guess who plays him. Read full review
33
ConsequenceDan CaffreyMar 10, 2019
Moondog’s antics aren’t all that funny or captivating, even when divorced from their assholery. Read full review
30
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMar 28, 2019
What The Beach Bum celebrates as transgression is pure tedium. What it takes for divine lunacy is frat house doggerel. The booze flows freely. The women are topless and ornamental. The cars and boats are fast and expensive. There’s nothing much worth writing about. Read full review
25
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiMar 22, 2019
Meet Moondog — a movie character you’ll want to punch in the face. Read full review
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