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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQWgZ1OXBzU Seven (!) long years after Harmony Korine broke through to mainstream success with Spring Breakers, he's finally returned with The Beach Bum, which at first seems like a surprise turn for Korine but plays exactly like you'd expect. Which is to say, it's every bit the goofy shaggy-dog story the trailers present it as, with plenty of laughs to be had (Jimmy Buffett! Martin Lawrence! Snoop Dogg!), but what you can't possibly get a sense of without seeing it is how much pathos and beauty and sheer good-naturedness Korine imbues the film with. In a way, it plays like the flip side of the coin to Spring Breakers: both exemplify Korine's ethos that 1) "there is beauty in all poo poo" (Reddit AMA, 2012) and 2) that in order to achieve greatness, you should live like a criminal. But Moondog, unlike the youthful hedonists of Spring Breakers, is twice as old and twice as wise: he's somebody who's clearly washed up on the wrong side of a lot of hard living. The beauty is that it in no way seems to have dulled his spirit, and every obstacle thrown in his path, trying to prevent him from always having the ultimate good time, he views as a challenge to live even more fully. Stoner comedies are absolutely not supposed to be this poetic or touching, but that's Harmony Korine for you. Also, Benoit Debie deserves some sort of lifetime achievement award for his work with neon lights. He manages to shoot scenes so clearly and beautifully (very few films have ever had as many gorgeous sunsets as this one), but can, whenever he wants, smear the frame with light and color so that it loses just enough clarity to play as a sort of inebriated nostalgia, half-remembered. I'm also struggling to think of other films which have managed to capture the beauty of something as harsh and everyday as a single streetlight in the dark; there's an absolutely lovely dance scene between Moondog and his wife (Isla Fisher) on a boardwalk that's one of the most touching things I expect I'll see all year. 
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Apr 5, 2019 10:04
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 17:17 |
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