Brian Wilson biopic: Love and Mercy

Actually, after having just seen the film tonight, I think they really pulled the punch and did not show how truly condescending and mean he was to Brian leading up to the breakdown.

 

Paul Giamatti's performance was amazing...eeeeevil!

P.S.:

 

Pig vomit!

 

Great actor!
When you see him in a movie, being the 'bad guy', I suggest watching "John Adams", to wash the evil away!

 

...
>>>

 

..... or "American Spender"!

 

WNnnnnnBC

 

...

 

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit but does anybody here besides me find John Cusack's facelift a tad distracting?

 

My take on that decision was that Landy had to appear FAR WORSE than Murry, since escaping Landy was the bigger plot point of the film. They could have used Murry's 8-page letter, for more Murry material but I think it would've slowed the pace.

 

"What's the matter? You made too much money, buddy?" "Brian, I'm a genius, too!"

To think Brian went from Murry to Landy. No wonder the man is damaged. What a rare and gentle soul, and to have survived all of that. Brian is a survivor in so many ways.

P.S.: After watching L&M again, I want to again give Paul Dano praise for his performance. He truly captured Brian's essence. If more Oscar voters were Beach Boys fans he might win, but only the fans know how great he was at portraying Brian.

 

Got the Love and Mercy bluray in the mail today. Woot!

 

My full length review from Amazon.com. Updated to include Blu-ray details.

Bob Dylan on Brian Wilson: "That ear — I mean, Jesus, he's got to will that to the Smithsonian."

Bill Pohlad's "Love & Mercy" is a loving cinematic poem to Brian Wilson, leader of the legendary Beach Boys. Breaking free of the conventional tropes that hamstring most biopics about popular artists; "Love & Mercy" lives and breathes. We see not only his creative process but are taken on a trip through his cerebral hemispheres.

"Music is God's voice", Brian Wilson once said. And the sounds in this film are indeed heavenly. If you're a devotee of Brian Wilson and his music and know the story "Love & Mercy" is something of a religious experience. I cannot imagine a better tribute to such an important artist. The film is so exquisitely crafted that any small blemish or wrong note gets lost in the whole texture.

Paul Dano and John Cusack give tour de force performances as 'Brian Past' (1960s) and 'Brian Future' (1980s), respectively. Dano, particularly, embodies his portrayal of the younger Wilson in a way that is all-consuming. Cusack presents the older Wilson as a man who has been through some deep valleys. Both performances harmonize to create a unique portrait.

Oren Moverman's screenplay is finely crafted so that the story balances 'Brian Past' as he is fracturing just as 'Brian Future' is putting it all back together again. Director Pohlad's recreation of the "Pet Sounds" and "SMiLE" sessions is some of the most magical cinema I have maybe seen, specifically in the biopic genre. The movie deftly juxtaposes both periods, only hinting at the harrowing 'bed years'.

The supporting performances are strong, as well. Elizabeth Banks as Brian's future wife Melinda and Paul Giamatti as the Svengali-like psychotherapist Dr. Euguene Landy. Melinda slowly realizes the man she meets in the films opening scene, while selling him a Cadillac, is a damaged soul. But she is drawn into his world, presumably because of his tenderness and honesty. She also acts as the audiences conduit into the story of 'Brian Future'. Allowing us to view that portion of the story through the eyes of an active bystander.

Whether being domineered by his father Murry, his cousin Mike Love or later Dr. Landy, Brian Wilson has always been “people-pleaser” as his mother Audree once said. In both the film and in real life, it’s comforting to know that the man that gave us all some of the best popular music in the back half of the 20th century while never fully being content, now feels the mercy and the love.

This is an exceptional film, one of the finest of 2015.

******
EDIT:
******

My original posting was technically for the theatrical release, so I thought I would flesh out my thoughts about the home video release.

Every so often a film comes along that almost feels like a "passion project" for the filmmakers and in the case of "Love & Mercy", that is most definitely the case. Albeit a rather protracted case study.

