Love & Mercy

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Audience Member It’s not a conventional music bio pic and thank heavens for that. The exploration of this musical geniuses creative process is more than enough to warrant this film. But terrific performances and the ability to garner empathy from the audience is what makes it special. Thank God, somebody made this film about Brian Wilson and his contributions. He has more than deserved it. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/04/24 Full Review Wayne K The Beach Boys are a band I'm always happy to hear on the radio or wherever they might be playing, but I've never followed them or discovered much about their background. I know names like Brain Wilson & Mike Love, but I don't know a lot about them. Love & Mercy focuses on 2 crucial periods in Brian's life, bouncing back and forth between them. The film allegedly sticks largely to historical fact, with even Wilson himself attesting to this. Rather than just being a trite step by step journey through Wilsons life and career, it dedicates time to his mental struggles and the pressure he faced trying to keep his band above the water while also expanding his creative input, 2 situations that were almost always mutually exclusive. As many have remarked, Paul Dano does a more affecting job playing the younger Wilson than John Cusack does playing the older version, maybe because he's given more to do and his struggle is significantly more compelling. John Cusack is portraying Wilson while he's rueful and often medicated, and there's not a lot of variety in his interactions. The best part of this segment is Paul Giamatti's performance as fraudulent psychologist Eugene Landy, who's so compelling because he's playing the part as a villain who doesn't even realise he's the villain. Bolstered by some of The Beach Boys greatest hits and intimate yet sympathetic direction from Brian Pohlad, Love & Mercy offers a window into the life of one of popular music's mostly widely recognised geniuses at 2 of his lowest points. It doesn't glorify or condemn him, it just shows us what he went through, and for that reason, it more than deserves your attention. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/28/24 Full Review Patrick D 3.75. Maybe the last strong Cusack performance? He seems stuck in the direct to streaming world now. I remember him getting flak when this first came out, but he really isn't too far off from how Wilson was in the mid-80s. Dano and Giamatti are both excellent as always. The movie itself is a bit disjointed with the nonlinear storytelling and I can't say the movie is better off from it. Also, a shoutout to the mid-90s two-part TV movie on The Beach Boys that, along with the same for The Temptations, is actually pretty good. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/25/24 Full Review SR C I had no idea Brian Wilson was such a not mess. "Genius" maybe, but "out there". The storyline was slow so the 2 hour movie felt like 4. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/18/24 Full Review Timothy D Love and Mercy is enjoyable enough to ignite interest in its real life characters (and then be impressed at how well they were cast). The past vs present storytelling and sincere acting are engrossing even if the delivery as a whole comes off muted. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/20/23 Full Review Robert R "Love & Mercy" makes for an effectively novel dramatization of actual events, but I really think this was just on the cusp of being one of the better biopics I've ever seen, if not for a couple conceptual elements that ultimately held it back. The idea for the film — this bifurcated account of Brian Wilson's life — is honestly a great idea (especially if you're a fan of the man's music). Both periods of time are consequential and interconnected, with either portion featuring some truly terrific performances. Problem is, for me, having two different actors playing the central figure in either timeline makes it a little difficult for me to connect the dots. I feel like aging Paul Dano up into the John Cusack timeline could've made the overall trajectory of the narrative much less disjointed. This isn't to say I favored Dano's performance over Cusack's or anything. I just don't think de-aging tech was anywhere near ready enough in 2014 for Cusack to be aged down. Still, I really did enjoy this, with only a couple gripes keeping me from loving it full-blown. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 09/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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