Film Review: Love & Mercy (2015)

Copyright: Roadside Attractions

The goal of the Love & Mercy and its director Bill Pohlad are clear from the first moment of the film, which show John Cusack as an older Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys who wants to buy a car somewhere in the 1980’s. Wilson, now an unrecognizable middle-aged man, lost all of this drive and creativity that help him create one of the most successful bands in the U.S. history.

Deeply troubled by emotional issues and under the constant supervision of a strange psychotherapist, Wilson loses days and months, maybe even years in a haze of prescription drugs and complete lack of interest in anything in the world around him. Then, without any warning or sign, the story rewinds 20 years into the past, where the young Brian, now at the top of his game, desires to make an incredible album which will break away the Beach Boys from their fake surfer vibe he gradually came to despise.

But at the same time, his mind is eroding, accompanied by audio hallucinations and deterring emotional stability, which is additionally fueled by drug use. At both times, Wilson tries his hardest to follow his vision and share the love he feels with people around him but ends up isolated in the world that is becoming more and more distant to him.

Pohlad made Love & Mercy in a way that really underlines Wilson’s musical genius and his ability to expand the realm of popular music when no one asked or expected that of him. The film shines while it shows famous Beach Boy’s songs being made in the studio and Wilson, who is terrifically portrayed by Paul Dano, both lost in his miraculous world of sounds and terrified by the things he suspects are coming. Unlike the, for example, Benedict Cumberbatch's uneven presentation of Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, Dano makes Wilson’s instantly connectable, even when he’s losing his mind. Because of this, all those who love or at least know these songs will definitely feel at least a spark of jubilation while they watch how Good Vibrations or some other track slowly come into existence. At the same time, they will also some other darker emotions, seeing in what agony they were created.

Pohlad, who isn’t new to movies but is new to directing, can’t evade the lure of the regular protagonist-antagonist plotline, which dampens the part of the story which takes place in the 1980’s. Here, Dr. Eugene Landy is depicted as a tyrant and a madman who keeps Wilson down, while his newfound girlfriend tries to pull him out of this toxic relationship. Paul Giamatti does a great job as Landy, but I feel that this part of the script failed an otherwise wondrous film by making sure the audience had a bogeyman to hate. Like the Wilson’s real life, I feel this uncalled-for Hollywoodization of his story only subtracted from it but didn’t add much an aside of the cheap thrills of having a bad guy in this musical biography.

There is no doubt that the mind of Brian Wilson was and probably still is a marvelous and terrible place. As a gentle soul who wanted to give people the gift of music, he got a life that had way too much suffering and pain. Love & Mercy might not do him justice in every possible way or as much as he deserves, but it is still a window into a fascinating man. It is clear that the world needed that window and having it is a joyful occasion.

Review and Ending Explanation: Whiplash (2014)

Copyright: Sony Pictures Classics

Amazed by this film from the first moments, I quickly realized that Whiplash movie is neither about J.K. Simmon’s great acting nor the drama that occurs between his character and the pupil character played by Miles Teller. Instead, Whiplash is about the consuming power of music and the need music plants in those who hear its calling the strongest.

Damien Chazelle, a newcomer to the directorial role, made this film in a very bold way. It includes a lot of jazz, but not in a way that will be interesting to those who think they love this music genre, but prefer to listen to it while they meet friends for a drink in a local classy bar. Instead, Chazelle focuses on the hard mechanics of music seen through the eyes of the students in a Shaffer Conservatory in New York.

There, a student named Andrew wants to become the best drummer in the world. A teacher named Fletcher, played brilliantly by J. K. Simmons, runs a studio band and Andrew is soon desperate to become its primary drummer. But Fletcher method resides on torture, humiliation and mocking his band members.

As a story, Whiplash emits a strong, frantic energy which is both foreign in nature and clear in its drive. I bet that few people know what it is like to be an aspiring student of jazz music, but in the film, Andrew’s desire to become one of the great ones is clear as a mountain stream in the moonlight. Like the acting of Simmons and Teller (who plays Andrew), Whiplash is intense and continuously building its own pressure, leading to an eruption. Simmons already received much praise for his work, but for me, Damien Chazelle should also be congratulated for writing and directing this marvel of cinema.

