Brian's Beach Boys

“The greatest song ever written,” Paul McCartney wrote of God Only Knows, one of the standout all time classics from Pet Sounds that Wilson wrote at the age of 23. “It’s one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it. It’s really just a love song, but it’s brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian.”

Before we get to this week’s rec, a massive shout out to all who came to hang at our TriBeca soirée in New York on Wednesday! Hosted with the gang at NYC Filmmaker Community - huge thanks to Doug and Natalie, and Matt - we’ll see you next time!

Our pick of the week…

It wouldn’t feel right to recommend anything else this Friday. A terrific biography which tackles one of music's most troubled innovators through an unconventional lens that makes perfect sense.

• Love & Mercy 
  Director Bill Pohlad splits Wilson's story between two actors and two eras. Paul Dano plays the young Beach Boy mastermind in the 1960s, crafting Pet Sounds while battling mental illness. John Cusack embodies the medicated, controlled Wilson of the 1980s, trapped under the thumb of his manipulative therapist Dr. Eugene Landy (a remarkably villainous Paul Giamatti). The dual approach works brilliantly. Dano captures Wilson's gentle persistence and suppressed anguish as he revolutionises pop music in his studio sandbox. Meanwhile, Cusack portrays a man alienated from his own talent, existing in a heavily medicated haze until car saleswoman Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks) offers a lifeline. The studio scenes are pure magic, recreating the birth of classics with heart and authenticity. The film used actual musicians and archive-inspired footage that blurs the line between fact and recreation, creating something uniquely moving - like Wilson's own counterintuitive harmonies that shouldn't work but absolutely do. Perfect for anyone who's ever wondered what genius sounds like from the inside.
  ADD TO YOUR WATCHLIST

You could pair this with the Disney+ feature length documentary The Beach Boys to really get to the heart of the history and the music.

Catch you next week.

Ed