Thanks for the memories!

Memorable, crazy movie

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Fame and normalcy simply do not go hand in hand. According to biopics on the lives of famous music artists, this goes beyond the ability to live a normal life where you can go out without being recognized and where privacy is a virtual impossibility. Beyond this...many have demons in their lives that haunt them. We see this in movies such as "Ray" (2004) (Ray Charles biopic), "Walk the Line" (2005) (Johnny Cash biopic) and "What's Love Got to Do With It" (1993) (Tina Turner biopic). "Love & Desire" shows us that even the happy-go-lucky group The Beach Boys were pretty warped. On the surface the Beach Boys are this surf-pop group with fun summer songs, who guest starred on "Full House" (1988) in their later years. Little did we know that they had their fair share of turmoil. Control issues, artistic differences and even paranoid schizophrenia did not escape The Beach Boys. Biopics are tricky as far as movies go because the plot consists of the events of a person's life, so a finite beginning, middle and end is tricky to create. This movie did well in artistically capturing the craziness of the lives of The Beach Boys. One negative note in the cinematography is that certain scenes were shot as if someone was spying on the speakers with very shaky camera. It's a technique I'm seeing more and more in films and I can't stand it. Just keep the camera still! Overall, this movie was an interesting look at The Beach Boys, but a rather typical biopic.

When done right, a biopic film can be quite a sight to behold for the potential it is to combine drama, real-life, and music. Fortunately, "Love & Mercy" is most definitely done right, relaying the story of Brian Wilson and his relation to the band he created...The Beach Boys.For a basic plot summary, "Love & Mercy" tells an intertwining dual-narrative tale: A young Brian Wilson (Paul Dano) is rising to fame with The Beach Boys, while at the same time succumbing to his mental demons. While the rest of the band wants to "ride the wave" (pun intended) of their skyrocketing success, Brian feels artistically compelled (one might say maniacally driven) to do his own thing. An alcoholic and un-supportive father (played by Bill Camp) finally pushes Brian over the edge, prompting him to shack up in his room for years on end. Fast-forward about 30 years into the future and Wilson (John Cusack), now quite an odd fellow but at least out in society again, happens to meet a car saleswoman named Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks) and strike up a friendship (that may also be a bit romantic). Melinda discovers that Brian is now closely watched (guarded) by one Dr. Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti), on a strict program of pills and tough discipline. The doctor says it is for Brian's own good, but Melinda has her own serious doubts about that.The first thing that needs to be understood about "Love & Mercy" is that it isn't a "Beach Boys biopic". It's a "Brian Wilson biopic". Sure, the other Beach Boys members are prominently featured as is their music throughout, but the narrative focus is squarely on Brian Wilson. So, those looking for a retrospective on the history of the group might be a little disappointed.This is probably a good choice, however, as Brian's story is probably the most interesting thing TO focus on. From his relationships to family, friends, fellow band members, and (in the later years) society as a whole, Brian battled mental illness and extreme anxiety. I hadn't realized that he also looked to be severely taken advantage of by Dr. Landy. Just a fascinating human-interest story all-around.Like all great musical biopics, "Love & Mercy" needed great music and got exactly that! You'll be listening to Beach Boys tunes for awhile after the viewing is over. The acting is also very convincing. Both the young/old Wilson actors are spot-on, while Banks shows she can hold down a very serious, emotional role (moving away from the dirty rom-coms and crazy Effie character from the Hunger Games she had come to be known for). Of course, it's a historical picture, so Giamatti is in it (!).About the only caveat I could give to this film is that it might not play quite as well if you know nothing about the Beach Boys or Brian Wilson. I knew the basic story going in, so was able to pick up on all the requisite beats. I'd be interested to hear if others (who know nothing about the topic) were able to do the same.Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed "Love & Mercy" for its combination of drama, music, and historical realism. The scenes from the past are capable of producing great nostalgia, while those set in Wilson's "older years" tell a compelling story that many may not know.

