I've been watching a bunch of the red carpet interviews, press junket interviews, etc. with the guys and Frank Marshall.
Frank Marshall has produced ten billion tentpole blockbuster movies. He and his wife (Kathleen Kennedy) have both produced a zillion all-time box office smashes, and they're both surely rich beyond all belief.
Marshall's actual *director* resume is much less impressive. He's done a few action/drama/horror films, and a few documentaries.
But more to the point, in watching the guy and listening to him, he seems like a rich old dude you'd see in a premium box at a Mike "Beach Boys" show at a winery. He's the same age as the BBs (Carl's age to be specific), and in every interview he talks about how he grew up listening to Dick Dale, etc., had his own failed band, and so on. Whatever, but I get the vibe that Frank Marshall does not regularly spin "Carl and the Passions" or "Holland", and I wouldn't be surprised if he couldn't name a song from the era between "Sail on Sailor" and "Kokomo."
I'll cut the red carpet interviews a bit of slack because it was apparently hooked into the "Visit California" organization, so everybody just kept blathering on and on about *CALIFORNIA*. "This is really the story of California." No, stop it. You're not Timothy White. Yes, obviously California is a part of the story and sometimes it even works to kind of weave some themes through the band's story.
Everybody seems in polite zombie mode promoting this thing. I watched one of the press junket interviews with Al, and he clearly is trying to not explicitly just be extra cynical and grumpy about the doc, but he's sitting there at 81 years old and being asked "What's your favorite Beach Boys song?" And he's got nothing. Like, he can barely muster a few obvious titles. I'm not saying he can't name them all. He'll talk about "Santa Ana Winds" and "Holland" if you ask him. But this whole thing is a bit like the Twilight Zone. There's a weird absurdity to it that's fascinating for not all the right reasons.
Not trying to be overly dramatic; we'll all survive and hopefully soon enough we'll be back to the next archival music release.
And hey everybody, 8mm home movies at least, right?
F.M.? Based on what I saw/heard, I'd pleasantly surprised if he could name 4 Beach Boys songs if suddenly asked... maybe 3.
And yes, it's all weirdly absurd, and absurdly weird, like everything in the current millennium.
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