The Big Bum

 This time around my job was made easier by watching yet another film; “The Beach Bum”, with Matthew McConaughey and many others.  Its resemblance to another film, much older but similar, “The Big Lebowski”, reminded me that I’d never actually reviewed the latter film.

The Big Lebowski (1998).  Jeff Bridges plays Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski, a stoner/bowler in L.A. who doesn’t seem to do much more than smoke weed and bowl with his comrades, Walter (John Goodman) and Donnie (Steve Buscemi).  Walter affects to be Jewish – citing all sorts of Orthodox restrictions on his conduct - when it was his ex-wife who was Jewish.  The group competes in bowling with an eccentric Latino, Jesus (John Turturro). 

The Dude is harassed by thugs who mistake him for another Lebowski, a rich man who lives nearby.  When he visits the man’s huge mansion and confronts his namesake about the inequity of the situation, a rug ruined by the thug’s gratuitous urination thereon, for which he demands restitution, he’s initially escorted out – until he’s summoned back later when Rich Lebowski sees fit to use him for his own ends.  And thereupon a series of amusing misadventures ensue – even including the Rich Lebowski’s daughter Maude (Julianne Moore), who tends to cut through most of the confusion of the plot, much to our relief. Although the Dude doesn’t seem to have any source of income or a livelihood, he somehow manages to pay rent and buy weed.  Even so, he still seems to have a sense of ethics and responsibility.  In that regard I much prefer the Dude to the Bum.

The Dude is based on a real, guy, Jeff Dowd, and some of the events in the movie are based on real ones, though I have no clue how much of them are, or which particular ones.  Even so, it’s a memorable and enjoyable film which repays multiple viewings.  Not only that, each of the major actors do a commendable role, and it belongs among Bridges’ more notable works.

Jesus Rolls (2020).  A later spinoff, taking Jesus (John Turturro’s characters) as its basis, adding in Bobby Cannavale and Audrey Tatou – plus some secrets like Christopher Walken, Pete Davidson, and Susan Sarandon – hell, even Jon “Mad Men” Hamm.  Apparently Turturro wanted his own film and the Coen brothers disagreed, so he bought the rights from them and had this done, the plot being a remake of an early 70s French film (“Going Places”, with Gerard Depardieu).  The film basically has Turturro, Cannavale and Tatou “going places” in different stolen cars with a variety of misadventures, none of which are particularly remarkable or memorable.  “The Dude” remarked at how his rug, since spoiled by urine, anchored his apartment, and on a grander scale, Bridges’ character itself anchored that film.  If you suspected that a Jesus film wouldn’t be worth watching more than once, and even then out of mere morbid curiosity, you’d be right.  Maybe a better spinoff would be to show us Donnie IN his element.  Maybe not. 

The Beach Bum (2019).  This film is apparently 100% fiction.  Unlike the “The Big Lebowski”, which takes place in L.A., this film takes place in Miami.  The central character is Moondog (Matthew McConaughey), a stoner poet who doesn’t seem to do much other than smoke weed continuously and quote others’ poetry as his own.  His daughter is getting married, and he almost misses the wedding having sex in a greasy spoon kitchen with a woman he just met.  His own wife, Minnie (Isla Fischer) carries on a thinly veiled affair with “Rie” (short for Lingerie) (Snoop Dogg), Moondog’s source of primo quality weed – including an exclusive plant from Jamaica. 

After the wedding, Moondog and Minnie go off driving, the results of which – since both were highly intoxicated – end them up in the hospital, Minnie dying soon thereafter.  She was apparently super rich, but her will puts Moondog’s half into escrow until he finishes his book of poetry, which he has been erratically contributing to with a typewriter.  In between dopey adventures – including a court-ordered stint in rebab, which he simply leaves with a fellow rehabber, Flicker (Zak Efron) – somehow he manages to finish the book of poetry, submit it for publishing, and satisfy the terms of Minnie’s will.  Martin Lawrence is also in here as Captain Wack, a Vietnam Vet (actually highly implausible given that, these days, Vietnam veterans are in their 70s) who gives dolphin tours on his boat but who can’t seem to tell dolphins from sharks, to his injury.

McConaughey did remark, that when making the film, almost all the “weed” is actually fake, some blend of oregano, etc.  However, in one scene, the weed provided by Snoop was, in fact, the real thing.   

As noted, this story is fiction.  How did Moondog hook up with Minnie in the first place?  It seems he was living in her huge mansion until the will freeze evicted him.  The rest of us don’t have rich spouses subsidizing our cannabis lifestyles.  I didn’t find the Beach Bum, Moondog, to be nearly as sympathetic as The Dude.   For all we know, Moondog is who Wooderson (McConaughey’s first role, in “Dazed and Confused”) eventually becomes.  Sadly, unlike “The Big Lebowski” and “Dazed and Confused”, this film doesn’t give us any memorable catch phrases.  

But hey, that might be just my opinion, man….