Love & Mercy
Crit
With outer demons like that, who needs inner demons?
Golly! I expected to like this bifurcated biopic of Beach Boy Brian Wilson (Paul Dano plays young Brian, John Cusack an older one, a much-discussed casting and structural strategy that bothered/distracted me not a whit), but I never imagined I'd be sitting here listening to Pet Sounds and telling you this was one of my favorite films of the year, and one of the most remarkable filmic combinations of terror, tears, and thrills that I've ever encountered.
That listening to Pet Sounds thing, incidentally, is a yardstick of how your general sensibilities jibe with mine: if you can watch this film and not feel compelled to listen to that album at your next opportunity, . . . well, I won't say we don't have anything to talk about, and I would never suggest that our being very different people reflects badly on you, but we are, then, very different people.
Because the thrill--the element I loved the most in a film whose every element I loved--comes in the scenes during which that one-of-the-five-best-albums-in-rock-history is being shaped, sans vocals, in the studio. Breathtaking.
The terror comes from Brian's abusive father (Bill Camp) and especially from his later Svengali Dr. Eugene Landry (Paul Giamatti), who makes Murry Wilson, who killed 95% of the hearing in Brian's ear with an early blow, then withheld all approval from the young genius, look positively angelic. The tears come with Brian's suffering at the hands of those father figures, and the hope offered by the woman who sells him a Cadillac (Elizabeth Banks, in a role that reminds us that she can do more than crack wise) and stuck around through the deepest shit to be his wife, and mother of five children, today.
I can imagine an intelligent viewer hating everything about this film that I love; I can't imagine anyone being lukewarm toward it. And that's the best thing I can say about any work of art.
The terror comes from Brian's abusive father (Bill Camp) and especially from his later Svengali Dr. Eugene Landry (Paul Giamatti), who makes Murry Wilson, who killed 95% of the hearing in Brian's ear with an early blow, then withheld all approval from the young genius, look positively angelic. The tears come with Brian's suffering at the hands of those father figures, and the hope offered by the woman who sells him a Cadillac (Elizabeth Banks, in a role that reminds us that she can do more than crack wise) and stuck around through the deepest shit to be his wife, and mother of five children, today.
I can imagine an intelligent viewer hating everything about this film that I love; I can't imagine anyone being lukewarm toward it. And that's the best thing I can say about any work of art.
Trailers
- The End of the Tour--Jesus! After this came the trailer for Amy, and I thought, "Are we getting all the dead-tragically-young trailers?" and sure enough, next was Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Anyway, this is Jason Segel looking and sounding pretty damned amazing as David Foster Wallace, with Jesse Eisenberg as his interviewer and Anna Chlumsky as his wife. It would take the worst reviews ever to keep me away. Though I don't think I could take it as a double feature w/ Amy.
- Ricki and the Flash--Meryl as a rocker (and Mamie as her daughter) could be a disaster, but I hope not.
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