"Love & Mercy" thankfully avoids the pitfalls that plague most other blah biopics, eschewing the device of taking us through the troubled childhood up through the inspirational finale of whatever famous person's life happens to be the film's subject. While Brian Wilson is the main subject of the film, the movie isn't so much about him as it about his contributions to the Beach Boys' phenomenal success as a band. We don't learn his life story; we witness instead how one of the most troubled passages of his personal life coincided with one of the most fertile period for the group. However, while I was relieved that this didn't end up being a paint by numbers biopic like every other biopic put to screen, I did feel like the filmmakers didn't quite know how to fill the gap where a different movie would have inserted all of the traditional biopic material. Paul Dano and John Cusack give fine performances as the young and older, respectively, Brian Wilson, but there isn't a lot of story to tell here, certainly not enough to warrant the film's 2+ hour running time. The film is at its best when it's depicting the jam sessions during which Wilson came up with some of the Beach Boys' most iconic tunes, but the parts of the film that chronicle the tug-of-war between Wilson's girlfriend (played likeably by Elizabeth Banks) and his doctor (played loathsomely by Paul Giammati) turn into a slog, and unfortunately these make up the bulk of the movie.And it's odd that a movie about the Beach Boys would feature so little of their music.Grade: B+

I've been listening to the Beach Boys for forty years, and I've read most of the books written about the band. LOVE & MERCY is a movie I'd dreamed of seeing for years, but it just didn't live up to my expectations. Paul Dano is superb as the young Brian Wilson, a pure soul in a dirty, greedy world who just wants to make music. The half of the film where he makes the album Pet Sounds, and the song "Good Vibrations," is certainly worth watching. But there's nothing said that isn't self evident. Brian is a genius. Mike is a selfish jerk. Dennis and Carl are dweebs. Father Murray is a monster. All these characters are about an inch deep. The movie doesn't have the conflicts needed for drama, because it's already clear who the hero (or victim) is, and what's going to happen. The only thing that saves the Sixties scenes is the purity and simplicity of Paul Dano's performance. He owns Brian Wilson and makes every scene soar, in and out of the recording studio. Unfortunately, in the Eighties section the older Brian Wilson is played by John Cusack. Cusack is wretchedly miscast and utterly at a loss with playing a character who was shy and fragile as a young man, and who is now practically paralyzed by drugs and mental disability. Cusack is often an effective actor, when he plays aggressive, strong-willed, Irish-American Midwestern bully-boy types, but he doesn't convey vulnerable, timid, or fragile emotions very well. His high speed chatter and ever-so-humble mumbling comes across as more of a creepy put on than a heartbreaking tragedy. The problem is aggravated by the fact that Elizabeth Banks effortlessly outshines him in every scene, combining spunk, glamour, sex appeal, and enormous heart in a completely believable character. There is zero sexual chemistry between these two characters. She's completely authentic while he's mannered, artificial, and grating.But beyond the poor performance of Cusack, LOVE & MERCY is sunk by its own ignorance of Brian Wilson's music. Mean old Murray sneers that "God Only Knows" sounds like a suicide note. So where is the Murray who "cried like a baby" (in Dennis Wilson's words) the first time he heard "Caroline, No?" I don't know about Murray, but something tells me the film makers never listened to "The Lonely Sea" on the SURFING USA album. Or "The Warmth of the Sun" on SHUT DOWN VOL. 2 Do your homework, people! The film makers don't care who Brian Wilson really was. They don't care that he was depressed from the beginning, even during his "fun" period.They just want an icon, in the most literal sense, an inanimate object or symbol for purity and victimization. It's also painfully clear that all the Dr. Landy scenes are told strictly from second wife Melinda's point of view. The "rescue" scenes come across as unintentionally funny (or unintentionally creepy) precisely because the storytelling is so one-sided. Melinda's desire to get control of Brian is so obvious that she ends up looking just as callous and hypocritical as Dr. Landy. Elizabeth Banks is just brilliant enough to make you put up with it, but after the movie is over you feel like you've been had. This is a very pretentious film, with a lot of "artistic" white noise meant to suggest the madness in Brian Wilson's head. There are also some bedroom shots where he sees his past and future self which are clearly a tribute to Stanley Kubrick's 2001. Yet oddly, as I watched the movie I kept thinking of another Kubrick film, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Because the way Brian Wilson keeps getting batted back and forth between Melinda and Dr. Landy really reminded me of Alex being "captured" by the state and then "rescued" by the radical conspirators. Except that when Kubrick told the story, he explored the ambiguities, and made the irony dark and chilling. LOVE & MERCY just sort of hopes you won't notice!