"Love & Mercy" - Board member reviews and discussion

[sea of tunes]

Never saw Summer Dreams, but I've always thought the performances in American Family were actually pretty good.  I thought Kevin Dunn played a good Murry.  The Mike character was spot on.  Dennis too.  I thought the guy who did Brian was alright, but it got very cartoony once you got to the Smile era.  

While it doesn't compare to Love and Mercy, I think that American Family isn't at all the piece of garbage it's made out to be.  

It's not awful.  It has its moments.  I think my biggest problem is the over reliance on caricatures and not enough character development.  Everyone in the film is one dimensional.  Brian is played like a buffoon in Part II when in 1966 he was anything but.  He was at his creative peak and very focused.  We see little of that in AN AMERICAN FAMILY.  In fact, we see little of the creative ocean that was Brian Wilson from 1963-1967.  LOVE & MERCY is the exact opposite.  

Also, I'm not gonna front, Mike is treated as the figurehead of the band.  A scene that always made me want to throw something is when Brian is trying to feel his way through what would become "I Get Around".   The film tries too hard to make Mike the creative touchtone of those types of moments.   That stuff just gets under my skin.

[puni puni]

Just remembered a line spoken by Max Schneider's VDP: "I have been writing lyrics professionally since I was 14 years old."

This is totally false, isn't it? VDP hadn't written a song until he was 21, much less lyrics before he was enlisted for Smile. Even the words for his first single, "Come to the Sunshine" and "Farther Along", came from an uncredited Danny Hutton.

[ontor pertawst]

Go tell him and see if that'll stir up any drama. I doubt it.

[JimC1702]

Forgot to mention in my earlier post that "Love and Mercy" seems to draw pretty heavily on the "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" video.  Some things were taken verbatim from that film, like Brian's description of how Murray beat then as kids (the restaurant scene in L&M), and him saying how sometimes "your soul comes out to play". 

Jim

[Junkstar]

Junkstar- Is that really you?

Yep. Thanks for noticing! Came to promote my new single and quickly got sucked into a few threads.

Is there a link for your single somewhere?

I put it in a diff sub board here related to associated music or something. Here's the iTunes link: https://itun.es/us/pQST7 it's on Spotify, google Play and Amazon too. Thanks, man.

[Junkstar]

Ok, that was unnecessary as PFunky had it covered. Need to get back in the swing here and pay closer attention. Apologies.

[Rocky Raccoon]

Forgot to mention in my earlier post that "Love and Mercy" seems to draw pretty heavily on the "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" video.  Some things were taken verbatim from that film, like Brian's description of how Murray beat then as kids (the restaurant scene in L&M), and him saying how sometimes "your soul comes out to play". 

Jim

Bill Pohlad has said he used that film as a reference, including that the casting of John Cusack was based on Brian's appearance in that movie.

[sea of tunes]

According to BoxOfficeMojo LOVE & MERCY will be in 572 theaters starting today, June 12th.  Up from 480.

[Stephen W. Desper]

COMMENT: 

Liked the movie, of course.  Don't know if this link was posted before, but found the "Academy Conversations: Love & Mercy"
quite fascinating and wanted to post the link here.

Academy Conversations >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdB71BA9HOI#t=18

The Academy Conversations sequence is followed by Brian and Melinda on "The View" in case you missed it.

~swd

[filledeplage]

COMMENT: 

Liked the movie, of course.  Don't know if this link was posted before, but found the "Academy Conversations: Love & Mercy"
quite fascinating and wanted to post the link here.

Academy Conversations >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdB71BA9HOI#t=18

The Academy Conversations sequence is followed by Brian and Melinda on "The View" in case you missed it.

~swd

Thanks, Mr. Desper, for the link. 

Just saw it and thoroughly enjoyed it.   

[DennysDrums83]

According to BoxOfficeMojo LOVE & MERCY will be in 572 theaters starting today, June 12th.  Up from 480.

Is there an updated list?  To my knowledge, it is still not playing ANYWHERE in my state.

[Amy B.]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/06/11/when-a-manic-pixie-dream-girl-is-anything-but/

The term "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" was coined nearly a decade ago by film critic, Nathan Rabin, to describe Kirsten Dunst's character in Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown and has come to be used frequently since then to describe, as Rabin put it (and as repeated in Wikipedia's entry on the topic) "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." - ie, kind of a female Peter Pan. (Though of course Peter Pan is always played by a female but that's another topic.)

