Love and Mercy - News and Reviews - First clip is out.

[puni puni]

That looks way too amateurish to be the actual poster. It doesn't mesh well and barely represents the film. The artist is more used to designing posters for music events, which is a better context for that kind of cheap vector style. There are so many great shots and stills from this film that you could base its poster on. Why use a stock photo of a wave and that really overused photo of the real Brian as your resources...? This movie deserves better.

[rn57]

That looks way too amateurish to be the actual poster. It doesn't mesh well and barely represents the film. The artist is more used to designing posters for music events, which is a better context for that kind of cheap vector style. There are so many great shots and stills from this film that you could base its poster on. Why use a stock photo of a wave and that really overused photo of the real Brian as your resources...? This movie deserves better.

I think I have to disagree. It has to be remembered that the movie's going to reach a whole lot of people who up to now could hardly tell Brian Wilson the musician from Brian Wilson the pitcher....so the photo won't be familiar to them. I think it's effectively used here.

[Compost]

Looks great to me!  Cool as all hell.

[John Manning]

Gorgeous poster. Maybe the Cooper Black is a bit clichéd but gorgeous regardless.

[monicker]

Hey, there’s Cooper Black and a tidal wave once again. I don’t know that i’ve ever seen such a revered artist so persistently shoehorned into the tiniest little box even by the very people who claim to revere him the most. This poster is embarrassing.

[sea of tunes]

Hey, there’s Cooper Black and a tidal wave once again. I don’t know that i’ve ever seen such a revered artist so persistently shoehorned into the tiniest little box even by the very people who claim to revere him the most. This poster is embarrassing.

Outside of hardcore Brian Wilson and Beach Boys fans, who would make the association of Copper Black font (Pet Sounds) or a wave?  I would imagine the posters' sole purpose is to catch the eye and give the onlooker a glimpse of what the film might be about.  By that measure, it does the job very well.  This poster isn't for hardcore BW/BB fans.  It's for a major motion picture in general release, for heaven's sake.

The use of the fairly famous silhouetted image along with the wave juxtaposed with psychedelic imagery and the faux poster 'blown out' look is all right, at least to me.  It's a very inspired poster, I think.  The Copper Black font is a nod to the faithful I think as is the image used.  I think this poster gets everything just perfect, that was my visceral reaction and I'm sticking to it.

If this poster is embarrassing, what would suggest the artist have done to best capture the film in a one-sheet?

[sea of tunes]

LA Times: Brian Wilson biopic 'Love & Mercy' a complex venture for Cusack, Giamatti

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-ca-movie-sneaks-love-mercy-brian-wilson-20150426-story.html

Wouldn't it be nice, Beach Boys fans have thought for years, if they could wake up to find music legend Brian Wilson on the big screen? And to do so while he tangles with ghosts and a deliciously malevolent doctor — God only knows what we'd be with such a film.

Actors John Cusack and Paul Giamatti make just that kind of music in "Love & Mercy," their tale of the Beach Boys pop tunesmith out June 5. In the unconventional biopic, directed by producer-financier William Pohlad and serving as the first major narrative piece on Wilson, the actor who once held a boom box up to America conjures up the famous Beach Boy, while one of the country's preeminent character actors infuses Wilson's tormentor, psychologist Eugene Landy, with a sense of anxious evil.

"The problem," Cusack said, "was that no one is going to believe a lot of this was for real. It's so much more bizarre than you could actually show."

"This was not," Giamatti added, "a man who was a whole lot of fun to play."

Nice article.

[Debbie Keil-Leavitt]

From my post on Brianwilson.com:

I will make this brief, as I have been awake for about 36 hours and I'm incoherent.  I was lucky enough to have seen Love & Mercy for the first time in Minneapolis this evening and Bill Pohlad announced that it was the first showing with One Kind of Love ending the film.  That really, really works to follow the song "Love & Mercy" with "One Kind of Love" as it brings the music to Brian's present life, and it's that terrific song, appropriate to the film.

It was as brilliant as everyone has been saying and the portrayals of Brian are uncanny.  It isn't so much the actors mannerisms and expression - which ARE spot on - but they captured his brilliance, his pain, and Brian's downright sweetness that comes through the music.  it will take a bit and some sleep to wrap my head around my personal reactions to the film, but I will share them when I can state them in a clearer manner.  I also love the heroic teamwork of Melinda and Gloria that is so touching.

It was a delight to thank Mr. Pohlad personally for his work.  He is wonderfully approachable and truly loves hearing our comments about the film.  I couldn't say much more than what an amazing job he had done in capturing the essence of Brian.

This is absolutely as must-see. The soundtrack is phenomenal and I can't wait for its release. 

