Love & Mercy 2015

Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press: Love & Mercy might not go as deep, or as dark, as it could, but it's a commanding and artful film, that's full of excellent and worthy performances whether you're a student of Brian Wilson or just a curious tourist. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: It lurches between two decades and two actors, with no reliable center. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "Love & Mercy" is worth seeing just for the dramatization of the making of "Good Vibrations" alone. But there's much more to savor in this biopic ... Read more

Andrew Barker, Variety: A wonderfully innervating cure for the common musical biopic ... Read more

Erik Adams, AV Club: Love & Mercy is so emotionally acute, it doesn't matter if some of the words turn out all wrong. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Dano is brilliant as the younger Wilson. He is an artist fighting against whatever demons threaten to consume him, struggling to get his songs out while he still can. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: In all honesty, one Brian would have done the trick, but which of these story lines would you choose? If the filmmakers' indecision is detrimental to the final product, it's also pretty understandable. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Dano, a soft and moony presence, gives the better impersonation of Wilson, an enthusiastic man-child who morphs into a grotesque baby. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: We've had plenty of good musical biopics ("Walk the Line," "Control") and a handful of better ones ("Sid and Nancy," the more recent "Get On Up"). This one's special, more inward-seeking. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Dano and Cusack never let us forget that Wilson is human before he is anything else - genius, icon, legend. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Unnerving as it is thrilling, as visually and aurally vivid as it is emotionally harrowing. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Innovation, precision, a complete switch in focus, daring ... these are not things you expect from a Hollywood film biography. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: The Beach Boys' public face in the '60s may have been all about fun, fun, fun, but there was a lot of torment behind the surfboards and T-Birds. It's captured in all of its painful yet musically rhapsodic glory in Love & Mercy. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Director Bill Pohlad's schizophrenic biopic of the Beach Boys' troubled genius, Brian Wilson, is two movies in one. Unfortunately, only one of them works. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: A deeply satisfying pop biopic whose subject's bifurcated creative life lends itself to an unconventional structure. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: This self-conscious film feels convincingly told only part of the time. Read more

Howard Cohen, Miami Herald: Director Bill Pohlad's decidedly unconventional Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy, which takes its title from an overlooked 1988 solo single from the Beach Boys' co-founder, is the Pet Sounds of biopics. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: It's a daring conceit built around two fine talents, but the results are decidedly mixed. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Too many music bio-pics breeze over the hard construction work of the creative act, as if embarrassed by the taking of such pains. Pohlad, to his credit, digs in deep. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Its message - that the most beautiful art often comes from the ugliest places - is simple. And moving. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Where the Pet Sounds auteur is known for multi-part harmonies, director Bill Pohlad's biopic is a series of simple duets. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: To capture the artistic process in this way is extraordinary, and in many ways unprecedented. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It's a loving tribute to the Beach Boys and the man responsible for their distinctive sound, but it goes to deeper and stranger places than most movies of its kind. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Its daring dive into the mind of Brian Wilson feels right. God only knows (to borrow a Pet Sound song title or two), but you still believe in . . . Brian. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: After seeing "Love & Mercy," you'll find it nearly impossible to resist the urge to download (or re-listen to) a dozen Beach Boys classics. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Musically, the film is a miracle, right and riveting in every detail. In contrast to Cusack's introspection, Dano lets it bleed as Brian Wilson, giving a performance awards were invented for. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: When you consider all the ways that "Love & Mercy" could have gone terribly wrong, and how full of life it is in the end (and, yes, of love and mercy), I think the end product is almost miraculous. Read more

Paul de Barros, Seattle Times: One of the most touching - and gripping - biopics you will ever see. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Love & Mercy" gets one thing right that most movies get wrong: The great artist isn't tormented in the creation of art. That's often the joy and the abandon. The torment is everything else. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Naming a film "Love & Mercy," even if that's one of the lead character's famous songs, implies that it will provide insight and sympathy. That's just what this fascinating drama delivers. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Pohlad has surrounded himself with award-worthy talent on both sides of the camera, from music supervisor Atticus Ross to the art department to the stellar cast. Read more

Brad Wheeler, Globe and Mail: We see the pop maestro as misunderstood, confused and alienated - ahead of his time or just not up to it. Either way, the man was far-out, and so is this film. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It offers a glimpse into the making of immortal pop tunes, songs of love and longing that are all the more astonishing considering the mental anguish their creator was enduring. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: [The film] breezily reference Brian Wilson's multiple lives through shorthand, achieving a sharply focused and admirably dense narrative that feels as crowd-pleasing and as creatively searching as their protagonist's own work. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The script is by Oren Moverman, who performed a kind of jujitsu on Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes's I'm Not There -- his Wilson story is a lot more traditional, but more moving as well. Read more

Steve Tilley, Toronto Sun: The performances are universally great, and the subject matter is captivating. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: The performances in Love & Mercy are key to its power: Dano can be a dispassionate, affected actor, but all his arty coolness slips away here. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: It has the two things a Brian Wilson story needs above all: a sense of mystery and the right vibrations - good, bad, weird. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: By deciding not to make "Love & Mercy" a musical biopic, the filmmakers have turned Wilson's story into what it seems to have been all along: the adventure of one man's arduous, terrifying, ultimately triumphant search for God. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: We're shown so many symptoms that, regardless of which actor is playing the hero, there's little relief from the prevailing grimness, and less sense of a life in full. Read more