Love & Mercy (Bill Pohlad, 2015)

[mfunk9786]

Back to LOVE & MERCY: I alluded to this in an above post, but my one reservation regarding the time compression used in the film is how the selling of the publishing rights is portrayed. In the film, Murray Wilson sells the catalog circa mid-1967 as SMILEY SMILE is being recorded whereas the catalog was actually sold in late 1969. Two years may not seem like much, but in the Beach Boys world these years were significant. Coming just eight or nine months after the #1 single "Good Vibrations", the Beach Boys were still considered relevant in June or July of '67. However, after the failure of the "Heroes & Villains" to top the charts and subsequent singles and albums doing even worse, the perceived value of the band dipped considerably even to the point of the concerts being poorly attended. While it was definitely a bad business move, there is a certain logic to Murray thinking he should cut the losses by selling the publishing rights in '69. Suggesting, as the film does, that the catalog was sold mere months after the band released its biggest selling single strains that logic.

While I agree with you, I think that showing the failure of finishing SMiLE between those two events communicates that they're already a long way from "Good Vibrations" and are likely never coming back. A few more scenes portraying the issues with Wilson's mental health would've been beneficial, but I don't know that it's "Good Vibrations" then BAM, Murry sells the catalog quite the way you lay it out. We sort of see why Murry comes to that conclusion, even though he didn't for a couple years. What I don't think really worked about that exchange is the idea that publishing rights to his own music is that important to Brian at that point in time. It's dropped like a bomb, like a climactic "holy shit, you did what?!" moment because of where it's placed in the movie's timeline but considering what came before it, I don't really see why it would affect Brian the way it does there. Seems like it's only really put in for the "in 5 years, no one will remember The Beach Boys" gag.

[domino harvey]

I thought this was okay, though it certainly didn't solve the basic problems most biopics face, regardless of word of mouth here and elsewhere. It doesn't help that the John Cusack/Elizabeth Banks half of the film is vastly more interesting and involving than the extremely familiar Paul Dano portions. Dano's acting is so affect-heavy that it often becomes distracting, but Cusack and especially Banks are quite good. Paul Giamatti does his usual repulsively unlikable character thing. I would never have even bothered with this if it weren't for this forum going ape over it, and I'm glad I saw it, but there are too many needlessly cute devices (why is so much of the Cusack/Banks stuff shot from behind?) to (unsuccessfully) distract viewers from recognizing what is a well-done but still utterly average biopic (And "Hey I hear dogs can pick up vibrations" is up there with any of the Life of Emile Zola's reference-level howlers)

[dustybooks]

I understand your point about Giamatti, but he really is pretty much a dead ringer in voice and demeanor for Landy. The guy was legit terrifying.

[mfunk9786]

Dom continuing to be incredibly unpredictable: I think you're the first person I've read/heard say that they thought the 80s sequences worked better than the 60s ones.

[Emak-Bakia]

I thought I was the only person who wasn’t over the moon about this film. The Beach Boys are one of my favorite bands, so I was very excited to see Love and Mercy when it first came out, but, ultimately, I thought it was a pretty average biopic, which is to say that it’s competently made in all departments, but there seems to be little inspiration beyond simply putting a famous person’s story on the big screen. I feel like much of the praise is because the film functions as reparations for Wilson, whose genius has too long been overlooked by the mainstream. I think there’s a sense of excitement now that his brilliance has been succinctly wrapped up into one nice two hour Hollywood package to convince the naysayers (which is indeed an accomplishment, don’t get me wrong.) I’m seldom impressed by biopics, though, because of their paint by numbers nature, so I’m clearly biased.