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

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).

Yeah, I don't watch a lot of stuff, mostly old movies. I haven't seen a TV show in literally 15 years or something! I don't know, something about this just rubbed me all wrong. Everyone else seems to love it, if you're on the fence just go see it and don't let me persuade you otherwise. I might be too personally invested in the subject.

Tom D, you're right, my WTF is wayyyyy unnecessary. Obviously the dude has serious problems and he is very childlike and stuff. But I felt like they went overboard. A person who can make music that is both simple and complex whilst be perfectly conceived and produced just can't be THAT dumb. But then again he did sell the publishing to his entire oeuvre when prompted by Murray and all that. They glossed over that in the movie -- why? The fact that he signed that paper would've adds a lot of weight and murky complexity to the story.

This movie confirmed my bias of 'Hang on To Your Ego' over 'I Know There's an Answer'.
SO HAHA fuck YOU, people whom voted the wrong way round in the BB Poll!

nahhh just playin

not!

more valuable insights later

I really didn't know too much about the beach boys going into this movie despite having heard a big chunk of their output up through adult/child several times. It was a solid movie and Paul Dano was wonderful. John Cusack was good but his dark hair was real off-putting.

I think a lot of the critics in this thread are understandably put-off that the on screen personalities didn't match their real life counterparts. I wouldn't know. Maybe that's why my review is going to be less critical.

The movie didn't portray Brian as a drooling idiot like someone said upthread. It did make him seem childlike and also awkward when it came to the John Cusack parts. Maybe they should of toned down the awkwardness a bit, but then again at that particular point in time it doesn't seem so far-fetched for him to act like that.

The movie makd me really dislike Mike Love. Melinda was under developed but the movie wasn't about her. Obviously I wish there was more to the dialogue but it wasn't abominable. It was cut short.

Overall I liked this move a lot. Such a good point in time to focus on and good music to have playing. The movie mostly left me wondering what Brian Wilson was like from Wild Honey to Adult/Child. Awkward Brian reminded me of me at times (when I've been awkwardly stiff) so that was a nice ego boost.

Cusack looked nothing like Wilson. Excellent call upthread on Bill Pullman, would've been great, but the movie should've just been Dano in the 60's. Also...VDP got sidelined and written out of the "Good Vibrations" sessions, which is unforgivable IMO.

Really enjoyed this movie today though it's hard for me to have any critical distance where Pet Sounds is involved. I walked around earlier listening to it in preparation, stifling sobs as usual. I guess that should make me more protective of it, but it doesn't, I just wanna see the music and the narrative reflected everywhere I look. Could've been Dane Cook and Andrew Dice Clay playing Brian Wilson, I wouldn't have cared.

Van Dyke Parks was hot.

It's released today in France. I'll surely go watch it although the Cusack part seems dodgy...
But I'm in a full BB mood so it will certainly be good.

by the way, loved some of the previous posts, especially :

bitten by radioactive Phil Spector

― Οὖτις, vendredi 5 juin 2015 22:00 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Beachman origins !

this movie was soooo good!!!!

i thought it was pretty decent. Cusack looked, sounded & acted nothing like BW, which would have been admissible in an "I'm Not There/ more preoccupied with the essence" kinda way if they weren't at such obvious pains to make Dano's scenes so visually & historically authentic; there was definitely an awkward opposition at play with all that. Giamatti had some pretty creepy scenes, but idk i never really did lose sight of the fact that I was watching... Paul Giamatti. he was still pretty effective i guess, but Steve Carell, for instance, did a much more focused (& chilling) transformative turn as an all-round sadistic monster in Foxcatcher.

favourite aspect of the film, like a lot of folks, was the portrayal of each song undertaking its own idiosyncratic & meticulous evolution: starting off as a flash of genius in Brian's head, being developed studiously, and then finally being realised with expert patience & discipline in the studio. that part seemed very organic in the sense that the songs weren't just Eureka! moments in themselves, but were in need of being nurtured to life; there was a kind of tension & pressure underlying the process of capturing an idea before it escaped and as a result you genuinely got the feeling that these songs could only have come about in a particular time and place. i mean, the sense that the musicians were engaged in something almost surreally groundbreaking was palpable, and that is definitely to the film's credit. Brian's genius was also convincingly portrayed.

i'd tell people to check it out.

I watched this documentary yesterday : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SriaRRcA6w
so sad the moment when the whole thing collapsed and he broke down during the creation of Smile.
It's also interesting because it's kinda common now to consider that Smile was mainly completed when he shelved it. but in the documentary he says he needed like another year to finish it !

it's also quite embarrassing all the live and interview segments from the 90s because although he seems to feel better than in the 70s, he's clearly off (reminds me when I went to the Smile tour and most of the times he was busy doin nothing on stage... like a sick old person brought on stage without a clue of what he's doing here...).
Like the moment when VDP tries to communicate with him about the creation of some of the tracks.

and by the way : this is AMAZING :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gWb6SfgBZc

and so is this (it's great to hear the arrangements and instruments that are otherwise covered by the voices) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_a-C6CsvNo

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.

