Brian Wilson biopic: Love and Mercy

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Vidiot, Apr 17, 2013.

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  1. jonmayo15

    jonmayo15 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    Cool little thing about this film- Mark Linett will be playing Chuck Britz.
     
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  2. naru1980

    naru1980 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Reading this for the first time. So upset Paul Dano is playing Brian. I really can't stand that guy. He ruined There Will Be Blood for me :(
     
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  3. Jason Manley

    Jason Manley Senior Member

    Location:
    O-H-I-O
    "Love and Mercy" will be having its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

    http://www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/programmes/specialpresentations/love-mercy

    First truly good look of Paul Dano as Brian.

    [​IMG]

    And John Cusack as 'Landy Years' Brian.

    [​IMG]

    It looks like quite a number of TIFF trailers have been posted to their Youtube channel, not this one though. Hoping this trailer pops up soon, I feel like a weird Twilight Saga fan waiting to get my first look at this film.

    Brian and the Beach Boys mean so much to me. This summer if you have not done so, I suggest tracking down a copy of "Catch A Wave" by Peter Ames Carlin. One of the best books written about the Wilson's, particularly Brian.

    Something tells me this film will be just eccentric enough to not be a mainstream biopic while still hitting on keys points in the Beach Boys and Brian's life. What more could you ask for?
     
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  4. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    In that John Cusak as Brian photo, Cusak looks better than Brian ever has post '60s. That's OK...It's a biopic not a recreation. But it will take a little adjustment.
     
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  5. rburly

    rburly Sitting comfortably with Item 9

    Location:
    Orlando
    As I recall, Brian was a lot heavier during those years. I wonder why they didn't at least try to make him look heavier. He looks pretty slim in that picture.
     
  6. balzac

    balzac Senior Member

    Brian was moderateky to very slim from 1983 through the rest of the 80s. It looks like they're going for a circa 1988 look in that pic.

    Cusack is about average on the scale of "looks like the actual person" for a biopic. I'd say Brian's (future) wife looks nothing much like the actress in this film, even back in the 80's. It looks like they just went with someone who was blonde who was relatively well known and willing to work within the budget.
     
  7. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I can definitely buy Paul Dano as Brian, but Cusack looks nothing like him.
     
  8. rburly

    rburly Sitting comfortably with Item 9

    Location:
    Orlando
    Yeah, I don't know much about Paul Dano, but I would think if he is a good actor they could have worked with him for the whole movie. He looks a lot like Brian in that picture.
     
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  9. knotley

    knotley Senior Member

  10. zen archer

    zen archer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston Ma.usa
    sgtmono and She is anyway like this.
  11. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I saw this today. Overall, it's very, very good. A few people were wiping away tears at the end, including my date (who is a non-BBs devotee). It's a relatively unconventional biopic, a little rough around the edges in some ways (early on, a few characters introduce themselves in conversations of the "Hi, Mike Love of the Beach Boys! / Hi, Van Dyke Parks, lyricist for Smile!" variety), but stunningly shot in the same deliberately-paced, hyper-saturated LA style as, for example, Drive. The acting is generally pretty strong, especially Cusack, who has Brain's mannerisms exactly down without it seeming like an "impression." And the music-making scenes are as good as a film of this type has ever had. The period detail is extraordinary and the actors playing the musicians say things fans will recognize from the session tapes.

    Paul Dano does a bit of mugging as younger Brian, but, surprisingly, he has a pretty good singing voice -- not as strong or beautiful as the real Brian's, but respectable and a convincing imitation. Two scenes stick out in my mind: one of them follows, in single moving-camera take, Dano conceiving and then playing "God Only Knows" for Murray Wilson; the other is a lunch date for Cusack and Elizabeth Banks where Brian recalls his father's violence. Both are very moving scenes. There's also little bits of dry humor throughout that are very welcome.

    The director did a short Q&A where he talked about how they consciously avoided certain music-biography cliches. It shows in the film and makes it that much more interesting. Director seemed like a friendly, humble, and plain-spoken guy, by the way.

