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: Musical and Performing Arts
Begin Again (2014)
Begin Again had all of the makings of a great movie. It had an all-star cast with Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Hailee Steinfeld, and Catherine Keener (in addition to Maroon 5’s Adam Levine). It had a fantastic soundtrack (with most of the songs sung by Knightley). But most importantly, it was tying itself to John Carney, screenwriter/director’s 2007 gem Once, perhaps the most incredible “musical and performing arts” movie that you’ve never heard. I started off liking this movie so much. After 30 minutes, I felt confident it would be as good as, if not better, than Once. The problem was that as believable as Once felt, this movie felt unbelievable by its third act. It was a movie that stretched so far past the idea of a feel-good story that you really couldn’t at all take it seriously. If I had to break down the three acts, I would give Act One an A, Act Two a C, and Act Three a D (based on the implausibility of not just the last act itself, but because it doesn’t effectively bring resolution to any of the issues the characters are dealing with in the first two acts of the film). This movie reminded me of August Rush, but, to be honest, I’d have to watch August Rush again to see if that’s a fair assessment. I do remember wanting to like August Rush much more than I did.
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Les Miserables (2012)
So it turns out, to no big surprise, that I’m not a fan of musicals. I have yet to see Moulin Rouge! or Chicago. Even though I’ve been told how great both movies are, I have yet to find the desire to give either film a chance. There was something about Les Miserables, however, that piqued my interest. I think it was the Anne Hathaway trailer. I’ve repeatedly said on my blog that Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams are the two best actresses in the world. I’ll go out of my way to see any movie in which either actress stars. I thought the Hathaway “I Dreamed a Dream” trailer was perfectly made. It won me over on the spot. I put aside any reservations and promised myself I would see it.
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Crazy Heart (2009)
Roger Ebert said it best in his review of Crazy Heart about lead actor Jeff Bridges’ performance when he said, “The notion of a broke-down, boozy country singer is an archetype in pop culture. We’ve seen this story before. The difference is, Bad Blake makes us believe it happened to him.” It’s such a simple statement, but so true. Bridges (Tron, The Big Lebowski) gives the performance of his legendary career and, rightfully so, his first Academy Award win. He is the highlight of a very good, albeit flawed, movie.