As mentioned in a story from the August 2015 Sight & Sound magazine, the film has been in development in one incarnation or another since 1988. Going all the way back to when Brian Wilson was firmly under the control of Dr. Eugene Landy. Originally, the film was to focus on the relationship between Landy and Wilson and star William Hurt & Richard Dreyfuss as Wilson and Landy, respectively. Thankfully, that version never went past the discussion phase. Curiously though, that project too was named "Love & Mercy". As one can imagine though, the results from a such a production at that time would have cast the overall story in a much different light. Think "Wouldn't It Be Nice: My Own Story" but as a film. One shutters at the thought.

Later, as recently as 2006, the film was in development at Warner Independent (a subsidiary of Warner Bros, which folded in 2008). That project was titled "Heroes & Villains" and was being produced by John Wells (of "ER" & "The West Wing" fame) and Claire Rudnick Polstein. That screenplay, written by Michael Alan Lerner (who received a co-writing credit for "Love & Mercy") by all accounts was a much more conventional biopic. And focused, rather heavily, on the decade that "Love & Mercy" largely ignores, the 1970s.

The story goes that eventual director Bill Pohlad was approached around this time with the "Heroes & Villains" script but politely declined to get involved. However, telling Wells & Polstein that if their project wasn't produced elsewhere to come back to him and perhaps he would want to take a stab at it, if you will. Fast forward to 2011 and that's exactly what happened. After the project at Warner Independent fell through, Pohlad was again approached to get involved and produce the film at his own production company, River Road Entertainment. It's at this time the decision was made to do a complete 180 (story-wise) and start fresh. Pohlad hired screenwriter Oren Moverman ("I'm Not There" and "The Messenger") to take a different approach to the material.

The vision of both men was to focus in on three periods of Brian Wilson's life. Specifically the mid 1960s and the making of "Pet Sounds" & "SMiLE", the mid 1970s and Brian's infamous 'bed years' and lastly the mid 1980s when a forty something Brian meets and falls in love with Melinda Ledbetter, while under the firm grasp of his psychologist, Dr. Eugene Landy. According to Moverman, in an interview from June 2015 (Collider.com) the original screenplay for "Love & Mercy" was some 170 pages. Eventually this was trimmed down to 120 pages, and in the process trimming the 1970s 'bed years' down to a couple of small exposition shots. What remained is what "Love & Mercy" eventually became, a two-strand film that aims big by focusing small.

That moves us to the general release of the film in the U.S. this past June. "Love & Mercy", having debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last September, did open domestically for another eight months. The film opened in roughly 480 theaters in the U.S. and did fairly well for a small indie film. Two weeks later the film went 'wide' and played in what was ultimately its maximum theater count of 780. I'm not sure opening the film last fall in the awards season would have meant better box office results or not. But, ultimately, the decision to hold the film and release it during the crowded summer season as counter-programming to the bigger summer films. While it perhaps might have fared better being released hot off the heels of TIFF, it now has a second chance on home video.

The Blu-ray release is exactly what I had hoped for, as a fan of the film. A high quality image (it's razor sharp at 1080p) and the soundtrack is pretty much flawless. The extras include commentary from director Bill Pohlad and screenwriter Oren Moverman. It's fairly informative with some nice tidbits about the production, nothing extraordinary though. Also included are four deleted scenes (totaling 7 minutes in length) that were excised from the final cut of the film. In the Collider.com interview referenced above, Oren Moverman stated that the first 'real' cut of the film was about 2 hours and 20 minutes.

The Deleted Scenes are terrific and a couple of them help flesh out certain aspects of the film. While a couple of others were probably rightly excised from the final cut of the film.

* Deleted Scene #1: Brian Past meeting Phil Spector on the street. Very brief interaction where Brian sees Phil and professes his adoration for Phil's work. Phil essentially blows him off leaving Brian perplexed and bittersweet. I think this scene would have been fine in the film but I get why it was removed. It probably would have taken the viewer out of the film. The actor that plays Phil does a great job at capturing his essence, while only on screen for a brief minute with pseudo-Ronnie Spector on his arm.

* Deleted Scene #2: Brian Past tells the family he must stop touring. This is basically the full scene, as it appears in the screenplay. Brian, surrounded by the family (Audree, Murry, Carl, Dennis & Mike, along with Al) at the family's house explaining what happened on the plane. In the screenplay, this scene immediately follows the panic attack/nervous breakdown on the plane. It also immediately leads into the scene in the film where Brian, Carl & Dennis are sitting around and Brian explains his desire to "take them further". It's a strong scene but the reason it wound up on the cutting room floor is clear; it's redundant. Of note in this scene is Mike saying "Can I say something, on the record - you don't do it all by yourself Brian". In response to Brian expressing his desire to write lyrics with someone new. I like the scene a lot although, again, it's clear it had to go.

