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Review: 'The Beach Boys' is a sentimental documentary that downplays the band's squabbles

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Review: 'The Beach Boys' is a sentimental documentary that downplays the band's squabbles

I will (almost) always watch a film about the Beach Boys — the latest, titled simply “The Beach Boys,” premieres Friday on Disney+ — not just for the part they played in American musical and cultural history but for the part they played in my own. From 1966 to 1969 my father worked for the band, in the capacity of a tour promoter; that these were their years of lesser popularity, as rock got heavy and dour and jammy, meant that this relationship gave me no cachet among my peers. But it was interesting to me.

I saw them play, in striped shirts, white suits, colorful velours and out of costume, at the Hollywood Bowl, when the kids still screamed during their shows; at the Melodyland theater-in-the-round across from Disneyland, when they seemingly couldn’t get booked any closer to L.A.; and at the Whisky A Go Go, when “Sunflower” was released. I saw Dennis Wilson drag race; his Shelby Cobra rolled over my toe as it was being pushed to the starting line, but as much of the weight had been stripped out of the car, no damage was done. Bruce Johnston introduced me to Eric Clapton backstage at a Blind Faith concert. (“This is Eric,” he said. “Hello,” I said.) I rode for a minute in a car with Carl Wilson and his parents.

I knew them as much as any child knows a parent’s business associates, which is to say, not at all really, but they were familiar characters, as were the support staff in the office, the studio and the road. They came together in stray bits of news and gossip, coalescing into a pantheon that floated about my life. The Maharishi, with whom the band briefly toured, gave my dad his mantra. And there was Charles Manson, of course, the ineradicable dark blot in any telling of this tale, who attached himself to Dennis looking for pop stardom. My father had moved on by the time of the Tate-La Bianca murders, but as he had once thrown Charlie out of the office — that was a moment in our house.

Directed by Frank Marshall (“Rather”) and Thom Zimny (whose documentary “Elvis Presley: The Searcher” is one of the best films about Elvis), it covers well-traveled — oft-surfed? — territory. Not even counting the scores of online videos and the all-star tributes, there’s a wealth of full-blown films about the band as a whole and of Brian Wilson, the foundation of their sound, going back decades, including three biopics: two for television — the Dennis-focused “Summer Dreams” and “The Beach Boys: An American Family” — and the well-regarded big-screen Brian young-and-old movie “Love and Mercy.”

Al Jardine, left, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys.

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(Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)

It’s irresistible material, a show business story and a family drama, salted with child abuse, drug addiction, mental illness and recovery, a war between art and commerce and an arc of success and failure and success — when “Endless Summer,” a two-LP best-of package went to No. 1 on the charts in 1974, it catapulted the group into permanent residency as “America’s Band.” With its range of good-time rock ’n’ roll and ambitious, eccentric art-pop, they’re at once a band for everybody and a band for geeks.

Running less than two hours at a time when four-hour rock docs are not unusual, this is a swift, compact telling, with surprisingly little in the way of music and whole swaths of recording history skated over. But it looks fantastic, with a bounty of archival photographs and home movies, many of which are new to me, even as a veteran of these things. Apart from new interview footage with the survivors, in and around the band, and the customary pop musician testimonials, not much if anything will be new to the fans. What is new, among Beach Boys documentaries, is the tone, which does not linger on the sensational episodes and downplays the squabbling to emphasize the love.

For a group whose relations have been famously divisive, and whose story has been marked by tragedy — the early deaths of Dennis and Carl are represented only by a closing title card — it’s essentially good-natured, even sentimental. (The film checks out early in their ongoing, competitive careers, before the Beach Boys became Mike Love’s band and Brian a solo artist, and surprisingly omits their 50th-anniversary reunion tour and final studio album, the 2012 “That’s Why God Made the Radio,” which is not bad at all.) Everybody, even problematic Wilson dad Murry, gets their due. A staged but genuinely sweet closing scene may bring a tear to your eye.

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Like the Beatles or the Grateful Dead, the Beach Boys are a perennial act whose influence will long outlive them. And eventually the idiosyncratic pop music they made in the late 1960s — my years in their orbit, which is to say my Beach Boys music — came to be celebrated. Few bought “Friends” when it came out in 1968, but now you can listen to a four-part podcast in which well-informed fans take it apart, tenderly, track by track, instrument by instrument, voice by voice.

