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Love & Mercy?


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I saw a documentary on the Beach Boys in some hotel once during some road trip...can't remember anything much about it, other than it was really great and a sympathetic/realistic portrait of the band. There were studio scenes of recording "Good Vibrations" and such that were very cool...so I'm predisposed to thinking that anything involving the Beach Boys is probably going to be at least interesting.

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Well John Cusack is in it, so there should be a bit of quality to it. But generally, it has been my experience that biopics about musicians usually fall short of the mark. But if they are using original music at least that will be cool. Pet Sounds is one of the best records ever made..IMHO of course.

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I grew up with the Beach Boys too. They were kind of local heroes when I was a kid, and they sang about our local Southern California culture - girls, sand and surf, hot cars. Brian Wilson was a big influence.

 

As far as music biopics, I thought Ray and Walk The Line were both pretty good. :idk:

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NPR has a review - says the film simplifies his story. I'm thinking, has there ever been a bio film that did not simplify? And given that Brian by all accounts is a very complex fellow, simplification would seem inevitable in any format shorter than a 1,000 page scholarly biography. What I want to know is if it does the music justice - if it does, all is forgiven.

 

http://www.npr.org/2015/06/04/411309872/a-simplified-brian-wilson-in-love-and-mercy

 

nat whilk ii

 

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Well John Cusack is in it, so there should be a bit of quality to it. But generally, it has been my experience that biopics about musicians usually fall short of the mark. But if they are using original music at least that will be cool. Pet Sounds is one of the best records ever made..IMHO of course.

 

In Cusack's interviews about the movie, he really has a passion for it and unless he's a REALLY good actor, he's not faking it. I will say that "Get On Up" hit the mark, but that was due to Chadwick Boseman nailing it...anyone else in that role, and the movie wouldn't have been what it was.

 

Incidentally that was a movie that had the good sense to make the soundtrack live recordings of James Brown, although I was shocked to find out Boseman did some of the singing - it wasn't just good lip-synching.

 

 

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I haven't yet, but it's on my list of things to do. The trailer looks good. Those of us who live in that netherworld between genius and insanity would like all our family and friends to see it... if it delivers like the trailer looks it will. smile.pngMaybe then they'll say... "Ahhh, ok we get it now."

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I think it will be interesting too... as long as they stick to history and don't go too Hollywood with their approach or take too much creative license.

 

Phil,

 

Check out the link below where you can read and listen to some interviews concerning the movie and snippets of an interview with Brian Wilson… the Fresh Air program aired yesterday was quite interesting.

 

According to the interviewee, the movie is the "official" movie biography. Brian Wilson gave his blessings so it sounds like it`ll be the real thing. I`d love to see it in theaters but I`ll probably wait to see it on HBO or something.

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/search/...love+and+mercy

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I went to the movies yesterday to see this, but I checked the schedule while in NYC and it didn't apply to Saturday :( Well, "Spy' was starting, so I saw that instead. I have to say it was silly, very entertaining, and Melissa McCarthy really knows how to work the camera. Fun stuff, I actually enjoyed myself.

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I went to the movies yesterday to see this, but I checked the schedule while in NYC and it didn't apply to Saturday :( Well, "Spy' was starting, so I saw that instead. I have to say it was silly, very entertaining, and Melissa McCarthy really knows how to work the camera. Fun stuff, I actually enjoyed myself.

 

:lol: It's funny because a few weekends ago when my wife and I wanted to go see Love & Mercy, it wasn't playing anywhere nearby... so we wound up seeing Spy instead. I agree - it was silly, yet entertaining.

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Love and Mercy is fantastic. Is it simplified? Intentionally so. The time frame is restricted with tight tolerance to two periods, and two corresponding "Brians". Young/Paul Dano/Pet Sounds and MiddleAge/John Cusack/Dr. Landy.

 

 

 

The creative use of time shifts at key moments, from Brian and Wrecking Crew donning toy fire helmets with smoke in the studio... to Cusack's sadly vulnerable portrayal. Subservient to Landy. Frightened, lost as a little boy, actually listening to Mike "I'm a turd" Love.

 

 

 

its heartbreaking and wonderful

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Finally sat down and watched the Love & Mercy film. Very heavy on the Brian-as-victim interpretation. I don't have any special insight into the truth of the matter, but the film seemed to avoid the horrendous depths to which Brian's alcohol and drug abuse led him. Maybe that's to save Brian and his family a big-screen view of his worst moments - understandable but maybe somewhat misleading.

 

Dr. Landy - I'm sure no one cares whether he is portrayed accurately or not, and he is made the supreme monster of Brian's life. Brian's own comments on the Landy episodes are much more ambivalent. But of course, no one believes what Brian says if what he says does not fit their preconceptions. I for one would like to see a more balanced presentation of the people in Brian's life - some realistic, broad-based analysis, not Heroes and Villains in black and white.

 

The film did remind me of an oddity of the 80s - the prevalence of confrontational, highly controlling and stressful types of "therapy" - EST is probably the most well known, but there were a bunch of them, variously characterized as intense exercises in "group awareness" or "human potential" or "effectivness" or "encounter groups" and so on. A very curious offshoot of the New Age era. There was one that made a splash among the entrepreneurial class in Austin in the late 80s that caught up a bunch of my acquaintances and even some family members. Very in-your-face sessions with leaders shouting and confronting and controlling - sleep deprivation sessions, people supposedly getting broken down and built back up again all stronger and self-determinative and for once able to face reality and control their own lives, etc etc. Interestingly, when the economic bust hit at the end of the 80s, the interest in these things seemed to start to dry up.

 

There are tons of success stories and offsetting disaster stories about these therapies that seem to live on the borderline of abuse - stepping over that line clearly in a certain number of cases. Cultish in many ways - secular, 'tho. Boot camp. Typically American - for a few thousand bucks, you can have a new life in a few short weeks, etc.

 

Anyway...mixed feelings about the movie. Of course you have to simplify....but....

 

nat whilk ii

 

 

 

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