The Vidiot Reviews....

Rating: 8/10 (16 September 2015)

Love & Mercy
The hardest part of writing hit records nowadays is fitting all the co-songwriters' names on the album sleeve.
But as this biography expounds, in the 1960s, committees didn't write hits.
Anxious about performing live, The Beach Boys songwriter Brian Wilson (Paul Dano) forgoes touring so he can write their seminal album: Pet Sounds.
In the 1980s, a distraught Brian Wilson (John Cusack) forms a relationship with Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), who feels that Brian's confidante Dr. Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti) is a Svengali that is over-medicating him.
Back in the sixties, Brian struggles to convince his band mates their new sound is superior to their surf ditties.
A candid depiction of the enigmatic artist that seamlessly transitions from past to future tense, Love & Mercy unravels Wilson's psyche with precision and haunting performances from both Wilsons.
Mind you, The Beach Boys never experienced true musical genius until John Stamos joined.
Green Light
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