Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

The Beach Bum Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 25, 2019

I’ve got to go low to get high.

The Beach Bum is as aimless as its lead character, content to meander, linger, and enjoy the moment rather than accomplish anything of worth. But also like the title character, there's an underlying insight to the movie, an occasional dabble into something more profound that usually gives way to the preferential simplicities of rest and relaxation. Maybe the two go hand-in-hand, though, and maybe that's the point. Director Harmony Korine's (Writer, Kids, Director, Spring Breakers) film follows a life of leisure, a leisure that, even through smoky highs and alcohol-fueled skewered perspective and priorities, finds the poetry in life and the purpose of living away from the grindstone world that shackles so many others. It's an interesting dichotomy that the film ultimately does little with, leaving its themes more open to interpretation (and discovery, in many cases) behind a life-fueled and organically realistic performance from Matthew McConaughey as the wayward -- but perhaps focused after all -- lead.

Key West, Florida. Moondog (Matthew McConaughey) lives a carefree life defined by sex, booze, weed, and poetry. He has almost nothing to his name but his attitude and nonchalant approach to life, a life lived in a constant, functional stupor. He lives away from the luxuries his wealthy wife Minnie (Isla Fisher) enjoys up north in Miami. Minnie is having an affair with a man named Lingerie (Snoop Dog). Moondog doesn’t know, but because he’s a philanderer himself, and Minnie doesn’t mind, she believes Moondog won’t care about her affairs, either. Moondog is invited to his daughter Heather’s (Stefania LaVie Owen) wedding, an event that will ultimately rewrite Moondog’s life, even if he’ll never quite grasp the totality of it all.

One needs to squint and dig to try and find a purpose in The Beach Bum. Any such discovery will be opaque at best, much like Moondog himself, who favors pleasure rather than purpose. Unfortunately, the movie delivers little of either. Moondog is portrayed as a gifted poet whose lifestyle is, for his style of work, anyway, quite conducive to his poetic proclivities. His life experiences shape his view of the world, even if those experiences rarely differ all that greatly one from another. Moondog's perpetual state of substance-induced bliss carries him evenly, if not a bit detachedly, though life, including its most would-be blissful highs and would-be soul-scraping lows. Moondog is certainly an interesting character, someone who thrives on an atypical lifestyle but who is obviously capable of more. The movie's value, then, is watching to see how or if the two otherwise disparate halves can coexist on a more meaningful plane of existence.

It's obviously difficult to decipher the movie and assign it any insightful purpose. It's a strain to find the movie's center beyond its contentment to reflect the functional disarray in which Moondog lives, but it's not difficult to find the excellence in Matthew McConaughey's performance. He finds a natural, smooth-moving cadence that combines the physical realities of his continuous alcoholic buzz, the effects of drugs in the system, and a nonchalant attitude towards life which barely changes even during otherwise drastic life-altering events. McConaughey inhabits the character with an eclectic grace that does not merely reflect a stereotype but embraces the excesses that define his internal views of life and external influences that shape his body, mind, and spirit. Even if the movie can't quite find thematic reason to exist, McConaughey's performance is good enough to warrant a watch. The film enjoys several excellent support performances, notably from Snoop Dogg, who essentially plays a variation of himself.

The Beach Bum Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Beach Bum was shot on film and the material translates very well to Blu-ray. The image comes alive with intense oceanside colors. Blue water is one of the obvious highlights, sparkling with impressive depth and contrast. The image understandably runs a little warm throughout, influencing clothes and skin tones, reflecting the hot and carefree world Moondog makes his own. Colorful shirts, natural greens, and bright blue skies are amongst some of the additional color highlights. Textures are well defined. The image showcases crisp, commanding skin details in close-up. Clothing is generally light, reflecting the casual wear that is the norm along the Keys and through Miami, but some more dense clothes like a wedding dress and tuxes stand apart for deeper lines and more robust fabric. Location details are stout and the image maintains an agreeable sharpness throughout. Grain is even and complimentary. There are no significant source or encode flaws of note. This is a very capable and agreeable presentation from Universal.

The Beach Bum Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Beach Bum features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is straightforward, with music pushing nicely to the front edges, offering sound clarity and instrumental and lyric detail. Microphone reverb filters nicely through the stage at the 5:30 mark, again at the 21-minute mark when Moondog and Lingerie talk about rare Jamaican weed, and once more in chapter seven when Lingerie sings a song about Moondog. The track offers little in the way of intense sound effects that push the system. It's content to move with the beat of its own existence, finding a good balance to light environmental atmosphere, music, and dialogue, the latter of which finds a natural, detailed, and well prioritized home in the front-center channel.

The Beach Bum Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Beach Bum contains only an assortment of Trailers & TV Spots, the latter of which are not exactly for the film but rather Moondog's advice hotline. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• Redband Trailer (1080p, 2:33)
• Greenband Trailer (1080p, 2:28)
• Bumlife Spot 1 (1080i, 0:19)
• Bumlife Spot 2 (1080i, 0:24)
• Bumlife Spot 3 (1080i, 0:22)

The Beach Bum Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Beach Bum is a movie that's going to speak to different audiences in different ways. It's easy to appreciate Matthew McConaughey's involved, detailed, and dedicated performance, but anything else is opaque at best and nearly nonexistent at worst. Writer/Director Harmony Korine seems content to allow the movie to meander without much structural integrity or drive. That seems to be the point, serving as a reflection of its character, but whether audiences will find value in a movie that lacks obvious direction is difficult to say. Universal's Blu-ray is absent any substantial bonus content but video and audio qualities are fine. Worth a look.