Review of Love & Mercy (2015) by Craig V — 07 Jun 2015

The movie about the young genius behind Pet Sounds, one the greatest albums in the past 50 yrs. Better than I could hoped it would be. Having bought and listened to the album on release this movie made my youth come rushing back. I bought Pet Sounds based on loving the earlier Beach Boys songs but, like Mike Love, was a little taken back at first. Unlike Love, I fell in love with it after about 3 times though. This movie shows how much we may have missed hadn't his; dad, Parks, and Landry messed with him. The movie version of the Pet Sounds studio sessions totally blew me away and I had all I could do to control my emotions watching listening to them. Danno, as the Pet Sounds era Brian, hit it out of the park and deserves a best actor nomination. Danno playing Wilson during the sessions made me 100% believe we we're witnessing the genius first hand of Brian Wilson and the crack under the radar Wrecking Crew studio musicians. Cusack, for me, did a great job of portraying the older Brian but I couldn't quite get past the fact that he doesn't physically resemble Wilson, at all. With lots people likely chomping at the bit to play Wilson you would think they could have found someone else equally talented with more resemblance to Wilson. That for me was the one and only minor flaw to this awesome movie.

Bill Pohlad, producer and son of deceased local billionaire & MN Twins owner Carl Pohlad was the subject of a lot of abusive commentary online after the movie was reviewed and highly rated by our local newspaper critic. Lots of jealous people basically saying "anyone with his money could make this movie". That's 150% BS! Bill Pohlad did a fantastic loving job of putting us right back in the 60s, 70s and 80s with Brian Wilson and the music that impacted my life and so many others. Loved it! Thanks Brian and Bill!