[John Manning]

… why the lone tear falling down his cheek?

On a warm breeze the little bells
Tinklin' wind chimes…

Maybe?

[ontor pertawst]

Glad to hear that, Debbie... sounds a lot like my initial reaction! Looking forward to further thoughts.
 I'm glad One Kind of Love ended up in there!

[Misterlou]

Totally dig this poster. Are copies going to be available for purchase?

[puni puni]

I would imagine the posters' sole purpose is to catch the eye and give the onlooker a glimpse of what the film might be about.  By that measure, it does the job very well.  This poster isn't for hardcore BW/BB fans.

I'm no graphic design major but my first impression was the exact opposite. It's cluttered and excessively niche, like an advertisement for a rockumentary instead of a drama made for musically-unaware mainstream audiences.

Who is Brian Wilson? Why does he matter? Neither of these questions are answered in the poster, just vaguely alluded to -- and only in a way that people who already know the answers would understand. So it fails at an informative level.

There are only a few essential bases to cover with BW: innovative music producer, melancholic singer/songwriter, and founder of a culturally iconic touchstone in modern Americana. None of them were met effectively. Love & Mercy is a very good-looking picture, so I'm amazed at how uninspired and rushed the poster is.

The prominence of the tidal wave should be equal to how much surf is in the film (i.e. barely visible). The bright yellow "LIFE, LOVE & GENIUS OF BRIAN WILSON" is redundant to the Washington Post quote, while the real life Wilson's appearance contradicts the film's meta. If Dano and Cusack are playing him, then they should share the poster. They can be divided in two frames, one with Cusack perhaps sitting in bed with a somber expression, and the other of Dano behind the control board or playing piano in the sandbox.

I dunno, maybe I only dislike it because it looks like it took less than an hour to make in Photoshop. The blue gradient is really off-putting.

[beacharg]

Well clearly this poster wasn't made for the movie, and it isn't new.

Look at 1:20 in this 2012 fan-made clip (Goin' Home from TLOS):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6QlZaXUeKw

[ontor pertawst]

[sea of tunes]

Great find guys.  The artist, Kii Arens, posted on his Twitter account on Wednesday that Thursday would 'hopefully be one of the biggest days of his artistic career', I'm paraphrasing.  Apparently Lionsgate/River Road liked the image enough to have him flesh it out into a full one-sheet.

[18thofMay]

No tear?

[the professor]

when is the LA release date?

[John Manning]

Don't know if these were posted here already or where they should go, but John Cusack used his phone to capture a little bit of Brian and his band rehearsing for the movie's wrap party:

https://www.facebook.com/officialbrianwilson/videos/10153240659862241/?theater

https://www.facebook.com/officialbrianwilson/videos/vb.34250497240/10153240666367241/?type=2&theate

(insert Auto-Tune reference of your choice)

Isn't that Foskett on the God Only… highs?

[puni puni]

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0071/5192/products/BrianWilson__2011KiiArens_1024x1024.jpg?v=1310399038

I like this! Looks great. Too bad my suspicions were on the dime.

[sea of tunes]

If the board is already picking apart the poster, can't wait to see what happens with the film.

 

[ontor pertawst]

Something along the lines of "This is a load of Brianista propaganda that makes David Leaf look like David Beard! Melinda Ledbetter is portrayed as a saint when clearly she wears the wrong color dress in at least three scenes! Landy wasn't a cartoon villain, he helped Brian lose weight and Brian would be dead if not for him! This merely furthers the nonsensical notion that Brian Wilson was somehow a talented genius who was more important than the other Beach Boys, by concentrating on Pet Sounds and Smile it doesn't present a balanced portrait of America's Band and doesn't include anything from their more group-oriented efforts or even mentions Kokomo! It is insidious, and any new fans of the band attracted to the music by this film will need to be deprogrammed by AGD's elite team before we can tolerate their drivel."

[bgas]

 Got to see the trailer today on the big screen as one of the Previews of coming attractions.
 Got to say it looked really great there!! So much better than watching it on the computer...

[sea of tunes]

Nice, what film was it playing before? 

[ontor pertawst]

It looks terrific projected! I am so glad they shot on good old Kodak film and not digital stuff. All of the period scenes would've looked so off with a cheesy fake film filter.

[sea of tunes]

Lots of credit must go to the DP (Robert Yeoman).  When I read of his involvement I knew the look would be spot on. 

Can't believe it's 5 weeks and counting!!  Off topic a little..  I wonder how big of a release the film will get in the states.  I live in a fairly good size city (Columbus, Ohio) and I'm wondering if it will play at the AMC multiplexes around the city or be picked up only by the more art house theaters.

Hmm.