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

[dellydel]

The messiest, bedridden years of drug abuse and weight gain are left to the imagination, good news to fans who will instead happily celebrate both on-screen depictions of the beloved legend. It was Brian Wilson himself who brought the topic to the forefront, in fact, when asked what advice he’d give his younger self or young artists today. “It would be a smart move not to take heavy drugs,” Wilson said.

Hooray, I'm happy Brian has eased a bit in his now-standard "don't do drugs" thing to just "heavy" drugs 

[sea of tunes]

"Marijuana helped me write Pet Sounds" as Brian once said.  Danny Hutton has remarked that starting with "California Girls" the sound of the Beach Boys could best be described as the 'sound of marijuana'.  And moving into "Good Vibrations" and "SMiLE" it's the 'sound of speed'.

It's the Lysergic acid diethylamide that really messed with Brian, as has been mentioned so many times.  And his addiction to harder substances.

Just very glad that Brian is still here at nearly 73 years of age and is able to feel the accolades.  This movie is happening at the right time.  Had it been made when the biopic topic was first floated in the late 80s it might've been ill conceived due to the influence of Gene Landy.  And if some of the other projects ("Heroes and Villains") come to fruition, they might not have told the story in a unique and timeless way.  I guess what I'm trying to say is, this project seems to have been blessed to have come out so well.

Can't wait for next Friday!

[ontor pertawst]

It really seems to be. So many things could have gone wrong so many steps along the way, this project really was in the right hands and they had some pretty flawless taste. I know most of you are gonna love it to bits! We're really lucky to have it come out so well, I would have been one of the first to sneer and rip it to shreds if it wasn't so fuckin' gorgeous and spot-on.

Sure, we'll have a few tedious bores whining about tiny changes for obvious reasons of narrative apparent to anyone remotely familiar with filmmaking, but those guy probably do the same anal retentive complaining over everything else in their lives too.

[sea of tunes]

Love & Mercy Featurette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uqnPiyx3Yc

[GoodVibrations33]

Wall Street Journal article:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-dano-and-john-cusack-play-brian-wilson-in-love-mercy-1432838100

[18thofMay]

Love & Mercy Featurette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uqnPiyx3Yc

WOW

[Misterlou]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, a review from Film Comment:

http://www.filmcomment.com/article/review-love-and-mercy-brian-wilson-bill-pohlad

Thanks for the link to a very well-written, thought provoking article. I found the following observations interesting:

"Just before the Christmas of 1964, Brian Wilson suffered the most significant panic attack in pop-culture history. Triggered by in-flight turbulence, it left the fragile Beach Boy grounded for the rest of the band’s tour, unleashing a creative tsunami no one saw coming and none since has fully explained." This caused me to wonder if those who believe in the subjugation of all life's events to fate would see his "panic attack" as an example of determinism, predeterminism, or fatalism. I also don't necessarily believe the astute follower of Brian's musical output up until then didn't see this coming, even if not at the speed it came.

"Love & Mercy jumps back and forth between these two realities, each in a vividly realized time and place: the striving, LSD-dropping dawn of the Pet Sounds age—all lens flare and dreamy haze—and the air-sucking nightmare of mid-Eighties L.A., where the sound of Kenny G’s “Songbird” lets us know we’ve arrived in hell." How funny... what song would announce our arrival in hell (2015 L.A.) thirty years later?

"It would take far more than 20 years of nervous breakdowns, drug abuse, isolation, and toxic therapy to turn Dano’s Sixties Wilson into the Eighties version played by Cusack, who seems to have assembled him from fragments of his timid puppeteer in Being John Malkovich plus a few of Nicolas Cage’s quirkier performances." Do those who have seen the film agree with this conclusion?

"When Pohlad takes his most deliberate turn to psychedelia, near the end, using Kubrick’s 2001 ages-of-man perspective shifts to integrate his two Wilsons, the music is there to meet him: beatific, baroque, nostalgic, avant-garde, of both Eisenhower’s America and Manson’s. It may be too much to ask any film to remain in this world throughout. But this one transcends itself when it dares try." Can't wait until June 5th.

[Nile]

Love & Mercy Featurette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uqnPiyx3Yc

WOW

I gotta say, this movie looks better with every new clip that comes to public!
But since I live in Croatia, I don´t know is there hope to see it on big screen...I don´t care much for watching movies at home, I wanna see it in a cinema!!!

[ontor pertawst]

This is definitely a movie you want to catch in a theater, the surround mix is incredible on a good system and it looks glorious properly projected. Unless you absolutely have to, don't wait for blurays, netflix, or bittorrent, people! 9 out of 10 dentists agree.

[NickandthePassions]

Love & Mercy Featurette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uqnPiyx3Yc

WOW

Some mighty powerful scenes in the featurette. June 5th can't come fast enough.

[KDS]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, a review from Film Comment:

http://www.filmcomment.com/article/review-love-and-mercy-brian-wilson-bill-pohlad

"Love & Mercy jumps back and forth between these two realities, each in a vividly realized time and place: the striving, LSD-dropping dawn of the Pet Sounds age—all lens flare and dreamy haze—and the air-sucking nightmare of mid-Eighties L.A., where the sound of Kenny G’s “Songbird” lets us know we’ve arrived in hell." How funny... what song would announce our arrival in hell (2015 L.A.) thirty years later?

You can pick just about any song on Top 40 radio today to announce arrival in Hell in 2015.  Meghan Trainer, Kanye West, Iggy Azelia, Taylor Swift, any EDM track, the list goes on. 

[tbl]

Watch this reaction to the extended trailer of a person only casually aware of the Beach Boys. Hopefully, this is a typical response!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpm6_AZH4HM

[Vega-Table Man]

Some mighty powerful scenes in the featurette. June 5th can't come fast enough.

It really can't. I'm dying to see this!

[drbeachboy]

I haven't read or watched anything regarding the movie. I want to walk into the theatre cold and really get into the movie without any preconceived notions.

[Mike's Beard]

I really want to see this.

[Larry Franz]

Love & Mercy Featurette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uqnPiyx3Yc

WOW

Wow indeed! If the movie is to the featurette, like the featurette is to the trailer, this is going to be amazing.

[sea of tunes]

That line in Film Comment about "Songbird" is very funny.  I think the screenplay even references that song being used for that particular scene.  I'm sure the goal was to use the most innocuous bit of tedium possible that would evoke the mid-to-late 1980s at a car dealership.  No song does that better.

I probably deserve to be flogged for saying so, but I actually don't mind the song 30 years removed.  Reminds me of VH1 in the mid-1980s and those are good memories.

[GoodVibrations33]

Chicago Tribune article:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-brian-wilson-john-cusack-20150529-story.html#page=1

[Mooger Fooger]

June 14 for me. Probably June 15 and 16 as well.

[sea of tunes]

New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/movies/in-love-mercy-brian-wilson-is-portrayed-by-john-cusack-and-paul-dano.html?_r=0

[Compost]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

I need to see this.

[GoodVibrations33]

Cool photo from Love & Mercy's Instagram:

[puni puni]

This movie looks insanely badass, especially when it kicks to Dano behind the control desk listening to the GV verses

[sea of tunes]

Washington Post article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/finding-beach-boy-brian-wilson/2015/05/27/eaeec0f6-03ac-11e5-a428-c984eb077d4e_story.html

[Larry Franz]

Moviefone finally has information about a few showtimes starting June 5th in the US. They list showings at AMC, Regal and Cinemark multiplexes around the country and an art theater in Florida. Many more to come in the next few days.