FILM
OK BOOMER Fixating on the mid-20th century with ‘The Beach Boys’ and ‘Let It Be’ BY MICHAEL J. CASEY
F
Into that stream slips two new music docs sure to garner your attention: The Beach Boys and Let It Be. Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary, Let It Be, gets a streaming-era refresh on Disney +. Courtesy: United Artists Streaming on But do we really need another doc songs for their two final albums: Let It Disney+ and directed by Frank about The Beach Boys? About The Be and Abbey Road. Lindsay-Hogg Marshall and Thom Zinny, The Beach Beatles? Talk about well-mined terriprobably thought he had a hit on his Boys is the then-to-now story of the tory. You could ask the same about hands while filming the most popular mid-century band that went from selling any documentary covering the 1960s, the California Dream one surf song at a band in the world, but the hit was not to be. The director’s cameras captured one of the most picked-over eras for time to reinventing and codifying the understanding how we got here while the lads from Liverpool in full-blown pop formula while inspiring countless waxing poetically about how things divorce mode, and when the movie imitators and true believers. Marshall made sense back then. The latter was initially released in 1970, a few and Zinny lean on the tried-and-true drives this particular brand of nostalweeks after the break-up went public, blend of archival footage for excitegia in The Beach Boys. Everyone — the bloom was off the rose. ment, modern-day talking heads interfrom OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder to For years, Let It Be was difficult to views for context and a smattering of Janelle Monáe (how’s that for a talksee, but thanks to Peter Jackson’s editing after-effects to make it all feel ing head grab-bag?) — loved Beach comprehensive documentary, Get vintage. Yes, it’s very by-the-numbers, Boys’ music. Taylor Swift might be Back, set during the same January but it’s still interesting to see how a able to claim that level of cross-quad1969 recording sessions, Lindsayband can build and rebuild its identity. rant stardom, but even that feels difHogg’s footage got a fresh restoration Now turn to Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s ferent. and is now available for all with a 1970 documentary, Let It Be, also Everything feels different now. The Disney+ login. available on Disney+, which captures world feels so fractured these days. To borrow a line from Tolstoy: All The Beatles writing and recording the Surely it wasn’t always like this? But music docs are alike, but when were we whole? No wonder we every Beatles music doc is different in its own way. keep returning to a time when people felt connected, even if we weren’t. It There’s a beauty in the helps that these docs focus on the art containment of Let It Be: and not the environment in which the Just one month and a art was conceived. The country was dozen or so songs crammed into 80 minutes tearing itself apart back then, too. Students were protesting a foreign of magic. The Beach war they felt was unjust, and talk of Boys is significantly more who was going to be the next presiexpansive but not nearly dent split families in two. You want as deep. But then you nostalgia? You can get that wholesale get that twinkling casin the daily news. cade opening of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” or the heart-swelling organ of “God Only Knows,” ON SCREEN: The Beach and a wave of euphoria Boys and Let It Be are washes over you in the streaming on Disney+. The Beach Boys tells the story of a mid-century band that got their start selling the California Dream, one surf song way only a pop song can. at a time. Courtesy: Disney+
ew cinematic forms benefitted from the advent of digital technology like the documentary. And not just in cost and access to equipment but in the proliferation of digital archives directors can draw upon. Add social media’s connective power to track down interview subjects and streaming services — more than you will ever be able to keep up with, each with an insatiable need for new content — and the stars have aligned in ways the first century of documentarians couldn’t have possibly imagined. So what will it take for you to click that button and devote two hours of your life? Star power? Acclaimed filmmakers? Genre innovation? How about a simple tug at the heartstrings with some good old-fashioned nostalgia? If you’ve spent evenings clicking endlessly through your platform of choice, you’ve probably noticed a lot of that. Here are the songs, movies or toys you grew up with, coupled with behind-thescenes stories you could guess if you tried but don’t need to because there’s a documentary right here and now that’ll explain it to you.
BOULDER WEEKLY
MAY 30, 2024
13