Love & Mercy, the Brian Wilson biopic that shows two time periods of The Beach Boys’ life’s most recognizable face, is one of the most underrated movies of 2015. Forgot whatever you know or think you know about Brian Wilson. For me, that was absolutely nothing. I knew he was a member of The Beach Boys, but that was about it. I’m not really a fan of The Beach Boys, but I have a new appreciation for the band and especially for Brian Wilson after seeing this movie. While the band is known for its carefree car tunes like Surfin USA, I Get Around, and California Girls, not all was as peachy as I thought it to be. I’ve always considered The Beach Boys one of those bands that didn’t have a lot of substance in their songs. Not being a Mr. Happy Go Lucky type guy myself and having been to the beaches of California only a couple of times in my life, I couldn’t relate to their music like I could a Tom Petty or a Bruce Springsteen. Their songs, to me, were just that. Peachy. While I will not go out and buy their entire anthology, I will give some of their songs a listen, whereas I might not have in the past. Originally I had no intention of seeing this movie. I thought it was a documentary at first. But I’m glad I decided to see it. I think every fan of the band and everyone who enjoys a good biopic should go out and see this movie.
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Category Archives: Drama
45 Years (2015)
I drank the Kool-Aid on this one. I discussed who would receive the five Best Actress Academy Award nominations in many of my previous reviews. I kept including Charlotte Rampling (Melancholia, The Eye of the Storm) as one of the five based on everything I had been reading. I regret including her name, but, in my defense, January 29th was the very first chance I had to see 45 Years. I saw it a day later, and I am uncertain what I just saw. I love heavy dramas and movies about broken relationships. I also like slow, methodical movies if they are building towards something. The pieces were in place for 45 Years, but this movie ultimately didn’t do it for me. I realize I am in the minority when I give it a less-than-average review. Nevertheless, it earned a stellar 96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. I don’t like using this excuse (mainly because I’m no spring chicken), but I may have been too young to truly appreciate this movie. I want to think that I am not. I have a deep appreciation for movies about aging in general or movies about couples dealing with life-altering experiences. I adore the film Away From Here. I love About Schmidt. Cocoon, Driving Miss Daisy, and Amour are also movies that I admire. And while it is a different type of aging movie, I believe The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is one of the best love stories ever told on screen is one of the best 100 movies ever made. In each of the five movies mentioned above, at least one actor or actress (and in many cases more than one) received a nomination for an acting award. Each was deserving. I have nothing against Rampling, and I went into this movie thinking I would see one of the three or four best performances by a leading actress all year, but her performance failed to meet my expectations. Now that I have seen all of the contenders, I believe Carey Mulligan (Suffragette) deserved the final nomination for Best Actress this year.
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The End of the Tour (2015)
The most unexpected surprise movie of 2015 was the incredibly well-written and well-acted The End of the Tour. While The Gift was the biggest surprise of the year, I went into that movie believing I would probably like the film, but maybe not that much. With The End of the Tour, I was super apprehensive about one of those things because the trailer just looked pretty corny. While I know many comedic actors can start in fantastic dramas (Robin Williams, Jonah Hill, Bill Murray), I was very uncertain that Jason Segel was up to this task at this point in his career. Segel has killed it with his comedy, both on the big screen (I Love You, Man, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Muppets) and television (How I Met Your Mother, Freaks and Geeks). He’s had a couple of misses (Sex Tape, Bad Teacher), but I still felt that he hadn’t worn out his recipe for success. Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, and others have all made hundreds of millions using the same formula. I think Segal is undoubtedly a more talented actor than Sandler. With Ferrell, time will tell. He’s in a bit of a lull, but I wouldn’t count him out. Nonetheless, Segal is an unbelievable talent who quietly goes about his business and will continue to earn opportunities in film and television.
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The Revenant (2015)
Why not save the best for last? It doesn’t always work out that way, but The Revenant was the final movie released in 2015. In fact, except for in a few select theaters in a few select cities, you couldn’t see the film until January 7th. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely it was. It seems like we’ve seen trailers for months building this movie up. Each time I saw a preview, I couldn’t help but get excited. I believe that this might have been my most anticipated movie since Shutter Island, and with that movie, I had reason to be wary because it was a 2010 movie released in February. You usually don’t get the best films of the year released that early in the year. While Shutter Island exceeded expectations, The Revenant was all that and more. Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street, The Great Gatsby) has been burned by the Academy many times before. While The Revenant is his fifth Academy Award nomination for acting, he should have at least three or four more. None of those past omissions matter now, as DiCaprio is the front runner to win Best Actor this year. I wouldn’t quite qualify him as a lock to win, but it is only a two-actor race, and his performance was more impressive than the fabulous performance given by Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl.
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Concussion (2015)
Continuing the theme of 2015 awards season movie releases failing to meet expectations because of the lack of emotional audience engagement comes Concussion, a true story dealing with the effects of professional football concussions. The movie, set in 1982 Pittsburgh, begins with one of the city’s most recognizable faces (Mike Webster of the Super Bowl-winning Steelers teams of the ’70s) living in his truck and slowly losing his mind. Mike (David Morse – The Green Mile, Disturbia) gives the most poignant performance in the entire movie. In a film where we could and should care for all sorts of characters, Mike is the only supporting character who drives out any emotion in us or allows us to feel any empathy. In just a few short scenes, Mike can convey to us that despite what his doctors say, he has significant life problems that are a result of something that happened to his mind from the time he retired in 1990 until the time frame at the start of the film (2002). His 14-year career included 150 straight games as a starting center from 1976 to 1986.
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