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Reviews
The Beach Boys: An American Family (2000)
The Beach Boys: An American Biopic Tragedy (2000)
Note: This review in a collaborative effort.
Biopics. It's a genre that, when done well, can not only entertain, but capture the essence of the real people depicted. When done poorly, however, they serve only to misinform those who went in not knowing a lot about the subject or, at best, provide some chuckles for the die hard fans who can spot the the numerous fictions mingling among the facts. Back in 1990 there was a TV Movie titled "Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach Boys". This was later reedited and issued on video with the modified title "The Naked Truth About the Beach Boys" (this apparently geared at those who won't notice crappy storytelling and factual gaffs as long as there are some naked breasts added in post production.) The movie was notoriously horrible, and today is probably only watched by Beach Boys fans in search of an easy laugh. Ten years later a new Beach Boys TV biopic appeared; "The Beach Boys: An American Family". While not as awful to the core as "Summer Dreams" (thank God that Bruce Greenwood didn't reprise his role!), it is another example of the legendary band being portrayed in broad, inaccurate ways. Mind you, "American Family" at least is not all bad. The actor portraying Mike Love (Matt Letscher) is actually quite excellent and nails Love's mannerisms and way of speaking, as well as his changing 'looks' over the years. It's obvious that he studied old footage of Love and took note of every detail. Likewise, Kevin Dunn as Murray Wilson also seems to know something about the character he is playing. If only the actor playing Brian Wilson (Frederik Weller) had been so devoted to getting it right! At every turn Weller makes his dumbed-down version of "Brian" into an awful. cartoon like parody of a real (and well-known) musical genius. As for Carl Wilson, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston, they are so virtually nonexistent in the "tragedy & scandal" storyline that the actors playing them really don't get much to do except wear period clothes and hair styles. As usual, when it comes to the person of Dennis Wilson, the filmmakers chose to focus, as did those of "Summer Dreams", almost exclusively on the womanizing, booze, and Charles Manson connection, in effect reducing him to the "three worst things he ever did". The theme of the movie seems to be "scandal makes for good TV!" Toward the end they do at least show that Dennis wrote the Beach Boys hit "Forever" after Carl tells him that he likes his music. But until that point it is never mentioned that Dennis does anything other than have sex, drink a lot and talk to the wizard. Executive producer John Stamos has claimed that Dennis was his hero. If this is how he treats his heroes we shudder to think how he would treat people he doesn't admire. We hope that some day we get a Beach Boys biopic that is more about the music than the scandals, and does not depict only one dimensional people. Until then, between "Summer Dreams" and "American Family", this one is the better biopic - but that is very faint praise, indeed
Cease to Exist (2007)
And Out of Context
I must agree with the other reviewer that this documentary was a lot of "been there done that". The biggest issue I take with this film is that not only did the director lift interviews from other documentaries he used them out of context. At least I can say that for the Beach Boys. For instance, taking a comment made by Al Jardine about Dennis doing his own thing, not really being part of the group and using that to back up that his brother's didn't really like him, when, in fact, Al's comment was actually made in reference to before they were "The Beach Boys". Another, which was a total abomination was taking a quote from an interview in which Dennis was talking about his beloved brother Brian and attributing it to Manson. That part of the actual interview can be seen in "The Beach Boys: An American Band" documentary and I believe also in "Endless Harmony". Talk about selective editing.
If one chooses to watch this please keep this in mind.