The Beach Bum: 10 Tricky Philosophical Questions It Raises

Like the last major film character to raise this question, Moondog is pure chaos. He's deliberately disrespectful, he's casually assaultive, and - a more direct parallel to the Joker - he has no problem with lighting a few million dollars on fire just to watch it burn.

At the same time, he's happy. He refers to himself as "a reverse paranoiac," someone who believes that the world is conspiring to make his life more pleasurable.

Moreover, he's not the only one who possesses such grand joie de vivre. Captain Wack manages to laugh and crack jokes after a shark attack leaves him bleeding so badly that he shouldn't by any means survive. Lingerie's plane is piloted by a man who has lost 92% of his sight yet continues to fly on faith - the very definition of blind optimism.

No matter what the circumstance, the characters in this film are able to achieve happiness by refusing to take themselves too seriously. Some of the preceding entries may address scenes that could offend certain people or cause them to feel uncomfortable, but the film's titular beach bum inhabits a world in which discomfort is a choice.

This world is also that world. Or, to quote French communist Paul Éluard (maybe): "There is another world, and it is this one." Just as Harmony Korine has the right to create a film that will doubtlessly offend some of its viewers, those same viewers have the right not to be offended. To some, this ability might seem almost like a superpower (Moondog's superhero name would definitely be Florida Man), but it's something that anyone can achieve with just a little shift of perspective.