- In the swimming pool band meeting scene, when Brian thinks the band is being bugged and should hang with him in the deep end, I kept expecting Leary to pull up a cigarette from underwater and start puffing away with one of his rants
- Although looking fresh-faced and fighting trim, Leary is nowhere near good-looking enough to play the best-looking guy in the band.
The Dennis character comes off like a bit of a squirt. Meanwhile, the guy who plays Carl is not only a shrimp but can’t weigh more than 140 pounds. Come on, Carl was pudgy from Day 1! If the actor who plays him was so well suited for the 5 lines of dialog in the script that his weight didn’t matter, couldn’t they have at least padded out his midsection and butt a little bit? I couldn’t tell who was who in most of the ’60s scenes. Was the Al Jardine character ever mentioned by name? There was a blond guy I assumed was supposed to be him, but he actually may have been the most handsome guy in the band. The real Al Jardine looked like Satan’s kid brother. One thing rock criticism has failed to tackle, in examining the “competition” Brian felt between the Beatles and the Beach Boys is the fact that the Beach Boys couldn’t stack up in terms of Look. Brian was handsome before he retreated into the deep end. Dennis was smokin’ before he took his long walk off the plank of that yacht. The rest of the guys…not so hot.
For all the care given to Paul Dano’s Brian Wilson hairdos, the film fell short in other follicular matters. My man EPG kept muttering about the Mike Love character having too much hair. As for the ’80-era hairstyles, I already touched on John Cusack’s complete inattention to even internalizing Brian’s hair, but what was with Paul Giammatti’s Eugene Landy rug? Did Landy actually wear a rug, or are rug makers still incapable of creating fake hair that falls down at the back of the neck? Hollywood: surely you’ve got the dreamweavers to weave a realistic rug for Paul Giamatti. One of the finest actors of our generation should not be limited to playing only bald men!
The members of the Beach Boys certainly got short shrift in the film. I recognize it was a film about Brian Wilson but they were virtually non-entities, except for maybe Mike and he surely got less screen time than his ego feels warranted.
Carl & Dennis aren’t around to care but I’d bet the others are plenty ticked off by the absence of screen time.
Word has it Love is ready to file the lawsuit…
We were laughing throughout the movie that Love had a different hat on in every scene. That seemed accurate!
I honestly didn’t realize that Dennis Leary was in Love & Mercy. The Beach Boys weren’t that important in either of the segments because they were on tour in Japan when the bulk of Pet Sounds was recorded & they were estranged from Brian in the late 80s (they recorded Kokomo, Mr. Mod’s fave rave song, w/o him)
Wouldn’t Dennis Wilson’s story be more interesting for a movie? While his story is temporally shorter, it sure is full of interesting stuff, including “Two Lane Blacktop,” and the Manson Family connection.
BTW, if you haven’t seen “Two Lane Blacktop,” it’s well worth the time.
The appeal of Two Lane Blacktop is as mysterious to me as the appeal of Dennis Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue, or whatever that solo album is called. I would love, however, to see a film that focuses solely on the period Dennis spent funding the Manson Family to the tune of $100,000 for the privilege of banging the Manson women. That reminds me: EPG needs to return the Manson book I lent him. What an excellent read that was!
At last, Beach Boys-related topics wherein we have a meeting of the minds: the mediocrity of Two-Lane Blacktop and my incapacity to locate the genius in Pacific Ocean Blue.
Thank god! I was worried about where our relationship was heading. Can’t we all just agree to not get something?
Oh, we’re truly entering into a new Era of Good Feelings.
Oh, great. I liked both “Two Lane” and “Pacific Ocean Blue.” I guess I’m voted off the island.
There was a movie about Dennis in pre-production a few years back but it never made it any further.
I think it turned into that movie with Jeff Bridges as the alcoholic, burnt-out country musician.
Dennis Leary keeps working the rock genre. I’m curious to see this show, knowing full well (I think) the smirking pleasure I’ll get from it:
http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/dad-rock-denis-learys-sexdrugsrockroll-isnt-trying-too-hard-to-be-cool-and-it-works/
Me, too, especially since John Corbett is in it.