    One weird thing I noticed was a prominent credit for Joanna Going, a very good, lesser-known actress as Audree Wilson (Brian's mom). I don't actually recall her being in the movie...at most it's a half-second shot without dialogue that she's in.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2014
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  12. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
    Thanks for that.
     
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  13. smilin ed

    smilin ed Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham
  14. Glenn Christense

    Glenn Christense Foremost Beatles expert... on my block

    Yes, thanks. It's nice to get an early review from someone here who actually knows the Beach Boys/Brian backstory. I'm guessing most reviewers will only be vaguely aware of the history, knowing nothing beyond the
    "Brian messed up by dad/got weird" shorthand history.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2014
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  15. Dee Zee

    Dee Zee Once Upon a Dream

  16. kreen

    kreen Forum Resident

    Many reviews are now out, and they all point to this being a very conventional biopic, with clearly defined heroes and villains, and a disregard for any nuance.
     
  17. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I saw Brian at Tower Records around 1984, and had to be very close to 300 pounds. Massive.

    I don't have a problem taking some dramatic liberties, particularly when they hire good actors to play a complex role in a biopic. I'm more concerned about them getting the story right and telling the truth. Here's a near-rave review from The Hollywood Reporter:

    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/love-mercy-toronto-review-730952

    "A deeply satisfying pop biopic whose subject's bifurcated creative life lends itself to an unconventional structure, Bill Pohlad's Love & Mercy spends time with Brian Wilson both while his mental illness was a storm gathering on the Beach Boys' horizon and years later, as he tried to break away from a doctor who was using that illness to control his life. Balancing the emotionally involving drama in that later story with the thrilling musical creation in the earlier one, the picture would be exciting even if all it offered was the vision of Paul Dano's Wilson guiding musicians through the creation of Pet Sounds; but as the older Wilson, John Cusack gives one of the best performances of his career, its effectiveness limited only by his lack of a physical resemblance to the songwriter. That will be a stumbling block for some fans, but those who can get beyond it will find a very fine film about a singular artist."


    I just hope they don't make Mike Love out to be "Mr. Nice Guy" in the film. :sigh: At least Dr. Landy is dead, so he can't sue in the event they make him out to be a villain... "heroes and villains... just see what you've done..."
     
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  18. Jason Manley

    Jason Manley Senior Member

    Location:
    O-H-I-O
    Thanks for posting! Certainly this film will have North American distribution soon. As I understand it, Lionsgate has snapped up the international rights.

    I'm curious about a couple of things
    • Does Pohlad use any Beach Boys original music on the soundtrack? I had the impression that it might be a mixture originals and some re-recordings (Wondermints?) with Dano singing? Just curious.
    • Something in the IMDB listing I have been curious about for some time; it lists 'Jeff Holman ... Brian Wilson Present'. Does the film show a third person playing BW or is it more of a gloss over performance of "Love & Mercy" with this actor? Again, just curious.
    This thing has been so long in the making. Kind of surreal to see it finally coming out. I mean, it was in "development hell" for nearly 20 years. I mean, the overall treatment was.

    Can't wait to see it, probably multiple times!
     
  19. Jason Manley

    Jason Manley Senior Member

    Location:
    O-H-I-O
    Which differs greatly from what I originally was reading when it was reported that Oren "I'm Not There" Moverman was writing it. Perhaps Michael A. Lerner tightened up the 'unconventionalism' shall we say?
     
  20. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR! Thread Starter

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    I hope Murray says, "I'm a genius, too, Brian!" :eek:

    I think unless they're shooting a 10-hour mini-series, you have to forgive the characters doing a little exposition now and then for non-fans who have no clue as to who the major players are.

    (An my apologies to Zen Archer above, who beat me to the Hol. Reporter review.)

