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

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.

i found Cusack very believable but I get why ppl don’t really go for it
it’s a harder role to sell because there’s no definitive hairstyle or wardrobe like Dano has with younger Brian; Cusack has less trappings to hang his performance on
There’s no physical transformation, it’s all in the movements & mannerisms which are also quite small & minimal

I thought he handled the character really well & was very convincing .

I watched it last night. Best parts were obviously the scenes in the recording studio

Also: some director needs to create a worthy starring vehicle for Elizabeth Banks, she’s great in this and a criminally underutilized actress overall

elizabeth banks was in every movie that came out roughly from 2005-2015

this movie was pretty bad. the dano parts were OK, the cusack parts were awful

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I actually worked with someone who lived in L.A. for a long time, and during a long conversation that had nothing to do with Brian Wilson, she mentioned a psychotherapist friend of hers named Eugene Landy. I immediately stopped her and was like, "Wait, wait...Eugene Landy? As in the guy who treated Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys?" Same guy, and it was obvious they were good friends, but I gently reminded her that his treatment of him was "controversial." She agreed, but she did defend him, mentioning how he literally got him out of bed, etc. Then a month goes by, and by sheer coincidence, we both run into Paul Giamatti, whom she recognized but she had no idea he played Landy in the film. (That would've been a hell of an icebreaker, but I didn't want to get into that again and kept quiet about it.)

obv a long time ago, since he died in 2006

Nah, this was summer 2016. (Easy to remember because the election happened when I was finishing up on that job.) She wasn't talking about him in the present tense.

ahhh right, gotcha :)

Giamatti plays such an excellent bastard.

anyone ever read this??

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Vu7%2Bh6KsL._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

This was on the other night, it is absolutely fucking atrocious, wtf with all those good reviews upthread?

I loved the part where Paul Dano transformed into Balthazar Getty and killed that guy in the truck

Whist talking about The Beach Boys I mentioned The Cowsills documentary Family Band and somebody thought I was talking about this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWtbhd4bFMw

Found a half hour video about why this is the best movie ever. Seems more time efficient to just watch the actual movie.

No idea where to put this but Brian’s wife Melinda passed away. Only 77.

Although she was critical for pulling Brian away from Dr. Landy, she was also responsible for the massive breakdown with Brian and Carl (they didn't resolve their differnces until Carl was dying from cancer).

She also also created major tension between Brian and Andy Paley, Don Was, Sean O'Hagan, basically anyone who wanted to work with Brian on new material in the 90s.

All that said, Melinda was a major factor in getting Darrian/The Wondermints to work with Van Dyke and Brian to finish and agree on a proper sequence for "Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE."

Hope he's getting the support he needs now to deal with his grief. I always got the impression that Brian was still pretty fragile - IIRC he still has very harrowing incidents when he's under a lot of stress.

yeah...

The death was announced on Brian Wilson’s Instagram page, where the 81-year-old singer-songwriter wrote, “My heart is broken. Melinda, my beloved wife of 28 years, passed away this morning. Our five children and I are just in tears. We are lost. Melinda was more than my wife. She was my savior. She gave me the emotional security I needed to have a career. She encouraged me to make the music that was closest to my heart. She was my anchor. She was everything for us. Please say a prayer for her.” He closed the statement with his trademark sign-off: “Love and Mercy, Brian.”

v sad

Although she was critical for pulling Brian away from Dr. Landy, she was also responsible for the massive breakdown with Brian and Carl (they didn't resolve their differnces until Carl was dying from cancer).

She also also created major tension between Brian and Andy Paley, Don Was, Sean O'Hagan, basically anyone who wanted to work with Brian on new material in the 90s.

All that said, Melinda was a major factor in getting Darrian/The Wondermints to work with Van Dyke and Brian to finish and agree on a proper sequence for "Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE."