The Beach Bum

Poet Moondog lives a hedonistic and pseudo-nomadic lifestyle in and around the Florida Keys while slowly working on his new book and enjoying life as a local legend despite the common opinion that he is past his prime. His escapades are funded by his wealthy wife Minnie, to the disapproval of their soon-to-wed daughter Heather and his agent Lewis. Moondog flirts and cheats with several women he meets on his journeys, while Minnie is in a passionate affair with Moondog's friend, R&B singer Lingerie.

After arriving late to Heather's wedding in Miami, Moondog gropes the groom, Frank, in front of the audience. Later, during a talk about Moondog’s crude behavior, Minnie confesses her affair to her daughter (which Moondog has no knowledge of). Meanwhile, Lingerie shows Moondog a potent strain of cannabis, endemic to an isolated pond in Jamaica, which he claims to be responsible for his success.

During the reception, Moondog smooths things over with Heather and Frank while they cut the cake. He later witnesses Minnie and Lingerie kissing and, in shock, swims in a fountain and then runs off. Minnie tracks down Moondog at a local bar, and the two enjoy a night of intoxicated karaoke and dancing, culminating with Minnie drunkenly driving into oncoming traffic. Moondog escapes with minor injuries, but Minnie dies in the hospital shortly after.

Half of Minnie's estate goes to Heather, while Moondog's half is frozen and placed under Heather’s control; she will grant it to him once he proves he can mature and finish his novel. In retaliation, and due to Lewis’ refusal to book seminars for Moondog due to his work ethic, Moondog recruits a group of homeless people and trashes Minnie's mansion. To avoid prison time, he agrees to a year of rehabilitation but breaks out of the facility with a pyromaniac named Flicker. The two part ways as Moondog makes his way back to Miami.

He bumps into an old friend and alleged Vietnam veteran dubbed "Captain Wack" who offers Moondog an opportunity to co-captain dolphin tours around the outer Keys. Captain Wack decides to swim with the dolphins during a tour before realizing too late that they are sharks, which sever his foot. Now back in Miami and wanted by the law, Moondog reconnects with Lingerie, who confesses to Moondog about his affair with Minnie but claims Minnie truly loved Moondog. The revelations provoke little reaction from Moondog. After Lingerie and Jimmy Buffett tell Moondog about a respective dream and experience the two had concerning crossdressing to avoid detection, Moondog begins to do just that. The police eventually bear down on Lingerie’s property, prompting Moondog to flee to Key West with Lingerie's help and an undisclosed amount of the Jamaican weed.

Inspired, Moondog completes his book, a poetic memoir titled The Beach Bum. The book is universally lauded and nets Moondog a Pulitzer Prize. A newly-divorced Heather is impressed with her father's strides and unfreezes his inheritance, which Moondog demands to be in physical cash and placed on a large sailboat. During a party to celebrate his wealth, Moondog lights the money on fire, triggering several fireworks and causing an explosion. Moondog survives unscathed, but the crowd is too concerned with the raining money to care as he drifts away on a boat.

• Matthew McConaughey as Moondog, Minnie’s husband and Heather’s father
• Snoop Dogg as Lingerie ("Rie"), an R&B singer and Minnie's lover
• Isla Fisher as Minnie, Moondog's wife and Heather's mother
• Stefania LaVie Owen as Heather, Minnie and Moondog's daughter and Frank's wife
• Martin Lawrence as Captain Wack, a dolphin tour guide and claimed Vietnam War veteran
• Zac Efron as Flicker, a drug rehabilitation patient and pyromaniac
• Jonah Hill as Lewis, Moondog's agent
• Jimmy Buffett as himself, a singer and friend of Moondog and Lingerie
• Donovan Williams as Rasta, Lingerie's friend and pilot, who claims to be 98% blind and have glaucoma in both eyes.
• David Bennett as Homeless Phil, friend of Moondog who gets caught by the police when they trash Minnie's mansion.
• Joshua Ritter as Frank (nicknamed "Limp Dick"), Heather's husband
• John Morris as Cash Register Guy- employee of a convince store who Moondog talks to on his way to Miami.
• Jo Marie Payton as the Judge, who mandates Moondog go to rehab
• Carmella as Samantha
• Ricky Diaz as Jonathan the Best Man
• Bertie Higgins as himself, a singer and friend of Moondog

Following the release of Spring Breakers and time spent living in Florida, writer-director Harmony Korine penned The Beach Bum, which is "based loosely on a set of characters he was hanging out with in the Keys."[5] Journalist Zach Baron noted Korine "wrote the film swiftly, and then, as he did with Spring Breakers, Korine cast a mix of well-known actors," such as Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Zac Efron,[6] Martin Lawrence, Jimmy Buffett, Snoop Dogg, Isla Fisher[7] — "and real-life Florida denizens."[5]

Speaking about the connection between the cast of Hollywood stars and the local grit of Florida, Korine said, "I like when they meet in the middle [...] Like when all the secondary characters, and all the locations, all the color, the sky, everything, it affects the main roles in a way. It's almost like a chemical reaction.”[5] McConaughey described the character of Moondog as "a verb. A folk poet. A character in a Bob Dylan song dancing through life's pleasure and pain knowing every interaction is another 'note' in the tune of his life."[5] Similarly, Korine described the protagonist as a man that "lives for the second. There's no self-censor. He's just a sensualist. Whatever feels good, he just acts on it. So he does good, and he does bad."[5] The role of Moondog was written for Gary Oldman, but he turned it down.

John Lesher, Steve Golin, Charles-Marie Anthonioz, Mourad Belkeddar and Nicholas Lhermitte produced the film under the LeGrisbi Productions, Anonymous Content and Iconoclast banners. Rocket Science will handle international sales commencing at the European Film Market in Berlin.[8]

Principal photography began in November 2017. Throughout the filming process, the cast brought their own creative direction to their characters. Snoop Dogg decided that rather than play himself, as written in Korine's script, he needed to take on a new character.

Additional strange inspiration came to Korine, as while eating a panini sandwich, the director thought that the pattern would "look good on Zac's face." The quote later went viral, when New Yorker columnist Lauren Leibowitz tweeted about the design for Efron's beard.[9] While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, McConaughey recounted how Snoop Dogg swapped out fake prop marijuana with "Snoop Weed." McConaughey said of the experience "the next nine hours were a whole lot of fun, but I don't believe we used one word in the English language."[10]

In May 2017, Neon acquired distribution rights to the film.[11] It had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 9, 2019,[12] and was theatrically released on March 29, 2019.[13]

• The Beach Bum at Box Office Mojo
• The Beach Bum at IMDb
• The Beach Bum at Metacritic
• The Beach Bum at Rotten Tomatoes