This is always the problem with music biopics though. Not seen Love & Mercy yet, but I felt exactly the same about Walk The Line. Didn't feel as though I'd gotten to know anything about the music of Johnny Cash and that really, a better film would have been made if they'd just made up a fiction loosely-based around Cash's life.

so I have finally seen this.
I enjoyed it although, somehow, I eventually prefer the 80s part to the 60s one.
the 60s part is good and all but, like someone said upthread, it has the issue that most biopics have : a succession of famous/historical moments and scenes that feels a bit shallow (like why did they re-shoot the video for "sloop john B" ??).
Whereas the 80s part was more of a real movie.
that said, maybe it's because I know the 60s stories very well whereas I had next to no idea about what happened to him in the 80s.
also, I had initial doubts about Cusack playing BW but was eventually impressed by his performance because he succeeded in talking and behaving exactly like the "old" BW I've seen in various footage and interviews.
another problem with the 60s part is also that I didn't like Dano's face at all and so I couldn't sympathize with his BW !

Dano has the most hateable face in modern movies

Redeeming qualities: the sound design (holy shit), cusack only barely modifying his usual schtick yet still making it work (somehow), genuine plot/characterization in the 80s sequences

Failures: pretty much everything else.

Genuinely prefer the 90s stamos tv movie tbh, at least it was totally ott and funny. Seemed like a bunch of the dano scenes in this were more "serious" higher budget remakes of scenes from the stamos movie. And not in a good way. Giamatti was super hammy 1 dimensional villain but eh he served his purpose. Banks was good.

Dialogue in the 60s scenes was also just so clumsy, all unnatural exposition and/or direct quotes from interviews/clips. So stiff and dumb.

I liked this more than i expected to, Dano v good and Cusack's more fraught, disturbed moments impressed. Elizabeth Banks underrated. Didn't expect M Love to be given equal villain status with Landy.

It did have the feel of an "authorized" film, as I think it's mostly about a guy with a bad dad and doctor rather than a Beach Boys movie. A couple of the music cues were cringey, like the last one.

Haven't checked above for any snark about Wes Anderson's cinematographer's work here.

Banks was my supp. actress vote.

most tolerable Dano perf ever

Cusack recycled his Lloyd Dobler-isms

hmmm no, aside from being the same actor. More fragile, and not just from being 48 instead of 22ish.

I know ppl are upset he didn't look anything like BW, but neither did Will Smith look like Ali (in a significantly worse film)

this is ok. suffered the same problem lots of biopics do "hey I'm writing this song do you have lyrics? maybe something about the VIBRATIONS?" and then they write the song. I got used to Cusak; he didn't mimic Wilson but I thought he brought an interesting perspective on Wilson, even if he did seem a little TOO together at times. biggest drawback to me was that the ending was very abrupt; would have liked to see slightly more about how they got Landry out.

deleted scenes inevitably include reenactment of infamous Murry 'let's fight for success' tape.

also Spector dissing Brian on the sidewalk

Tell it to Johnny Rivers.

I loved this. Dano is such an effortless actor. Paul Giamatti was great as Landy too. Wasn't mad on Cusack, but you can't win em all. Great to have a biopic that actually concentrated on the music for more than 30 seconds, and also one that told the whole story but from only two specific moments in time (mid 60s and early 80s). Best music biopic I've ever seen (which isn't saying much, but still).

The LSD parts were really tastefully executed and managed to avoid any HE FUCKED HIS LIFE UP WITH CRAAAXY DRUGZ stuff.

I'm listening to the Brian Wilson solo album now for the first time in about 13 years cos of this film.

the sound design in this is phenomenal - the scene where brian's in the studio with his dad in the control room and the music in brian's head slowly turns discordant was heartbreaking

i loved this! Dano was excellent. the look on his face when he emerges from under the piano after getting it to sound just so at one point was a thing of beauty.

anyone see the Miles biopic? it seems to have died on its arse over here, barely in the cinemas.

the Miles 'biopic' is about 90% fictional

aren't they all! it was weird seeing Don Cheadle saying as much in all the interviews though.

yeah it's unabashedly made-up though. i liked Cheadle in it, and it was interesting that they made a story up around Davis's fallow period, but it's an action movie with Miles Davis as the main character, ultimately. Don't expect a serious bio.

watched this on amazon prime last night

as a film it's decent

i did feel it was more for fans so it was difficult to completely remove my fanboy urge to love it

sound design like people have mentioned is amazing

cusack is a strange choice; he kind of made it work but still retains a bit of his cusackisms

dano was pretty great

rly brought back memories of making music with friends

This was waaaaay better than I expected it was gonna be. Recommended!

I just watched it finally last night and was blown away. Gorgeous

may rewatch again today

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it but if memory serves, I could’ve done with more Dano and less Cusack. The former I believed as Wilson, the latter I did not.