* Deleted Scene #3: Brian Past meeting with Tony Asher. This scene would have been better left in, in my opinion. It fleshes out a little more background on Pet Sounds. Brian looks to Tony to collaborate with him on lyrics for Pet Sounds, initially Tony resists. As presented, the scene is sligthly truncated from what is written in the screenplay but the gist is all there.

* Deleted Scene #4: The "I Get Around" Session. In the finished film a brief moment or two of this scene is glimpsed in the opening montage of 'highlights'. It's clear the scene might have halted the momentum of the opening sequence if it had been left in, therefore, it had to go. Although it is very powerful, even on its own. The band is cutting the vocals for the song when Murry & Audree arrive and the situation devolves from there. The scene is derived from the infamous "Help Me, Rhonda" session where Murry exclaims, "I'm a genius, too!"

My only real take away from this is that I'm certain there are other deleted scenes that were not included. And I'm sad they weren't! I'm aware of several specific scenes that I would be very interested in seeing someday. The existence of the scenes is fleshed out from the screenplay and production stills.

* Brian Past in his bedroom, Marilyn asleep in bed, listening to "Be My Baby" over and over on his headphones.
* Brian Future speaking to Dr. Landy about how to handle the goodnight kiss after their date.
* Brian Past and Van Dyke Parks writing "Heroes & Villains" in the sandbox.
* Brian Past watching TV with Marilyn and seeing news about fires in the news and assuming the 'Fire' tapes are the cause.

An extended cut of this film would be very welcome, perhaps it'll happen someday.

The other Blu-ray extras are two featurettes that are pretty standard EPK fare. Although seeing the production in motion is exciting for a 'behind the scenes' look.

Overall this is a no-brainer purchase if you are a Brian Wilson fan or a Beach Boys fan. It's also a deeply emotional cinematic experience. If your just curious about what the noise about Brian Wilson and "Pet Sounds" is all about, this film goes a long way to cementing the importance of this towering figure in Twentieth Century popular music.

 

Attempting to watch digital copy on my tablet. Aftet 2 hours of bs the film is now in my library. I attempt to play and get nothing. This is my first time attempting to use this feature. Is this the norm? Is Flikster just some sort of joke?

 

^^Where did this "digital copy" originate from?^^

 

Came with dvd.

 

I just saw this last night and it was really great. I'm surprised at how good it was actually.

I'm a casual Beach Boys fan although I love Pet Sounds, etc. I enjoyed both tv movies about the Beach Boys (but I tend to really enjoy goofy semi-low-budget biopics almost more than anything).

This movie on the other hand was so different. It helped really explain Brian in a way I've never really seen before. I've known his story and how things went bad after Pet Sounds/during Smile and the problems with his dad and drugs and mental illness. But this movie was so well done in really showing how his mind kind of snapped and what it took to get him to at least function again.

He's always been somewhat of a mystery to me. Like is he really crazy or does he just put it on? Because I've seen him perform and he can be completely with it in a way that a person who has no control of their mind could never be. But then I've seen him in documentaries and in interviews where he's just completely out there. The movie to me helped sort this out a bit. The description that older Brian uses to describe songwriting was perfect but not just in describing the muse or whatever but in describing Brian himself. A child that operates on his own schedule and impulses. That seems to explain why he can be so animated and together when he's doing something he loves or wants to do vs. something he doesn't want to do or when he feels too much negativity.

Anyway... I thought both actors did a great job of depicting him. I thought the actor playing Murray was pretty good too. And Mike Love to me in this is really a sympathetic character. I don't blame him for wanting to stick to a formula seeing all the craziness, etc. with what Brian was trying to do. They show the guys coming back from Japan and having a great time playing party music only to walk into a studio where every song sounds sad. Of course it's great music! But I don't blame him for reacting that way. I also loved to see the dynamic between Brian and his brothers.

