Did you see 'The Beach Bum'? Not a lot of people did. It made less at the box office than it cost to produce - and those who DID see it seem to wish they hadn't.
'The Beach Bum' flopped hard on Rotten Tomatoes, scoring lower than Zac's other widely panned flicks like 'At Any Price' (31%) and 'The Paper Boy' (33%). Critics especially hated it either, with one calling it "neon soaked, nudity filled mediocrity."
Two years and one pandemic later, consensus has shifted. Here's why people are talking about this awful (yes, it's still awful) Zac Efron movie.
It's Available to Stream
There's one key reason people care about this movie, and it's not the impressive cast of Matthew McConaughey and Snoop Dogg. Depending on where you live, it's just become possible to watch this 2019 stoner comedy on either Amazon Prime or Netflix. Netflix USA got it in December 2020, and it didn't take long for people to become obsessed.
Fans Love the Look AND the Attitude
Zac plays a recovering pyromaniac who says things like "I'm a tiger bro" to Matthew McConaughey's character 'Moondog.' Fans' fave takeaways are his hair ("Zac Efron has a haircut inspired by a panini press") and his chaotic choices. It's a wild ride: Over the course of the film, Zac shoots some hoops, helps Moondog make bank, and romances a drag queen (werk).
Now 'Beach Bum' Zac is being referenced in conjunction with other memes, like this viral image of Katy Perry's dad:
Will 'The Beach Bum' be 2021's big streaming hit? Desperate times, people!