Eyes & EARS
Films
LOVE & MERCY
DOPE
I
n 1966, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys composed and recorded the album Pet Sounds, a raw and vulnerable journey inside the musical genius of Wilson’s tortured mind. It is widely considered one of the best albums of all time and was the direct inspiration for The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The biopic, Love & Mercy, artfully intercuts two eras in Wilson’s life. A young Wilson during the making of Pet Sounds is played by Paul Dano, while John Cusack portrays the troubled musician two decades later. In the early years, Wilson struggles with his desire to move away from the The Beach Boys’ saccharine surf and sun-themed songs in order to explore the deeper waters of his complex mind. The result was an epic experimentation in recording (accompanied by great amounts of LSD and other hallucinogens). Wilson, without much support from his bandmates or record label, became an obsessive maestro, bringing his vision to life with an orchestra that included everything from full string and wind sections to Coke cans and bicycle horns. The resulting album was underappreciated at the time and sent Wilson’s paranoid and drug addled mind hurling toward a nervous breakdown. Twenty years later, a fragile Wilson lives under the manipulative influence of his therapist (played by Paul Giamatti), as his girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) fights to free Brian from the doctor’s unhealthy control. Wilson’s epic life story offers the audience a peek into his creative genius, and the sad reality of how difficult that gift can be. In theaters June 5.
D
ope, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is an inspiring story of a smart, funny urban teen who struggles to avoid the pitfalls of gangs and drugs in his inner city neighborhood. The film, which draws a comparison to John Hughes’ teen dramedies of the ’80s, is loosely based on director Rick Famuyiwa’s own experiences growing up in a rough section of Inglewood, California. Malcolm (Shameik Moore) is a lovable music geek with dreams of an Ivy League education. He and his friends are obsessed with ’90s hip-hop music and formed their own punk band. They try to avoid the harsh influences that surround them, but when a drug dealer stashes $100,000 worth of ecstasy in Malcolm’s backpack, the high school senior is forced to navigate himself out of a dangerous situation. Though the film’s general premise is one we’ve seen before (think “good inner city kid against the bad streets”), Famuyiwa’s
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M&V J U N E / J U LY 2 0 1 5
ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL
TRAINWRECK
grounded characters feel personal, fresh, and original, and his dialog is current, authentic and snappy. The cast includes members of the hip-hop scene (A$AP Rocky) as well as young, talented actors (Kiersey Clemons, Tony Revolori, Zoë Kravitz). In theaters June 19.
M
e and Earl and the Dying Girl is the indie charmer that won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Based on Jesse Andrews’ novel of the same name, the film centers on socially awkward teen Greg Gaines (played by Thomas Mann). Greg is an antisocial cinephile who recreates scenes from classic movies with his only friend, Earl (R.J. Cyler). Thomas’ mother (Connie Britton) forces him to befriend Rachel (Olivia Cooke), a terminally ill classmate that Thomas barely knows and has zero desire to visit. An unlikely bond is formed between the two teens, leading to a not-a-dry-eye-in-the-theater moment when Rachel’s leukemia takes a turn for the worse. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is not your average teen-with-cancer tearjerker. It’s a genuinely funny and heartbreaking film that is being hailed as an instant classic. It’s got the rare 100 percent fresh Rotten Tomatoes score from critics to prove it. In theaters June 12.
I
t’s safe to say that raunchy comedies are usually male-based. Producer Judd Apatow broke this mold a few years ago with the hilarious Bridesmaids, and he’s doing it once again (this time in the director’s chair) with this summer’s Trainwreck. Comedian Amy Schumer wrote and stars in the story of a modern, single woman navigating the absurd and terrifying world of dating in 2015. Her character (Amy) is, well, a train wreck who continually makes poor dating choices—gets wasted, sleeps with guys on the first date—the kind of behavior The Millionaire Matchmaker and a thousand dating self-help books would strongly advise against. When Amy finds herself falling for an actual decent guy (SNL alum Bill Hader) she is emotionally ill equipped to handle it. The script was a personal one for Schumer, who is also the star of her own Comedy Central series, Inside Amy Schumer. She mined material from her own fear of intimacy issues and dating experience. In a world where the question “Are women funny?” actually exists, it is fantastic to see Schumer’s sharp, funny, and just-as-raunchy-as-the-boys brand of comedy rise to the top. In theaters July 17. —B.G.