Whiplash shows us that music is not always beautiful and is often dirty and bloody, but that all of this does not matter if it can deliver that single pinnacle moment of being totally immersed in it. There, greatness is found in all its pain and glory.

Whiplash Ending Explanation

Spoiler Alert

Although this film is really straightforward, Whiplash ending might seem ambiguous. The movie ends with Andrew finishing his grueling solo, with Fletcher looking at him. At the last moment, it is shown that Fletcher gives him only the slightest smile and a weak nod, but their meaning is clear – Andrew did what was expected of him and grew into something that no one could have predicted. He managed to surpass himself and grew through pain and misery into a great player. Fletcher was there only to witness it, as the Whiplash ending suggests and feel moved by it, but the entire notion is at that point, out of his hands.

His role, as Fletcher sees it, was to stage the environment where a new music legend could be born. With his invitation in the bar (after they are both kicked out Shaffer’s), he continued to provide this environment and did not know that Andrew would prevail. He just knew that a brilliant musician has to prevail in those circumstances, which is the reason he is not mad or sad when Andrew finds a way out of his embarrassing moment. Fletcher’s motive was never to humiliate him and get back at him for getting him fired, although he would be fine with the possibility of Andrew walking out of the concert and music altogether. Through Andrew, the notion of grooming a legend came true and in the final last moment, we see Fletcher realizing his life goal is accomplished.

Crowdfunding push: PLEASED TO EAT YOU!

This is a short film about a lifeboat scenario that includes cannibalism. Oh, and it's a musical.

Naturally, I am very interested in any art form that covers isolation, gruesome death by starvation and the possibility of eating human flesh. But, when all of this is provided in a musical setting, a genre that definitely lacks cannibalism (among many other things), I have no doubt that this crowdfunding project needs to be supported. The official PLEASED TO EAT YOU! description states:

Pleased To Eat You! is a a short musical comedy film set in an art-deco style fantasy world.

Stranded on a raft at sea, John (Oliver Lansley), Tom (Anthony Spargo) and Vinnie (Lee Ravitz) are starving. When Vinnie croaks it, John and Tom’s imaginations go into overload as they dream up some questionable and very musical ways to consume him.

Influenced by the golden age of Hollywood musicals, Pleased To Eat You! is a homage to their design, sound and imagination, but one we're pulling into the 21st century with digital technology and visual effects.

Apart from a really cool and funny setup, the film presents an interesting visual style, which is a bold move by the director Adrian Hedgecock. He could have easily gone for a low budget approach and the film would still work - now, Hedgecock and his team are looking for funds on Indiegogo to make PLEASED TO EAT YOU! happen. Currently, they reached 35% of the funds they are looking for. So, if you want to help this film, find out more here.

If you're looking for exposure for your film-related project, contact me right here.

Melody of Love (TV series)

Copyright:  KBS1

Daytime soaps long time ago became a world trend from many TV networks. South Korea, with its expanding film production and many promising names (Joon-ho Bong and his Snowpiercer is first that comes to mind) is also a big producer of TV shows in this format. Melody of Love is a perfect example. This soap opera focuses on characters and their emotional relationships, but also includes a lot of music as a background story.

The storyline of this South Korean daily TV show drama follows the lives of several young people. They are all in their twenties and trying hard to begin their real adulthood. But, this turbulent period is a challenge for them, both in their professional and personal lives.

The show focuses on three different families that are interlocked by several relationships. Gong Deul-im is a newcomer actress and a musician who is working hard at realizing her dreams of fame, even though her parents don’t approve her career choice.

Deul-im is romantically involved with Park Hyun-woo, an ambitious lawyer. Han Tae-kyung is a stage director and a leader of a drama company with whom Deul-im works, a man that presents him as a strict perfectionist focused strictly on his job. But in fact Tae-kyung will begin to have feelings for Gong Soo-im, Deul-im older sister. As their relationships become more interwoven, all characters in Melody of Love try to find personal happiness but also care about their family members, lovers and friends, mending any wrongdoings from the past.

From all of this, it’s easy to see how the intended audience for this TV show is; teenagers are the biggest group in my opinion, or those interested in South Korean contemporary family structure and relationship (obviously, dramatised to a point). To others, Melody of Love will probably seem like just another TV soap opera.