    Here's the Daily Variety review, which is even more positive (!!!):

    A wonderfully innervating cure for the common musical biopic, Bill Pohlad’s “Love & Mercy” vibrantly illuminates two major breakthroughs — one artistic, one personal — in the life of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. Certainly more conventional than Todd Haynes’ fractured Bob Dylan collage “I’m Not There,” but miles removed from the cookie-cutter approach taken by so many other rock bios, this finely crafted split portrait should win over music nerds skeptical of yet another complicated life being reduced to a series of highlight-reel moments, and provided more mainstream auds are willing to take the trip, Paul Dano and John Cusack’s expert performances should attract an appreciative reception.

    http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/toronto-film-review-love-mercy-1201301472/
     
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  21. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    At the beginning of the film it's mostly lip-syncing to the original tracks. As the film goes on there are more and more recreations with Dano & co. singing. The soundtrack artfully integrates the original recordings throughout, though. Atticus Ross's incidental music is a kind of mash-up of many snippets of Beach Boys songs with haunting atmospheric drones. It's very contemporary but also very Beach Boys in surprising ways.

    I'm afraid I can't shed light on that. There is a brief clip of the real Brian playing "Love and Mercy" live over the closing credits. There are brief shots in a dream sequence of Brian as a young boy (and possibly also as an infant).

    Pohlad indicated that when he came on board, they threw away the old scripts -- which were apparently a good deal more conventional -- and started from scratch.

    Mike is represented pretty unfavorably, as one of the louder members of the group of people tormenting Brian psychically. On the other hand, he does garner some sympathy: the film does make the viewer perceive (in a way that BBs fans sometimes have trouble perceiving in the light of history) Mike's anxiety over the threat that might be posed by Brian's unusual new music to the band's career.

    Landy, on the other hand, is portrayed as a straight-up psycho villain with no redeeming qualities.

    I'd be happy to answer any other questions people might have about the film, btw.
     
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  22. sgtmono

    sgtmono Seasoned Member

    That doesn't seem to be what any of the reviews posted here are indicating.
     
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  23. If my understanding of the overall timeline is correct then your meeting with Brian must have occurred before December 1982 as that's when he was dismissed from The Beach Boys and placed yet again under Dr. Landy's regime - by two years later he was definitely more healthy physically, though already starting to show very unsettling visible signs of his conditioning. Then again, you did only say it was around this period, and I'm curious to know more as I've not seen much evidence of activity from Brian in what was surely the worst time of his life.

    As for the film, I'm hardly surprised that Melinda is being made out to be the real "Brains and Genius" behind Wilson's late career resurrection. Being an officially sanctioned product, it's probably the best indicator yet of what fans can expect from the upcoming autobiography, which I predict will be similarly sanitised in fleetingly acknowledging Landy while continuing to bury the truth under a story filled with clear cut heroes and villains, to paraphrase a certain SMiLE era track.

    We'll probably never get an honest depiction of America's Band while key members remain alive, and even then I suspect the likes of Melinda Wilson and those affiliated with Mike Love could block an approved warts-and-all type documentary. Furthermore, just like so many of the more tantalising musical outtakes known to exist in the vault, such a project may not happen down the line either because of how negative this may portray certain individuals.

    For better or worse, BRI seems content to keep pushing the fun-in-the-sun type marketing, with only brief references to Brian as their tortured mastermind. Sure, they'll allow the throwing of an occasional bone as incentive to sell each new package to the die-hards, yet for the sake of maximising profit we're unlikely to hear Adult/Child, the Love You piano demos, Dennis Wilson's aborted early '70s solo album or the '74 Caribou sessions in full... not when the '60s hits can still be reissued as stereo remixes!
     
  24. Maggie

    Maggie like a walking, talking art show

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I'll repeat, the movie presents Mike Love very unfavorably (if sympathetically). Melinda is not made out to be the architect of Brian's late career resurgence at all: the movie stops well short of that period. It is true that Melinda is depicted as a kind of angelic crusader for Brian, but at no point do we get the sense that anyone but Landy is pulling Brian's strings.
     
  25. balzac

    balzac Senior Member

    Yeah, the last time Brian would have been over 300 pounds would have been in late 1982. Just a few months later in early 1983, Brian had already shed a ton weight. By mid-late 1983, Brian was very slim.
     
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