Brian Wilson biopic 'Love and Mercy' directed by Bill Pohlad starring Paul Dano

Excellent casting choice imo.

http://cdn.indiewire.com/dims4/INDIEWIRE/5c63b2d/2147483647/thumbnail/680x478/quality/75/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fd1oi7t5trwfj5d.cloudfront.net%2F21%2F3e%2F4f412bf240c18e56375535ff7c2f%2Flove-and-mercy.jpg

http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/07/heres-our-first-look-at-paul-dano-as-brian-wilson-in-biopic/

stop it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_and_Mercy_%28film%29

just stop making biopics in general

I'm skeptical of nearly every one that comes out unless I have reason to not be. For instance, the Hendrix and James Brown pics coming out this year look like complete garbage. This one is intriguing, though.

Horrible feet.

There's no way it'll be as good as the Brian Wilson scene in Walk Hard

I doubt it will even be as good as the John Stamos tv movie

that pic looks good. they should just make the whole movie one 90-minute shot of him sitting there, the sound of the waves and seagulls in the background, brian looking confused. sun goes down, credits roll.

"I'm A Cork In The Ocean: The Brian Wilson Picture" COMING SOON

As long as the Barenaked Ladies song is used in every cut

good feet are a myth, like good karaoke

where is Cusack as Old Brian?

lol would watch tyler's version

"kokomo" would play as the credits roll fyi

ok that's a bridge too far

would've been ok with "Brian is Back" or even "Wrinkles" though

credits roll over the "Weirdos + Mike Love" pics

Who's Brian Wilson?

he's a bearded pitcher for the dodgers

hoping for a 4 minute scene enacting the events that inspired "a gardener was gardening/he watered the lawn/and i went to sleep"

dano looks great IMO

some group was playing a musical song

a 30 minute scene of dano playing with wind chimes

"I try not to look at them...but it's hard..."

just stop making biopics in general

OTMFM. As opposed to "based on a true story" movies (which are arguably of some merit if it's a compelling story), biopics are usually just boilerplate "and then this thing you already know about happened, and then this other thing you already know about happened" chapter books with an optional "and then he/she/they died" epilogue. They may be able to salvage a decent performance from the wreckage, but it's almost always wreckage.

Although I'd pay good money to watch a Brian Wilson biopic starring Brian Wilson playing himself at every age.

there was a super-entertaining TV movie about the beach boys maybe 15-20 years ago

xp the birth scene alone

I remember! The guy playing Dennis was a hunk

xpost

guess i missed that the dennis biopic is kaputt.
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/why-dennis-wilsons-biopic-collapsed-20131212

Yeah thats what I was referring to upthread. Stamos produced it.

Xp

it was cool

stamos is cool

let's have another

I remember that made for tv movie - the exposition in the dialogue was hilarious.

Brian: "Hey Dennis, I just heard this new album called Rubber Soul and now I'm going being working on Pet Sounds"

Dennis: "Sounds good. I'm going start cruising the desert for cult leaders".

Brian: "OK, see ya"

really wish this movie was just paul giamatti and john cusack re-creating landy's therapy sessions

googled "eugene landy" to reaffirm whether he looked like giamatti at all and google's top photo for eugene landy IS giamatti

Christoph Waltz would make a good Landy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-K-n5op9nI

yeah i don't get giamatti for this at all

hoping for a 4 minute scene enacting the events that inspired "a gardener was gardening/he watered the lawn/and i went to sleep"

subtle changes between actual lyric and your memory of it basically turns this into a pretty good neil young lyric.

I'd pay good money to watch a Brian Wilson biopic starring Brian Wilson playing himself at every age.

coming soon from richard linklater, with ethan hawke as dr. eugene landy.

though based on the clip croup posted, i now want leonard nimoy to play eugene landy.

Can they start combining biopics with literary adaptations because a Brian Wilson movie would be p cool if it was also Benjamin Button.

i now want leonard nimoy to play eugene landy.

Basically his character in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

the thumbnail image for that landy-wilson YT vid is perfect; like, I don't even need to watch that clip or read a BW biography to get their whole relationship.

are there any weird/experimental biopics? I did not like the Dylan one or Last Days but at least they both tried to do something unusual instead of putting "historical accuracy" first. I feel like the 'uncanny valley' of seeing a dude act like James Brown just lends itself to fucking around with form/nonlinear narratives or w/e rather than trying to be as accurate as possible. There are probably other more subtle ways to subvert this boring straight-ahead approach than doesn't require getting all freaky and un-mainstream. But the singular quest to make a definitive accurate film depiction of a major public figure seems like the most boring and least useful way to use film to explore a character.
Idk, tldr hollywood sux

you didn't like I'm Not There? There's always Superstar lol

tbh i went into it with super negative preconceptions, i'd be willing to see it again.

what's Superstar, is that a karen carpenter biopic or are you talking about that molly shannon movie?

