Brian Wilson biopic 'Love and Mercy' directed by Bill Pohlad starring Paul Dano

The Brian Wilson one could be great if based on Nick Kent's piece on him. It's one of the single best pieces of rock writing I've ever read, and it tells the story so well.

most biopics are pretty bad though some are entertaining. i'm a little intrigued by don cheadle's miles ahead thing since it is focusing on mostly on 70s electric miles and that 5-year recluse period, which doesn't strike me as the obvious traditional-biopic period to focus on w/r/t miles

another one where there's unlikely to be any actual musi

c

If it's 2 hrs of a decrepit miles in a musty brownstone with blackout curtains, reluctantly entertaining visits from Lester Bowie and Cicely Tyson I'm for it.

otm

if you want the above in book form - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Miles-Go-The-Lost-Years-ebook/dp/B004L62GBU

LaSalle is a clown but this sounds promising

i'm pretty certain this will be awful, i'd put a little money down on it in fact.

cusack seems like he wandered into the wrong movie

Most of the reviews have been good, but I guess I have to accept Brian Wilson as genius.

what a leap for you

He looks more like Lionel Messi than Brian Wilson in that publicity pic. Missed opportunity to cast Bill Pullman as Landy-era Brian and, in his acting debut, Bill Clinton as 'prop him up behind a keyboard and send him out on tour' era Brian.

― Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 July 2014 10:27 (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd go with Jeff Daniels for post-Landy Brian.

https://divergentsuk.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/jeffdaniels.jpg

good call!

well AO Scott likes it

Another bio-pic? Do people even give a shit anymore? The Brian Wilson brand has become quite the bore.

Cusack on the role and doing shit movies to pay for the good ones

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/john-cusack-love-and-mercy-career/

also:

Back in 1988, William Hurt was going to play Wilson opposite Richard Dreyfuss as Landy

Do we finally find out how Brian Wilson became Spider-Man?

bitten by radioactive Phil Spector

So I saw this tonight because there was nothing better to do. It's not a great movie, a little ghoulish at times, but far better than it has a right to be. There were parts that I enjoyed, mainly the studio stuff.

Definitely not awful, let's say.

Basically the same--I liked it a little better. My favourite parts were also the creation of Pet Sounds. Cusack is good...as John Cusack. It never felt like I was watching Brian Wilson. Dano, on the other hand, yes. Giamatti was scary at times.

sounds like a renter

yeah i'm tempted to rent this and get up and make a sandwich if/when i'm bored by the cusack stuff

After portraying Nixon and Wilson, I'd like to see Cusack continue to portray an increasingly ill-fitting string of people from real life. Maybe late-period Orson Welles could be next?

surely that role belongs to DiCaprio

(Orson Welles is the original Sweaty Bigface, after all)

"john cusack IS fanny brice"

The thing I thought the film did really well was the way Brian is presented during those Pet Sounds sessions. They don't turn him into the caricatured tortured genius, ordering everyone around and making unreasonable demands (you get a little of that later); while Pet Sounds is being done, he's like a wide-eyed kid, cheering on everyone and clearly in love with all the new freedom he's afforded and all the incredible musicians he gets to work with. When his brothers return from Japan, and Mike Love starts questioning what Brian's been doing--but again, not in a way that reduces Love to a caricature; he just sees the band differently--that's when the rot starts to settle in.

it would be so easy to make mike love into a villain so if this film is fair to him i think that's to its credit

although i'm sure mike love is busy soliciting screenplays for good vibrations: the mike love story

martinique: mounds of rotting steak - the mike love story

Where My Weirdos At?: The Mike Love Story

man I would so watch a Mike Love biopic

Who is playing Mike Love? Any photos (w/ or w/out weirdoes)?

Hold on this guy is playing Mike Love??!?! I assume the casting director on this movie was, uh, Mike Love?

https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/abel__111109022207.jpg

if they shave a bald spot into him I can kinda see it

Dude's closer to Dennis as-is.

Hope this era is adequately covered:

https://thebuddharats.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/pimp1.jpg

i'd pay good money to see a movie in which paul giamatti plays eugene landy, murry wilson AND mike love.

(but as it is, i liked the actual movie a lot more than most of y'all did. cusack was a little awkward, yeah, but it was basically a really nice little slice-of-life-times-two film that lingered lovingly over the creative process in a way that most biopics don't tend to do.)

come to think of it, giamatti should probably play brian too.

yeah i'm tempted to rent this and get up and make a sandwich if/when i'm bored by the cusack stuff

― he quipped with heat (amateurist),

usually I mop.

it was really weird watching this film a few months after I saw "The Wrecking Crew" as parts of the film literally recreated the stories that the Wrecking Crew themselves told about the Pet Sounds session almost exactly

Cusack recycled his Lloyd Dobler-isms and wasn't persuasive. Dano was fine.

Thought this was about as bad a movie as I've ever seen. Total fan-service and nothing even remotely interesting going on movie-wise. There wasn't nearly enough artistic license taken for my tastes. I prefer biopics that do their own thing and don't just faithfully illustrate the key points of the story without any flair whatsoever. And so much of it was cribbed or mimicked straight from various documentaries that it was kinda gross. The best part was the end credits -- the real Brian appears and sings the title song!

The drama was lukewarm at its most intense. Melinda was the main character. Brian was portrayed as a kind of drooling idiot (WTF!?) The music, which should've been the main character, was strangely relegated to the sidelines. I can't remember if we got even one song played all the way through but I kinda doubt it. The dialogue was abominable. The script and acting were about as good as your average TV sitcom. The narrative was clunky as hell. Also confusing, but that actually is fitting because Brian's is a confusing story in general! I feel kinda bad for anyone who is not already familiar with that story, though.

Just a plain old bad movie. It is ultimately the story of a sick rich guy with really super-obscure rich guy problems. Which in the final analysis is just not all that interesting, really. All you're left with is the fan-service. The fans seem overjoyed so I guess the director made the right choice!! I am just plain not the intended audience!

The best thing it does is to make use of the various isolated vocal and instrumental tracks in the context of the simulated performances. The 60s decor was also groovy, I guess. Paul Dano shouldn't have sung and played piano, that really sunk the whole thing for me. Brian's voice is the key to the entire BB story IMO and way too important to just toss off like that! Dano's performance was okay, it was in tune and in time, but it's just this impossible task... Brian has such a unique sound, his voice in his prime is one of the greatest instruments I know of. He is a truly great artist, not just as a writer/arranger/performer but also as a performer. I just wasn't convinced by the movie.

Listening to 2 hours of random Beach Boys music is a million times better than this thing. And a perfect antidote after sitting through it!!!

Brian was portrayed as a kind of drooling idiot (WTF!?)

Not sure if the WTF is necessary, considering the parlous mental states Brian has endured over the years.

". It is ultimately the story of a sick rich guy with really super-obscure rich guy problems. Which in the final analysis is just not all that interesting, really."

that is actually brian wilson's story though, so if you weren't aware of that going in, I guess that would be dull for you; but I can't believe you didn't know this to begin with.

Not perfect by any means, but if this is as bad a movie as you've ever seen, I'm guessing you only see films off Sight & Sound's Top 100 list.

The dialogue was abominable.

Worse than most biopics. Lots of gee whizzers -- basically anything with the dude playing Mike Love.

I was listening to their early albums up to "All summer long" this morning (a great way to start a sunny day, btw !) and realized it's only 2 years between "I get around" and "Good Vibrations"/the "Smile" sessions.
A pretty amazing leap (even more impressive than the Beatles' evolution from, say, "Beatles for sale" to "Revolver", arguably).