In the blogpost above, the question is posed as to whether Elizabeth Banks's role does or doesn't resemble the stereotypical MPDG as seen in a lot of movies. (Including, I suspect, one or two the Lovester is judging right now at that festival in NYC.) The blogger argues the role of Melinda shows too much independence and strength to be called that. But the post does illustrate the one flaw of much substance that I saw in L&M: that Bank's part is not that strongly written. Had Oren Moverman (and his co-writer whose name I forget just now) really developed the role the way they could have, the MPDG thing wouldn't be coming to mind at all.

Hollywood suffers from a chronic case of underdeveloped female characters, whether on TV (particularly sitcom wives) or in movies. Whether it's the MPDG or some other type, these women exist to react to the male protagonists or antagonists. The character of Marilyn is a bit like that in L&M. She barely shows a personality, except to smile when Brian does something great, call him "honey" a lot, and hold him when he gets upset. I would say that as Hollywood goes, the Melinda character is pretty well drawn. She is still completely revolving around Brian, but then again, everyone in the movie is.

[KDS]

Forgot to mention in my earlier post that "Love and Mercy" seems to draw pretty heavily on the "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" video.  Some things were taken verbatim from that film, like Brian's description of how Murray beat then as kids (the restaurant scene in L&M), and him saying how sometimes "your soul comes out to play". 

Jim

Also, the scene at the end where Brian is taking Melinda to the site of this childhood home mirrors a shot of Brian and Melinda driving around from IJWMFTT.  

On The View, Melinda mentioned that the origins of Love and Mercy go back to 1996 with Don Was.  She didn't make a direct connection with IJWMFTT and L&M, but with the Don Was mention, I would assume that discussion for a movie started with that documentary.

Speaking of which, I'd love a sequel of IJWMFTT that convers the last 20 years
-Carl's death
-Albums Imagination - NPP
-Brian's return to the road as a solo touring act
-The revival of Smile
-The Beach Boys reunion
-Love and Mercy

[KDS]

Never saw Summer Dreams, but I've always thought the performances in American Family were actually pretty good.  I thought Kevin Dunn played a good Murry.  The Mike character was spot on.  Dennis too.  I thought the guy who did Brian was alright, but it got very cartoony once you got to the Smile era.  

While it doesn't compare to Love and Mercy, I think that American Family isn't at all the piece of garbage it's made out to be.  

It's not awful.  It has its moments.  I think my biggest problem is the over reliance on caricatures and not enough character development.  Everyone in the film is one dimensional.  Brian is played like a buffoon in Part II when in 1966 he was anything but.  He was at his creative peak and very focused.  We see little of that in AN AMERICAN FAMILY.  In fact, we see little of the creative ocean that was Brian Wilson from 1963-1967.  LOVE & MERCY is the exact opposite.  

Also, I'm not gonna front, Mike is treated as the figurehead of the band.  A scene that always made me want to throw something is when Brian is trying to feel his way through what would become "I Get Around".   The film tries too hard to make Mike the creative touchtone of those types of moments.   That stuff just gets under my skin.

Turning Brian into a buffoon is my biggest gripe with American Family.  The scene that always gets me is when Brian plays Mike a demo of Good Vibrations.  And when Mike agrees to help Brian write the lyrics, Brian gives Mike a huge hug as if to save "Thank you great savior!!!!" 

I like the way that exchange was handled in Love and Mercy much better with Mike saying "You've got something there" when he heard Brian playing the piano riff, and Brian asks if Mike had any lyrics. 

[sea of tunes]

IndieWire: Paul Dano Made a Beach Boys-Inspired Mixtape That You Will Totally Dig

http://www.indiewire.com/article/paul-dano-made-a-beach-boys-inspired-mixtape-that-you-will-totally-dig-20150612?utm_campaign=Indiewire&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=1434127004

[Misterlou]

My apologies if this has been posted already, but the presence of this "anatomy of a scene" holds promise for full audio commentary from the director of Love & Mercy, Bill Pohlad, when the blu-ray comes out.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/movies/100000003709209/anatomy-of-a-scene-results.html?playlistId=100000002420711

[Cyncie]

So much good PR on this film, and I still haven't been able to travel the 100 miles north to see it!!!

