“The Beach Boys” (2024 documentary review)

The Beach Boys 2024 documentary

Grade: B-

The family drama/tragedy of The Beach Boys is rock ‘n’ roll history’s greatest and most unlikely epic, filled with impossible highs and unimaginable lows, with enough heroes and villains and twists and turns to fill several books. The 2024 Disney+ documentary of the band — “definitively” titled The Beach Boys — is well-made but too often reads as an advertisement for their accomplishments; a film that wants to appease die-hard fans but only provides us with information we already know

Directing:

Directed by Frank Marshall (who has also helmed documentaries about the Bee Gees and the New Orleans Jazz Festival) and Thom Zimny (known for his recent Bruce Springsteen concert films), The Beach Boys tells its biography in chronological order. Some of the clips are taken from past documentaries, and most of the archival footage has already been released in one form or another. The new footage is centered around interviews with Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and Marilyn Wilson. Interspersed with the band’s timeless music, it’s all compiled in a very faithful and nuanced manner. Subject matter notwithstanding, I’m glad The Beach Boys isn’t made in the CNN-influenced, soundbite-heavy, hysterical-talking-head style that plagues so many other documentaries of the streaming era.

Acting:

Hearing from the perspectives of lesser-known Beach Boys like Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston is refreshing (and logistical: they’re the only surviving members), but allowing Mike Love a platform to rewrite the biography in his own image (“We made a lot of great songs”) won’t be easily forgiven by hardcore fans, despite the fact that he comes across as unusually good-natured and sympathetic. Either way, the interviews with Lindsey Buckingham, Janelle Monáe and Ryan Tedder are quite unnecessary and don’t add anything insightful. The documentary would’ve been better served sticking to a Beach-Boys-only script. To quote Mike Love himself: don’t fuck with the formula. (But you won’t find that bit of Beach Boys lore in this documentary.)

Writing:

The Beach Boys is meant to appease the band’s devotees, but it fails to delve into the interesting minutiae that is worthy of obsession. The documentary is a wide-angle lens of things we already know: the humble surf rock beginnings, the rivalry with The Beatles, the beauty of Pet Sounds, the failure of SMiLE, etc. Obviously, Marshall and Zimny don’t want to turn trauma into commerce, especially while Brian Wilson and family are still alive, but that’s where the real fascination of the story lies. Too many things are glossed over or barely touched upon: Mike Love’s true evil, the way Brian Wilson was used and abused, the copious amounts of drugs, Eugene Landy, Charles Manson, Wild Honey, The Beach Boys Love You, Brian Wilson Presents Smile, Dennis Wilson’s tragic death, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame Induction speech, etc. The film fast-forwards to the end after it touches on the Smile sessions, ignoring 50 years of the band’s history and the countless tragedies and triumphs that befell them afterwards.

Music:

The band’s music is masterful. But those of you looking for deep cuts will be somewhat disappointed. There are a few tunes from 20/20, Surf’s Up and Holland, but bupkis for The Beach Boys Today!, Friends and Love You — inclusions and omissions that are quite unpredictable. Oh well, anyone who seeks out this documentary probably owns the band’s entire discography anyway, including 15 Big Ones and Still Cruisin’, so you can take comfort in the fact that you know more about Brian Wilson than this film does.

Ending (SPOILERS):

A reunion on the beach between the band’s surviving members — Mike, Al, Bruce and Brian — is sweet and heartwarming. As mentioned before, however, the film fast-forwards about 50 years in 10 minutes to get to that point, but it’s still a tender moment, nonetheless. The no-stone-unturned Beach Boys documentary that we deserve would best work as a multi-part TV series — the events of 1967 alone are worthy of hours of discussion — but that would be a task as gargantuan as Smile itself. The greatest documentary never made is still out there.

“A diamond necklace played the pawn, hand in hand some drummed along, oh, to a handsome man and baton” – Brian Wilson

Why The Beach Boys gets a B-

Decent enough to maybe turn some viewers into newfound Beach Boys fans. If you’re already a Beach Boys fan, read the Brian Wilson Wikipedia page for a much more entertaining two hours.

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