OH shit! N/m just found it. My gosh it looks freaky

this is ok. suffered the same problem lots of biopics do "hey I'm writing this song do you have lyrics? maybe something about the VIBRATIONS?" and then they write the song. I got used to Cusak; he didn't mimic Wilson but I thought he brought an interesting perspective on Wilson, even if he did seem a little TOO together at times. biggest drawback to me was that the ending was very abrupt; would have liked to see slightly more about how they got Landry out.

deleted scenes inevitably include reenactment of infamous Murry 'let's fight for success' tape.

also Spector dissing Brian on the sidewalk

Tell it to Johnny Rivers.

I loved this. Dano is such an effortless actor. Paul Giamatti was great as Landy too. Wasn't mad on Cusack, but you can't win em all. Great to have a biopic that actually concentrated on the music for more than 30 seconds, and also one that told the whole story but from only two specific moments in time (mid 60s and early 80s). Best music biopic I've ever seen (which isn't saying much, but still).

The LSD parts were really tastefully executed and managed to avoid any HE FUCKED HIS LIFE UP WITH CRAAAXY DRUGZ stuff.

I'm listening to the Brian Wilson solo album now for the first time in about 13 years cos of this film.

the sound design in this is phenomenal - the scene where brian's in the studio with his dad in the control room and the music in brian's head slowly turns discordant was heartbreaking

i loved this! Dano was excellent. the look on his face when he emerges from under the piano after getting it to sound just so at one point was a thing of beauty.

anyone see the Miles biopic? it seems to have died on its arse over here, barely in the cinemas.

the Miles 'biopic' is about 90% fictional

aren't they all! it was weird seeing Don Cheadle saying as much in all the interviews though.

yeah it's unabashedly made-up though. i liked Cheadle in it, and it was interesting that they made a story up around Davis's fallow period, but it's an action movie with Miles Davis as the main character, ultimately. Don't expect a serious bio.

watched this on amazon prime last night

as a film it's decent

i did feel it was more for fans so it was difficult to completely remove my fanboy urge to love it

sound design like people have mentioned is amazing

cusack is a strange choice; he kind of made it work but still retains a bit of his cusackisms

dano was pretty great

rly brought back memories of making music with friends

This was waaaaay better than I expected it was gonna be. Recommended!

I just watched it finally last night and was blown away. Gorgeous

may rewatch again today

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it but if memory serves, I could’ve done with more Dano and less Cusack. The former I believed as Wilson, the latter I did not.

i found Cusack very believable but I get why ppl don’t really go for it
it’s a harder role to sell because there’s no definitive hairstyle or wardrobe like Dano has with younger Brian; Cusack has less trappings to hang his performance on
There’s no physical transformation, it’s all in the movements & mannerisms which are also quite small & minimal

I thought he handled the character really well & was very convincing .

I watched it last night. Best parts were obviously the scenes in the recording studio

Also: some director needs to create a worthy starring vehicle for Elizabeth Banks, she’s great in this and a criminally underutilized actress overall

elizabeth banks was in every movie that came out roughly from 2005-2015

this movie was pretty bad. the dano parts were OK, the cusack parts were awful

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I actually worked with someone who lived in L.A. for a long time, and during a long conversation that had nothing to do with Brian Wilson, she mentioned a psychotherapist friend of hers named Eugene Landy. I immediately stopped her and was like, "Wait, wait...Eugene Landy? As in the guy who treated Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys?" Same guy, and it was obvious they were good friends, but I gently reminded her that his treatment of him was "controversial." She agreed, but she did defend him, mentioning how he literally got him out of bed, etc. Then a month goes by, and by sheer coincidence, we both run into Paul Giamatti, whom she recognized but she had no idea he played Landy in the film. (That would've been a hell of an icebreaker, but I didn't want to get into that again and kept quiet about it.)

obv a long time ago, since he died in 2006

Nah, this was summer 2016. (Easy to remember because the election happened when I was finishing up on that job.) She wasn't talking about him in the present tense.

ahhh right, gotcha :)

Giamatti plays such an excellent bastard.

anyone ever read this??

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Vu7%2Bh6KsL._SX317_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

This was on the other night, it is absolutely fucking atrocious, wtf with all those good reviews upthread?

I loved the part where Paul Dano transformed into Balthazar Getty and killed that guy in the truck

Whist talking about The Beach Boys I mentioned The Cowsills documentary Family Band and somebody thought I was talking about this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWtbhd4bFMw

Found a half hour video about why this is the best movie ever. Seems more time efficient to just watch the actual movie.

No idea where to put this but Brian’s wife Melinda passed away. Only 77.

Although she was critical for pulling Brian away from Dr. Landy, she was also responsible for the massive breakdown with Brian and Carl (they didn't resolve their differnces until Carl was dying from cancer).

