Tales of Ordinary Madness: Korine Courts Cutesy in Outlandish Stoner Comedy

It’s no fun being the designated driver, which is the position the audience of Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum is unfortunately relegated to. A somewhat baffling follow-up to the zany, similarly tropical themed Spring Breakers (review), there’s no shortage of hedonism in this grating portrait of a genius stoner poet allowed a careless life of luxury explained by a fantastical fount of privilege. As if predicting the inevitable extreme of dysfunctional creative energies breastfed in the world of elitist one-percenters, Korine’s latest is at least thematically familiar to his past filmography, like the Pleasantville (1998) version of his 2009 Trash Humpers.…...