[Komera]

I saw it last night and was very impressed. Hearing the music with great theater sounds blew me away. Cal me odd, but i though the actor who played Murry in Summer Dreams was the best and the one who played Mike Love in American Family was the most Love-like. Something neat I noticed in Love and Mercy was the quick reference to Carl and Dennis playing on Pet Sounds.

Never saw Summer Dreams, but I've always thought the performances in American Family were actually pretty good.  I thought Kevin Dunn played a good Murry.  The Mike character was spot on.  Dennis too.  I thought the guy who did Brian was alright, but it got very cartoony once you got to the Smile era. 

While it doesn't compare to Love and Mercy, I think that American Family isn't at all the piece of garbage it's made out to be. 

Someone posted Summer Dreams on YouTube, if you want to have a gander at it.  It's got subtitles, in I don't know what language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz8WYfIuF9o

There is at least one other place online that has it watchable, without the subtitles.  Which is where I went to rewatch it before it was posted to YouTube.  But for the life of me, I can't remember where I found it.

[sea of tunes]

‘Love & Mercy’ is an all-time biopic:

http://www.voxmagazine.com/2015/06/love-mercy-is-an-all-time-biopic/

Love & Mercy—The AllMovie Review:

http://www.allmovie.com/blog/post/love-and-mercy-the-allmovie-review

[rn57]

http://deadline.com/2015/06/jurassic-world-weekend-box-office-spy-entourage-insidious-chapter-3-1201441812/

L&M was America's 10th highest grossing film last night.  Deadline's data suggests this weekend will mark a box-office dropoff of minus 25 to 30 percent from last weekend, which is a bit less than the 50 to 60 percent dropoff most films with a wide opening experience in America.  This suggests word of mouth a bit better than what your average multiplex picture gets.

[Shady]

So it's grossed nearly 5 million in 2 weeks on less than 500 screens...  

I'm a complete novice when it comes to box office figures but that sounds pretty good.

[Robbie Mac]

Um, no. That article said a total gross of 4 and a half million.  A half a billion gross in two weeks is impossible even for a popcorn movie blockbuster.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films


For the type of movie that L & M is (a music biopic with an artsy bent), 4 and a half million is nothing to sneez at, though.

[Shady]

 

Sorry, I accidentally typed those two zeros, I meant 5 million

[Komera]

Anyone besides me suddenly getting a lot of YouTube notifications of replies on videos commented on way long ago?  Gee, I wonder why a lot of people are suddenly starting to watch Beach Boys related videos.  Hmm...

[Hot Rod]

So I watched the movie last night and here are my thoughts.

First of all, the movie was perfect and wonderful.
All the actors were really good. Paul Dano's playing was out of this world. He was so good. The way he sang and played God Only Knows and Surf's Up was amazing.
Johny Cusack was wonderful, too. I don't know why he didn't sing, maybe he just can't sing at all. But his way of playing Brian was also perfect.
Elizabeth Banks was so cool and tough and kicking Landy's ass. Wonderful performance.
Speaking of Landy, holy sh**, Paul Giamatti's Landy gave me the creeps more than once. He was amazing. Before the movie I didn't know how much control Landy had over Brian's life, but ths was just scary. So glad Melinda had the guts to stand up against him.
The soundtrack was amazing, but I don't think it needs to be released, because it was mostly just Beach Boys songs
And the idea to show a video of a live performance of "Love and Mercy" of Brian and his wonderful band was another wonderful idea.
All in all i give this 5/5

Then I can go to the sad part. I went to the 10 o'clock showing and there were 5 people in the cinema, on a Saturday night, first week of showing. It was so sad to see that this amazing movie will not be seen by too many people in Germany. I thought about this and I think the reasons are:
1. no one here, except Beach Boys fans, knows who Brian Wilson is.
2. when the general public people think of The Beach Boys, they think of Surfin USA and Fun Fun Fun and not of Pet Sounds and Smile
3. the title Love and Mercy, while perfect for any Brian Wilson fan, doesn't say anything about the content of the movie or gets anybody interested, because really no one knows the song. If they had used "Good Vibrations" as the title, more people might think "hey, it could be about The Beach Boys".
I hope you could follow my thoughts. Can't wait to own ths thing on dvd.