# The Beach boys Movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 5, 2015, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694 "2015-06-05T12:03:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/1 "2015-06-05T12:03:30Z")
I just listened to the NPR story about the new movie. It sounds interesting-i probabaly will see it. I have a few questions about it though-the beach Boys are pretty old-would 18-25 year olds find this interesting? -The BB’s music was very harmonious-very unlike rap or punk-will the movie stimulate interest in this style of music again? -the treatment of mental illness in the film-is it accurate in describing the main character? “Surfer” music was big-any body think it could be revived? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/2 "2015-06-05T16:24:19Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > -The BB’s music was very harmonious-very unlike rap or punk-will the movie stimulate interest in this style of music again? I know nothing about the movie (got a link), but it seems to me that the “boy bands” that are popular today (e.g. One Direction) aren’t that far removed from the kind of appeal that the Beach Boys had fifty years ago or so. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/3 "2015-06-05T16:28:37Z")
There’s a lot of harmony coming back into music. I’m not 18-24 but I’m not old enough to have heard the Beach Boys during the height of their popularity either and I still love them. And surf music never died, just the individual bands. Instead of being its own genre with its own bands, “surf” is more of a flavor musicians of various categories use to spice up their music. Also, music is fractured these days. There are some big, mainstream acts, but they do not have universal appeal the way popular music once required. There are niches so large you could live in them, or vacation in a different genre every day. So yeah, anyone who is a punk-only or rap-only listener isn’t going to be drawn to a Beach Boys movie, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of people who would be interested anyway. In general, I’m constantly surprised how popular classic rock still is. Can you name any musical act from 1915 that was as popular in 1965 as the Beatles or Beach Boys are today? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/4 "2015-06-05T16:33:06Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I know nothing about the movie (got a link), but it seems to me that the “boy bands” that are popular today (e.g. One Direction) aren’t that far removed from the kind of appeal that the Beach Boys had fifty years ago or so. Boy bands are designed to appeal to young girls. The Beach Boys, while they might have appealed to the girls anyway, were aimed more at a male audience with all their songs about cars and surfing (and girls). ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/5 "2015-06-05T16:35:23Z")
The film is more about Brian Wilson than the Beach Boys from what I understand, and yes he suffered from mental illness. The guy is a musical genius though. I wonder how true to reality the movie will be, as another thread currently active [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=758490) states that Hollywood for some unknown reason likes to arbitrarily change historical facts for no good reason. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/6 "2015-06-05T17:25:15Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Boy bands are designed to appeal to young girls. The Beach Boys, while they might have appealed to the girls anyway, were aimed more at a male audience with all their songs about cars and surfing (and girls). Good point; plus, the Beach Boys, in the early years, were actually a band: they played their own instruments. But I was mainly responding to the claim that Music Nowadays isn’t “harmonious”: rap and punk aren’t the only representatives of what Music Nowadays sounds like. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/7 "2015-06-05T17:46:43Z")
The name of the film is [Love & Mercy](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903657/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). It’s a small budget art house flick that will be seen by fewer people in its lifetime than saw the Avengers movie in a hour. It’s getting [great reviews](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/love_and_mercy/) and I’d like to see it. But it’s impact on the culture will be nil. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/8 "2015-06-05T17:59:06Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Good point; plus, the Beach Boys, in the early years, were actually a band: they played their own instruments. Well, sometimes. “Pet Sounds” and “Smile” feature Phil Spector’s session musicians (aka the Wrecking Crew, about whom a film has also been made) with the Beach Boys just overdubbing their vocals. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/9 "2015-06-05T18:57:19Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > Well, sometimes. “Pet Sounds” and “Smile” feature Phil Spector’s session musicians (aka the Wrecking Crew, about whom a film has also been made) with the Beach Boys just overdubbing their vocals. Those aren’t the early years. :smack: They, meaning _Pet Sounds_ and _Smiley Smile_, were the 11th and 12th studio albums. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/10 "2015-06-05T19:31:55Z")
I find it very difficult to believe that Paul Dano would grow up to be John Cusack. They are both excellent actors, but they just don’t resemble each other. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/11 "2015-06-07T02:15:14Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The name of the film is [Love & Mercy](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903657/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). It’s a small budget art house flick that will be seen by fewer people in its lifetime than saw the Avengers movie in a hour. > > It’s getting [great reviews](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/love_and_mercy/) and I’d like to see it. But it’s impact on the culture will be nil. I don’t know that I’d call it an art house flick. My 17 year old son and I saw it at our local multiplex. If it were an art house flick it would have been showing two blocks away at the AFI cinema. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/12 "2015-06-07T02:37:42Z")