Also Elizabeth Banks was really good too as the calm in the storm. I thought Paul Giamatti did his best Paul Giamatti. I mean he certainly felt like a real villain in that controlling seething anger kind of way. I suppose they needed that kind of depiction and apparently Brian says he was really like that. So who am I to argue with that? However having seen some of the real Landy in some tv interview it seems like the character could have been better if it was dialed down a little. More smarmy and devious that outright maniacal. But again... who am I to say?

 

I just watched the bonus materials on the blu-ray, and about halfway through I realized that in all the actual archival footage and photos of Brian and the boys there are pointedly NO shots of Mike Love.

Not "no interviews with Mike Love" -- only interviews with the actor playing him in the film. The real guy is conspicuously absent in every single frame.

 

I finally saw the film last night, and I have a lot of thoughts swimming around in my head about it, so I'll try to articulate them as best I can this morning.

I thought Paul Dano was absolutely fantastic (as usual). Cusack, on the other hand, came off as though he had studied Dustin Hoffman's performance in 'Rain Man' prior to filming. There were hints of Brian in it (particularly in some of his mannerisms, which Cusack clearly put time into emulating), but on the whole, it came off as a very stilted and self-conscious performance to me.

The 60s scenes are wonderful (as most of you have stated) with accurate sets that really help to take you there. And the cinematography is really stellar, the whole 60s California vibe just oozes through the images. But beyond that, Dano's performance just takes over. He has given himself to the role, and I almost forgot I was watching an actor.

The transitions to the 80s really took me back out of the picture and Cusack's Brian is just such a caricature. It doesn't help that Giamatti decided to play the role as "Pig Vomit" instead of actually studying Landy. I think that this was a real missed opportunity because with Giamatti's talent, he could have added depth and nuance to the character, but instead we're left with a one-dimensional psycho who just screams all the time.

The script hints at a parallel between Murry and Landy, but a stronger script would have fleshed this dynamic out and explored its effect on Brian. This would have made for a stronger connection between the two eras as well. As it is, there is a huge disconnect between the 60s and the 80s, and the transition devices they use are often clunky, meaning that when we're brought back to the 80s, it comes off as jarring. So, overall, the film was a mixed bag for me.

 

The film is definitely not without flaws. If I were to make any criticisms of the film, they would be along the lines of some of yours. I think, however, the strength of the material overall and the 'whole' body of the film allowed me to get past some of the problems I have and really embrace it. I must disagree with you about Cusack though. I can see why his performance struck you as it did, however I tend to think it was very studied while still remaining fairly genuine.

 

I think the explanation is probably "fear of litigation."

 

I've always wondered about this. What is the quality? At best DVD? I have several titles with the download option, but never "jumped". Thanks.

 

Almo Music owns the publishing rights to all the pre-1969 Sea of Tunes songs, I believe. Almo (ALpert & MOss) was the publishing arm of A&M Records, about a block away on LaBrea during those days. The movie condenses several real-life situations; I believe Brian already knew after being pressured by his father and family members that he was running out of money and needed to sell these "worthless" surf songs for income. My guess is that the publishing alone has made $3-4 million a year for the past 45 years, so $750K was a tad low.

Brian collected $25M in a settlement against Almo Music in 1992 after it was determined that his 1970 lawyers were connected to Almo Music's lawyers, so there was a conflict of interest. Mike Love later sued Brian to get co-songwriting credit on some songs and a portion of the settlement (estimated to be about $10M).

 

I know people who have dealt with Brian professionally in LA, and the official answer is "he has good days and he has bad days." The stories told to me are that Brian is sometimes very friendly, very gracious, jokes around, and has a precise memory of many events of the 1960s. But then there are days where he's completely spaced-out, detached, filled with anxiety, and uncommunicative. It was sad when we saw Brian perform the SMiLE album at the Hollywood Bowl in 2005 and he just went through the motions, barely acknowledging the audience and just trudging off at the end. The backup band (which was excellent) did about 95% of the work on the concert.

I liked the film quite a bit on Blu-ray, and I was particularly impressed by the 16mm film used for all the 1960s sequences (which was rock-steady and had very authentic color). I was again very impressed by the attention to detail with the recording gear, the microphones, the consoles, the tape machines, and so on... just stellar. I still laugh seeing Mark Linett walk around as Chuck Britz!