"It's miraculous that we've lasted 60 years," says Mike Love at the start of Disney +'s new Beach Boys documentary. "But the reason we've lasted so long is because we're family." By my estimation this is the eighth or ninth attempt to bring the group's story to the screen.
It's hard to say that any of them have been entirely successful. But you possibly need some unholy combination of Paul and Wes Anderson, David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino to really capture the innocence, glee, wonder, grandeur, goofiness, trauma, madness, horror, squalor and grief of this particular peculiar American saga. THE NEW UNCUT COMES WITH A FREE, ULTRA-COLLECTABLE JOHN LENNON CD – ORDER A COPY HERE With the best of intentions, most recent attempts have joined in the construction of The Holy Cathedral of Brian Wilson.
I Just Wasn't Made For These Times (1995), Endless Harmony (1998), Beautiful Dreamer (2004), Love & Mercy (2014) and Long Promised Road (2021) have each in their own way been dedicated to the sainted psychedelic savant. As Don Was (one of the few insightful talking heads lined up here) says: Phil Spector's productions felt like they were in black and white, but Brian took pop production into Technicolor. Advertisement These stories find some charm in the early home recordings but generally can't wait to move on to the moment Brian hooks up with LA's session musician royalty the Wrecking Crew.
.. Stephen Troussé.