One is a narrative and one is a documentary.
One ends on an uplift, the other ends sadly.
Both, though, are about musical geniuses who couldn’t quite handle their demons.
LOVE & MERCY (2014)
Directed by Bill Polad
Written by Oren Moverman/Michael A Lerner
When Brian Wilson was with The Beach Boys, no one knew what kind of issues he was really having.
From the time he was about 12 years old, he had voices in his head telling him exactly what music should sound like. Add to that a father who beat him so hard that he deafened him in one ear and you can see why Brian would have a bit of an issue later in life. Moving from one unsupportive, abusive father figure to the next, he was never able to live up to his full potential. (Imagine what Pet Sounds would have sounded like if Mike Love hadn’t been fighting him every step of the way.)
Love & Mercy shows us all of those conflicts. Paul Dano plays Wilson as a young man while he convinces his brothers that he can make them a masterpiece if they let him stay behind while they tour. The movie starts out with amazing looking footage of The Beach Boys performing. I honestly can’t tell if it’s newly shot footage or older footage with the actors’ faces digitally put in. So good.
Then we see Dano put in a performance of a lifetime as a troubled young man who knows that he could be amazing if only everyone believed in him. He’s tired of doing songs about surfing and cars. He doesn’t even surf or drive!
Brian is nervous everywhere except for one place: the studio. The scenes in the studio are the most beautiful and interesting scenes of the film. It’s seeing a genius in his element. He knows exactly how to use the studio as an instrument and knows how to convey it to the musicians in The Wrecking Crew, Capitol’s backup band. He knows them all by name and talks to each on individually to get what he wants out of them. In the studio, he’s perfect.
Outside of it, he just wants to be accepted. Most of the Boys accept him, especially Dennis (Kenny Wormald). But his cousin, Mike Love (Jake Abel), is an overbearing traditionalist and doesn’t understand anything that Brian is trying to do.
Interspersed with all of this is an older Brian (John Cusack, also doing an amazing job) meeting Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), a car salesperson who catches his fancy. His father and cousin are out of his life, but now he’s being controlled by “Dr” Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti playing a controlling sleaze bag as only he can do).
I was amazed by this movie. Not only did it give me some insight into the making of one of the greatest pieces of musical art of the 20th century, but it made me truly empathize with Brian (both versions of him) through all of his struggles. There is really nothing wrong at all with Love & Mercy.
BE HERE TO LOVE ME (2004)
Directed by Margaret Brown
Throughout the 70s, there really was hardly a better songwriter than Townes Van Zandt. You’ve never heard of him? Sadly, that’s not too terribly surprising. But if you’re a fan of Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Nora Jones, Guy Clark, James McMurtry or Emmylou Harris, you’ve probably heard his songs. Pancho & Lefty and If I Needed You are his two most popular songs, but there are hundreds to choose from.
Van Zandt, from the beginning, was well on his way to drinking himself to death. When he finally managed it on New Year’s Day, 1997, the world lost a great, unheralded poet. Often called a “songwriter’s songwriter,” he was one of a kind.
Be Here To Love Me may only scratch the surface of his life, but it does a great job of showing how his work influenced an entire generation of singers and songwriters, including some that were already established by the time he started. Interviews with his friends and family (including Clark and Earle) really bring him home to the viewer how a man’s demons can not only end his life, but also give his art a depth that it may not have had otherwise. He was troubled, depressed, unhappy and darkly hilarious. And the movie of his life hurts to watch, but it’s essential viewing for any music fan.
Townes Van Zandt and Brian Wilson both had demons that no man should have. One rose above them and the other was taken down with them.
They’re both fascinating artists and made some beautiful music and both are absolutely deserving of your time.
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