Well, it was made on a small budget, premiered in 2014 at the Toronto Film Festival, and got released to fewer than 500 screens on the same weekend that _Insidious Chapter 3_, _Spy_, and _Entourage_ were released on more than 3000 each. It’s distributor was Roadside Attractions, which never in its history has had a movie gross $25 million and this will be no exception. It’s absolutely not a mainstream Hollywood movie. Art house is the alternative term. What I term art house movies frequently get shown at large multiplexes. You can choose another name if you like, but that won’t change any of the above. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/13 "2015-06-07T18:32:52Z")
> [@pinkfreud](#): > > I find it very difficult to believe that Paul Dano would grow up to be John Cusack. They are both excellent actors, but they just don’t resemble each other. Drug abuse does have a tendency to make users unrecognizable. Brian Wilson had been heavy into cocaine and flirted with heroin. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/14 "2015-06-07T21:58:42Z")
Perhaps the film will settle the question: Is it true or is it not that Wilson had a sandbox in his living room? I’ve heard that, and I’ve also heard it dismissed as an urban legend. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/15 "2015-06-07T23:00:18Z")
I seriously doubt it will spark any interest in their music much. 25 years ago, in _Southern California_, The Beach Boys would do a **free** concert after a USC football game. Almost _nobody_ stayed. They had to bus in little kids to prop up in front of the stage for the cameras. Can’t imagine its gotten any better for them since. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/16 "2015-06-07T23:19:55Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I seriously doubt it will spark any interest in their music much. > > 25 years ago, in _Southern California_, The Beach Boys would do a **free** concert after a USC football game. Almost _nobody_ stayed. They had to bus in little kids to prop up in front of the stage for the cameras. > > Can’t imagine its gotten any better for them since. Pretty much anyone who is serious about music today, in almost any mainstream genre including hip hop, will list pet sounds and one of their favorite albums of all time. This has been true since about 2005. It may not have filtered out of the music scene yet, but the beach boys are likely more popular today than they have been since about 1975. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/17 "2015-06-07T23:44:41Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > Pretty much anyone who is serious about music today, in almost any mainstream genre including hip hop, will list pet sounds and one of their favorite albums of all time. This has been true since about 2005. > > It may not have filtered out of the music scene yet, but the beach boys are likely more popular today than they have been since about 1975. I think [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqLTe8h0-jo) demonstrates that Brian Wilson’s music is alive and well. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/18 "2015-06-08T00:20:55Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I seriously doubt it will spark any interest in their music much. > > 25 years ago, in _Southern California_, The Beach Boys would do a **free** concert after a USC football game. Almost _nobody_ stayed. They had to bus in little kids to prop up in front of the stage for the cameras. > > Can’t imagine its gotten any better for them since. If I recall correctly Brian Wilson wasn’t part of these concerts. But you’re probably correct, most people don’t realize the talent and influence of the Beach Boys. I didn’t know much about them either as a kid in the 70s because their surf music was a niche that had faded by then. One of my sister’s friends (the one who told me all about The Beatles) introduced me to them through the album “Endless Summer” and I was hooked. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/19 "2015-06-08T00:24:47Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Perhaps the film will settle the question: Is it true or is it not that Wilson had a sandbox in his living room? I’ve heard that, and I’ve also heard it dismissed as an urban legend. It’s absolutely true, depending on your definition of [sandbox](http://www.biography.com/news/brian-wilson-beach-boys-facts). > [@](#): > > Around the same time he was producing Smile, in late 1966, Brian made an unusual change to the dining room in his house. Thinking that he would be more creatively inspired at the beach, but not actually wanting to go the beach, he paid for carpenters to build a low retaining wall around the perimeter of his dining room and then had eight loads of beach sand trucked in. His expensive grand piano was then lowered into the middle of the sandbox, much to the horror of Brian’s regular piano tuner, who often found sand in the sensitive instrument. That’s not just internet chatter, either. It’s in all the biographies I’ve read. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694/20 "2015-06-08T00:47:09Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Perhaps the film will settle the question: Is it true or is it not that Wilson had a sandbox in his living room? I’ve heard that, and I’ve also heard it dismissed as an urban legend. We saw this last night and the piano in a sandbox is definitely shown in the movie. I can see why the tuner would be horrified, but when I saw it I thought, “Cool!” I’ve always thought the group’s music was great, and the movie shows the creative process behind some of their best songs. Not where the theremin came from though, unfortunately. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-beach-boys-movie/721694.md?page=2)