This has the potential to be extremely terrible. Ominous early warnings:
1) The first person mentioned by name is Eugene Landy.
2) John Cusack (older Brian Wilson) from Paul Dano (younger Brian Wilson) is a real stretch. At first I couldn’t make heads or tails of this aspect, and thought maybe the premise was an Eternal Sunshine-like someone-imagining-themselves-to-be-Brian-Wilson kind of deal (and noticing BW himself on second viewing only enhanced the confusion), but apparently not. It’s straight-up pop bio-pic.
3) “I’m gonna make the greatest album ever made.”
4) That horrid word, “genius,” flashes across the screen twice (wonder how often it’s intoned in the film?).
5) The early Beach Boys — striped shirts and “Surfin’ USA” — are dispensed of extremely quickly. This is completely accurate in the sense that the mass cult of Pet Sounds (which I am a big fan of, just to be clear) has largely obliterated “Fun, Fun, Fun” and “Little Deuce Coupe” in the official BB narrative, certainly among younger fans (the Beatles’ historical fate isn’t all that different; I’ve met lots of younger people who adore their work — starting with Revolver). I’m curious to see if the movie has room for “Help Me Rhonda” or “In My Room,” never mind “When I Grow Up To Be a Man” or “Catch a Wave” or…
6) “I got different stuff inside of me, I gotta get it out!”
7) Oh, and did I mention it’s a pop bio-pic?
On the other hand, I’m drawn to it — it looks exciting. And it’s not like good pop movies haven’t been made from silly stuff previously. Getting a real Grace of My Heart vibe from this, actually.
You Should've Heard Just What I Seen 
They played that trailer before the Lambert and Stamp film the other night. I was also confused: “Okay, he’s Landy, he’s Brian, and John Cusack is…a record-store owner who likes to make Top 10 lists?” Basically the director’s first film, although he made another one in 1990 that I’ve never heard of (television, maybe). I like Grace of My Heart, but I don’t know about this one.
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Phil, this has got me to wondering about great uses of Beach Boys music in movies or TV shows. I can only come up with two-and-a-half memorable ones: “All Summer Long” in American Graffiti, “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” in Mad Men, and (the half one) the Brian Wilson/”In My Room” bit of dialog in Wild Palms. Stumped beyond that. Any that you can add?
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Was just thinking about this – using “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” over shots of blasted Flint, Michigan in Roger and Me sounds like it would play as merely obvious bitter irony, but it was tied specifically to Ben Hamper (author of the excellent book Rivethead) describing hanging on during a panic attack by thinking of the song.
Dewey Cox killed the rock biopic. Walk Hard even has a “crazy Brian Wilson doing Smile” section, and although it isn’t one of the very best bits, this preview reminded me of the parody. Not good. The Cusack casting is literally insane, MST3K level badness.
Use of “All Summer Long” over the end credits in American Graffiti haunted me as a child (I saw that movie a lot of times). The song retains its interest for me in part because it’s “nostalgic for the present.” Every now and then we hear our song. I believe AG might have been the first how-did-the-characters-end-up credits in movies, or at least it sure set a trend. Included death information for I believe two characters – I still remember this stuff.
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“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” takes it (um, “FTW”): Roger & Me, yes, Mad Men, yes, and also the opening scene of Hal Ashby’s Shampoo. My favourites are either “All Summer Long” in American Graffiti or “God Only Knows” during the serene, everybody’s-happy-now-except-Little-Bill coda in Boogie Nights. I’m sure there are others.
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