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How did Travis Kelce know he was falling for Taylor Swift? He offers a 'genuine' answer

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How did Travis Kelce know he was falling for Taylor Swift? He offers a 'genuine' answer

Travis Kelce isn’t afraid to share his love story.

It turns out that Taylor Swift’s unexpected behavior during the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Chicago Bears in September tipped the relationship into this-is-the-real-deal territory, he said on the “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast.

Kelce explained that they had already been seeing each other privately but that her attitude toward taking things public impressed him.

He offered her a security escort into the stadium, but she brushed it off and walked in with the rest of his guests.

“She really won me over with that one,” the tight end said, describing how Swift preferred to “be around family and friends and experience this with everybody” instead of getting celebrity treatment.

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“She’s very self-aware. And I think that’s why I really started to really fall for her, was how genuine she is around friends [and] family. It can get crazy for somebody with that much attention … and she just keeps it so chill and so cool.”

The two have kept the intimate details of their relationship under wraps but are notably more public than Taylor has been with past boyfriends. Their passionate kiss after Kelce’s Super Bowl win in February effectively broke the internet, and he joined her onstage in London over the weekend, spicing up the Eras tour.

Kelce says he wants to “keep things private,” but “at the same time, I’m not here to hide anything … that’s my girl, that’s my lady.”

He did admit there have been a few downsides to entering her spotlight — notably, random fans showing up at his pad in Kansas City, Kan.

“I’ve had fun with just about every aspect of it. It’s just when you’re at home you want privacy, and you don’t always get that,” he said.

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The wild online speculation is another annoyance. The athlete said that his father would come across crazy tabloid stories from time to time and call him to fact-check.

“He’d see something so f— out of the blue, like something about me and Taylor, he’s like, ‘Hey, you guys OK?’”

Kelce always has a reply at the ready: “Get the f— off Facebook, Dad.”

And for those still wondering — KillaTrav’s favorite TSwift songs are “Black Space,” “Cruel Summer” and “So High School.”

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Movie Review: ‘Summer Camp’ is an entertaining disappointment

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Movie Review: ‘Summer Camp’ is an entertaining disappointment

Nothing forges a friendship like treating an arrow wound. For Ginny, Mary and Nora, an ill-fated archery lesson and an injured classmate are just the beginning of the lifetime of trouble they’re about to start.

Ginny is a year above the other two, more experienced in both summer camp and girlhood, and takes it upon herself to somewhat forcefully guide her younger friends. Mary cowers in the bathroom away from her bunkmates, spouting medical facts, while Nora hangs back, out of place. When their camp counselor plucks them out of their cabin groups to place them in the new “Sassafras” cabin, they feel like they fit in somewhere for the first time.

50 years later, “Summer Camp” sees the three girls, now women, reunite for the anniversary reunion of the very same camp at which they met. Although they’ve been in touch on-and-off in the preceding decades, this will be the first time the women have seen each other in 15 years.

Between old camp crushes, childhood nemeses and the newer trials of adulthood, the three learn to understand each other, and themselves, in a way that has eluded them the entirety of their friendship.

I really wanted to like “Summer Camp.”

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The opening scene, a glimpse at the girls’ first year together at Camp Pinnacle, does a good job at establishing Ginny, Mary and Nora’s dynamic. It’s sweet, funny and feels true to the experience of many adolescent girls’ friendships.

On top of that, this movie’s star-studded cast and heartwarming concept endeared me to it the moment I saw the trailer. Unfortunately, an enticing trailer is about the most “Summer Camp” has to offer.

As soon as we meet our trio as adults, things start to fall apart. It really feels like the whole movie was made to be cut into a trailer — the music is generic, shots cut abruptly between poses, places and scenes, and at one point two of the three separate shots of each woman exiting Ginny’s tour bus are repeated.

The main character and sometimes narrator, Ginny Moon, is a self-help writer who uses “therapy speak” liberally and preaches a tough-love approach to self improvement. This sometimes works perfectly for the movie’s themes but is often used to thwop the viewer over the head with a mallet labeled “WHAT THE CHARACTERS ARE THINKING” rather than letting us figure it out for ourselves.

