THE BEACH BOYS (2024) – Review

Kicking off the start of Summer with the big Memorial Day weekend, a new documentary poses the question: What’s the “go-to” music for this season? Well, for the past 63 years, it’s been these pop icons out of Hawthorne, California, of course. Their signature songs invoke memories of ocean waves hitting the sand as eager athletes run through the foam with their trusty boards. Interestingly only one member of the original band surfed, though when watching a blonde adonis catching a “tasty wave”, you automatically, in your head, recall the sweet infectious harmonies of THE BEACH BOYS.

After opening with glorious footage of an electric 1975 outdoor concert (naturally in the bright Summer sun), the doc springs back 15 or so years to the modest suburban home on 119th Street when the eldest Wilson brother Brian became fascinated by the careful vocal craftsmanship of the Four Freshmen along with other musical acts. That included rock and roll and the emerging sound of the surfing-inspired instramentals. He brought in his younger brothers, Carl and Dennis, and later enlisted Mike Love and schoolmates Al Jardine and David Marks to record songs on Brian’s new reel-to-reel recorder as the “”Pembertones. Father Murry Wilson took their song “Surfin'” to the Candix label, and the disc was released sporting a new moniker for the guys, the Beach Boys. They soon went from regional radio staples to the top of the Billboard charts when they signed with Capitol Records, scoring with odes to fun at the seashore like “Surfin Safari” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.”. The film charts their meteoric rise while chronicling the many changes to the performing roster of musicians. When David returned, Brian tired of performing live which ushered in performers like record producer Bruce Johnston, guitar legend Gelen Campbell, and eventually Blondie Chaplin and Ricky Fataar. The film also touches on the conflicts, from the abrasive tirades of Murry to the wild antics of Dennis and his brush with the Manson family. Yet somehow the music’s legacy grew in stature which culminates in a remarkable reunion with the survivors on the location of one of their most famous album covers.

This film marks another excellent feature documentary from two veteran directors of the “music doc” genre, Frank Marshall (JAZZ FEST: A NEW ORLEANS STORY and THE BEE GEES: HOW DO YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART) and Thom Zimny (several Bruce Springsteen profiles along with Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash). They’ve assembled quite an exhaustive compilation of performance pieces from the past including TV shows ( a sketch with mop top wig-wearing Jack Benny and Bob Hope) and live concert shows (love the young ladies leaping on stage to tackle Mike Love), not to mention terrific archival interviews with the Wilsons and some collaborators (Campbell and members of the famed “Wrecking Crew”). We also get close-ups of Brian’s notepads of lyrics and a few audio clips made during recording sessions when a tipsy aggressive Murry rightly earned the ire of his sons. A few of the scandals are glossed over (the indulgences of Dennis and that scary association with Charlie I mentioned earlier), Brian’s shadowy reclusive years (the docudrama LOVE & MERCY tackles that in full), and the legal skirmishes between Brian and Mike. Oh, and there are some interesting new interviews done with folks like producer Don Was and artists Janelle Monae and Lindsey Buckingham along with the band. Even Brian’s first wife Marion is there with some great personal memories. And though they were initially rivals, Paul McCartney expresses his admiration for the group, And that all stems from that sound, those harmonies, and the giddy fun of those songs celebrating the carefree teenage days. Yes, celebration is the operative word, even as Brian shares the fate of Barry Gibb (in Marshall’s HBO doc) as the last brother, we see the power of music to heal as the now geriatric “Boys” gather on the sand for that warm gathering before the final fade-out. It’s truly an “Endless Summer” in this engaging and compelling portrait of “America’s band”, THE BEACH BOYS.

3.5 Out of 4

THE BEACH BOYS is now streaming on Disney+