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
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