There are glimpses of a better script — like when Mary’s husband asks her whether she was actually having fun or just being bullied, presumably by Ginny. This added some depth to her relationship with him, implying he actually does listen to her sometimes, and acknowledged the nagging feeling I’d been getting in the back of my head: “Hey, isn’t Ginny kind of mean?”

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Despite all my annoyance with “Summer Camp,” there were a few things I really liked about it. I’m a lot younger than the main characters of this movie, but there were multiple points where I found myself thinking, “Hey, my aunt talks like that!” or, “Wow, he sounds just like my dad.”

The dynamic of the three main characters felt very true to life, I’ve known and been each of them at one point or another. It felt especially accurate to the relationships of girls and women, and seeing our protagonists reconcile at the end was, for me, genuinely heartwarming.

“Summer Camp” is not a movie I can recommend for quality, but if you’re looking for a lighthearted, somewhat silly romp to help you get into the summer spirit, this one will do just fine.

Other stories by Caroline

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Caroline Julstrom, intern, may be reached at 218-855-5851 or cjulstrom@brainerddispatch.com.

Caroline Julstrom finished her second year at the University of Minnesota in May 2024, and started working as a summer intern for the Brainerd Dispatch in June.

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Lily Gladstone, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Jessica Alba among newest members of film academy

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Lily Gladstone, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Jessica Alba among newest members of film academy

Hollywood’s most exclusive club is throwing open its golden gates once again, with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announcing Tuesday it is extending invitations to 487 new members.

Representing 57 countries, the list of invitees includes high-profile names like Lily Gladstone, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Jessica Alba and Catherine O’Hara alongside numerous less starry but still accomplished performers, filmmakers, executives and below-the-line professionals. This diverse group comprises 71 Academy Award nominees and 19 Oscar winners.

Continuing its push for greater inclusion even after reaching its post-#OscarsSoWhite diversity goals, the Academy revealed that 44% of the new class identify as women, and 41% are from underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, up from 40% and 34%, respectively, in 2023.

More than half of this year’s invitees are from outside the United States, reflecting the academy’s continued global expansion, bringing the group’s total international membership to 20%.

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“We are thrilled to welcome this year’s class of new members to the Academy,” said Academy Chief Executive Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang in a joint statement. “These remarkably talented artists and professionals from around the world have made a significant impact on our filmmaking community.”

Although still significantly larger than the annual groups of invitees in decades past, which were generally limited to around 100 people, this year’s class is roughly half the size of the record-setting 2018 class, which included 928 members. Since reaching its post-#OscarSoWhite goal of doubling the number of women and people of color in its membership ranks in 2020, the academy has brought down its more recent class sizes to ensure it can continue to support its rapidly growing membership.

Including the new class, 35% of the academy’s members now identify as women, and 20% are from underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, maintaining and slightly improving upon last year’s benchmarks.

Six branches invited more women than men this year: actors, casting directors, costume designers, documentary filmmakers, executives and makeup artists and hairstylists. Four branches — actors, directors, documentary filmmakers and writers — drew the majority of their candidates from underrepresented ethnic/racial communities.

In the actors branch, invitees include “Killers of the Flower Moon” star Gladstone, who this year became the first Native American actress to be nominated for an Academy Award, and German actor Sandra Hüller, a nominee for “Anatomy of a Fall,” along with Randolph, who won the supporting actress prize for “The Holdovers.”

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In the directors branch, invitees include Justine Triet, who earned the original screenplay Oscar this year for “Anatomy of a Fall” and also was invited into the writers branch along with her partner and co-writer on the film, Arthur Harari. Also invited were filmmakers S.S. Rajamouli (“RRR”), Celine Song (“Past Lives”), Cord Jefferson (“American Fiction”) and Boots Riley (“Sorry to Bother You”).

Notably, two of the key figures involved in last year’s historic strikes of writers and actors were invited into the executive branch: Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, and Ellen Stutzman, chief negotiator for the Writers Guild of America.

If all invitees accept their invitations, the academy’s total membership will grow to 10,910, including 9,934 voting members.

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