She also also created major tension between Brian and Andy Paley, Don Was, Sean O'Hagan, basically anyone who wanted to work with Brian on new material in the 90s.

All that said, Melinda was a major factor in getting Darrian/The Wondermints to work with Van Dyke and Brian to finish and agree on a proper sequence for "Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE."

Hope he's getting the support he needs now to deal with his grief. I always got the impression that Brian was still pretty fragile - IIRC he still has very harrowing incidents when he's under a lot of stress.

yeah...

The death was announced on Brian Wilson’s Instagram page, where the 81-year-old singer-songwriter wrote, “My heart is broken. Melinda, my beloved wife of 28 years, passed away this morning. Our five children and I are just in tears. We are lost. Melinda was more than my wife. She was my savior. She gave me the emotional security I needed to have a career. She encouraged me to make the music that was closest to my heart. She was my anchor. She was everything for us. Please say a prayer for her.” He closed the statement with his trademark sign-off: “Love and Mercy, Brian.”

v sad

Although she was critical for pulling Brian away from Dr. Landy, she was also responsible for the massive breakdown with Brian and Carl (they didn't resolve their differnces until Carl was dying from cancer).

She also also created major tension between Brian and Andy Paley, Don Was, Sean O'Hagan, basically anyone who wanted to work with Brian on new material in the 90s.

All that said, Melinda was a major factor in getting Darrian/The Wondermints to work with Van Dyke and Brian to finish and agree on a proper sequence for "Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE."

I couldn't find a particularly suitable thread
https://www.instagram.com/p/DKxHMogupsf/

Brian has passed away

omg

Oh man

Oh god

A true genius.

A story I heard from a friend, can't recall if it was first-hand or from a doc or other source. It was a recording session, and Brian Wilson came in as a guest. He did his first take of a vocal, and it was really shaky, everyone was looking at each other nervously. He did a second take, and it seemed even worse. Then he did a third take, and it wasn't much better. The producer started to quietly panic. And then Brian Wilson told them to put all three takes together and it was perfect.

This is going to be one of those days where you listen to "It's OK" twenty times in a row

Brian Wilson's cousin is a shit (allegedly)

playing Til I Die on repeat. will miss you Brian

“This person changed the world” sometimes gets thrown around a bit too casually but in the case of Brian Wilson it barely scratches the surface. RIP

It bums me out a little that this is the Brian Wilson RIP thread.

RIP to a real one. Music as pure joy.

sorry, I did check and all the other Brian Wilson threads appeared to be even more ill-fitting

An absolute giant. I probably spent more hours immersed in his work than any other artist. RIP and thank you, Brian.

Questlove on FB:

[Man——so there was a day when we were struggling and starving in Europe back in 94 (ok not “starving” but broke)—- it was becoming apparent that the “this is gonna work like gangbusters!!!!” was not going to work.

I didn’t lose hope like “the Roots are f+%ed!!!!!!!” but it was clear that if we wanted to play reindeer games it was gonna be a 5 times as hard struggle to get there (being as though we just did that “1995” show at Hollywood Bowl—-there was kinda a 3 decade in waiting feeling of “see we DO belong!” feeling I had (don’t get me wrong this is the longstanding “always in my head/woe is me/im a failure” cloud that —-I mean if im honest I prolly started to deal with maybe 8 years ago)

But man…..I avoided Pet Sounds when I was younger cause I mean psssh “it’s The Beach Boys——what are they gonna teach this 10 yr old?! This ain’t better than “Apache” or “Genius Of Love” 🙄) ——my dad however LOVED Beatles & Beach Boys —-which baffled me: I mean this Afro rocking “Power To The People” black fist pumped cat from West Philly…..likes……the Beach Boys? 😂🫠

And now here I am a 23 year old college dropout living in London surviving on 2 Fish & Chips & Ginger Beer meal a day, realizing the album he just made…..wasn’t a hit. I mean we were a cult hit…..but in light of seeing Ready To Die light the world on fire—-I let my emo depression kick in hard——and NO album spoke to me more than Pet Sounds.

Mind you Tical & The Main Ingredient & Word…Life held us down too (no internet, streaming, YouTube back then and if we heard “Scatman” ONE MORE TIME 🫥——

Anywho——I know Orbison is the king of emo, but man if there was a human being who made art out of inexpressible sadness….damn it was Brian Wilson.

I hate he went thru what he went thru to create this album (also: Smile Outakes in my North Star) but man——without him I dunno how so many that came after felt safe to express a feeling of sadness that most humans would be otherwise ridiculed/punished for.

This was the hardest lp to convince Dilla was “on some shit” weird considering his range lol—-when that boxset came tho? He hit me lol (“you right this is on some shit!”) the highest compliment from one god to another.

I created a proper thread here: RIP Brian Wilson