Zac Efron may have long since shed his reputation as the teen heartthrob who broke out in High School Musical, but he’s still struggling to find his feet in Hollywood. The 33 year-old has the looks, charm and charisma to be a major movie star, but for the most part, he’s made a conscious decision to tackle material that challenges him as an actor.
His biggest box office successes have ironically seen him stick to type as the frequently shirtless star of comedies like Neighbors, Baywatch and Dirty Grandpa, although the single biggest commercial hit of his career even more ironically found him back in musical territory when he took second billing behind Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman.
Unfortunately, the majority of his dramatic work has so far fared poorly with audiences, despite a series of well-received performances in the likes of Ted Bundy biopic Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile and The Disaster Artist. However, one of Efron’s forgotten low budget independent films has now been finding a new life on Hulu.
The Beach Bum hails from Spring Breakers‘ Harmony Korine, and finds Matthew McConaughey stretching himself as a fun-loving, pot-smoking bohemian party animal named Moondog who loves to play the bongos naked, before he ends up becoming motivated to write the next great American novel after a tragic accident changes his life.
Zac Efron shows up as a pyromaniac rehab patient named Flicker, and he’s just one of the many big names to drop by along with Snoop Dogg, Isla Fisher, Jonah Hill and Martin Lawrence. The Beach Bum is about as loose and unfocused as its title character, but for fans of aimless stoner comedy, it’s certainly worth checking out.