The Beach Boys (film)

The Beach Boys is a 2024 musical documentary film directed by Frank Marshall and Thom Zimmy focused on the American rock band the Beach Boys. Featuring interviews from band members Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, David Marks and Bruce Johnston, as well as archival footage of Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson, the film examines the band's history beginning with their formation up until the mid-1970s. The film also features appearances from Janelle Monáe, Lindsey Buckingham, Ryan Tedder and Don Was.

The Beach Boys held its premiere in Los Angeles on May 21, 2024, and was released on May 24, 2024, as a Disney+ original film. It received positive reviews from critics, who considered the film to be friendly towards newcomers and nostalgic. However, it received criticism for skimming through much of the band's history, and its tone was considered by some to be superficial.

Content
The film chronicles the band's rise from their modest family origins to becoming a revolutionary force in pop music. It begins by detailing the formation of the band with brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. The film explores the band's early days, creating a harmonious sound that became synonymous with the California dream.

As the narrative progresses, the documentary delves into the creative process behind their iconic album Pet Sounds, highlighting the influence of Brian Wilson's musical vision and the band's friendly competition with The Beatles, which spurred both groups to new heights of musical innovation, in addition to Capitol Records’ hesitance to promote the album in North America. Brian attempts to follow up the album with Smile, but ends up shelving the project out of fear that nobody would understand it. The film reveals the existence of two distinct groups within the band: the recording group, led by Brian Wilson, who focused on songwriting and production, and the touring group, which performed live shows.

The documentary features interviews with surviving band members and other music industry figures, offering insights into the band's dynamics and the challenges they faced. It also touches upon the personal struggles of Brian Wilson, including his limited involvement in the band due to his conservatorship, and Dennis Wilson's connection to the Manson murders. After a string of commercial duds such as Surf's Up and Holland, the compilation album Endless Summer helps rejuvenate the band's image and renews their commercial success. The last thing brushed upon is the series of lawsuits between Love and Wilson that occurred in the 1990s, and the film ends on a reunion between the surviving band members.

Interviewees

 * Mike Love
 * Brian Wilson
 * David Marks
 * Al Jardine
 * Josh Kun
 * Don Was
 * Ryan Tedder
 * Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford
 * Lindsey Buckingham
 * Don Randi
 * Janelle Monáe
 * Bruce Johnston
 * Blondie Chaplin

Music
The film's soundtrack was released digitally by Capitol/UME on May 24, 2024, the same day as the film. Alongside a collection of classic Beach Boys songs, the soundtrack also includes the original song "Baby Blue Bathing Suit" by American singer-songwriter Stephen Sanchez, which was released as a single on May 16, 2024.

Track listing
Other songs featured in the film not included on the soundtrack album include "Sloop John B," the Ames Brothers' "Rag Mop," Chuck Berry's "Let It Rock," The Four Freshmen's "It's A Blue World," "Long Tall Texan," the Ronettes' "Be My Baby", "Carl's Big Chance," "Warmth of the Sun," "Dance Dance Dance", THEM's "Baby, Please Don't Go", Glen Campbell's "Dream Baby", "Salt Lake City", "Hang On to Your Ego," "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times", "I'm Waiting for the Day," ", "Surf's Up", and the Beatles' "She Loves You" and "I'm Looking Through You." "Kokomo" is played during the film's end credits.

Release
The film was released on May 24, 2024, on Disney+. Its streaming release was preceded by advance screenings in select IMAX theaters on May 21, 2024, featuring a Q&A with the filmmakers and special guests broadcast live from its premiere in Los Angeles. It is the first film to open with the "standard variant" of the 2023 Walt Disney Pictures logo, introduced the year before for the studio's centennial anniversary.

Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 53 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.90/10. The critics' consensus reads that the film is "An overview of The Beach Boys' history that wraps all the essentials up in a warm blanket, The Beach Boys is a straightforward jam of greatest hits that congeals into a compelling harmony." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

One of the biggest criticisms the film faced was the omission of much of the band's history following the end of the 1970s. Brian Tallerico gave the film a two-star review on RogerEbert.com, calling the film superficial, fast, and difficult to determine who it is made for. He wrote, "The problem is that “The Beach Boys” too often seems content to tell the story of the band that its music has already told. A documentary should produce more than what would result from just listening to a band's collected discography." The film was also noted for not following the chronological order of the timeline of events. Writing for The New York Times, Nicolas Rapold spoke of the film's deviations from the timeline of when things really went down, saying that "the movie traces a fruitful competitive streak with the Beatles." He defended this, stating "Any deviations from the film’s obligatory timeline tour are very welcome." Robert Lloyd of Los Angeles Times described the film's depiction of the band as "a swift, compact telling, with surprisingly little in the way of music and whole swaths of recording history skated over, additionally noting that "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, [...] “That's Why God Made the Radio,”

In his review of the film for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis pointed out several missed key moments of the band's history in the film, such as Brian Wilson's relations with psychologist Eugene Landy, the many legal troubles the band got into in the 1990s, and Brian Wilson's solo career. Speaking on the omissions, he suggested that "The film would need to be twice as long to cover them, and the second half would feel more like a particularly lurid soap opera than a music documentary. But it seems more likely it’s out of a desire to append a happy ending on to a story that doesn’t really have one."

Band's response
Speaking for Variety, Mike Love praised the film for representing everyone, noting the film's depiction of Brian Wilson by stating that "for the end of the film, he was great. We sang together. We talked together. He was 100% present with the long-term memory and everything." In the same interview, Al Jardine compared the film's portrayal of the band's history to prior retellings, staying that "it’s always a challenge because, first of all, there have been so many articles, books, movies, and I always try to find stuff that’s never been seen before. But once I got to know everybody and say, “Have you got any home movies under (the bed)?” And sure enough, there'd be a shoebox with 8mm film, and that's how we got Dennis. Both Carl and Dennis's families were great in helping us represent their dad and their husband in the right way. So it was like a little treasure hunt where there's gold bullions every once in a while."

Accolades
At the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, the film was nominated for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction Program (Single or Multi-Camera).