The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys exist in two worlds depending on how deep your interest is in them. To some, they’re the white bread, clean-cut band of the early 1960s, singing about surfing, cars, and girls in bikinis. They’re the band you associate with Fourth of July TV specials and mom’s apple pie. To others, they’re the band that brought us the musical genius of Brian Wilson and his other worldly arrangements and ethereal harmonies. The band that released Pet Sounds and, competing in the charts, inspired The Beatles to release Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Premiering on Disney+ on May 24, 2024, The Beach Boys is a new documentary from Frank Marshall and Thom Zimny. There have been two TV movies about the band, a feature film about Brian Wilson, and a handful of docs about them. Add in all the clips and stories in other rock’n’roll docs and the question becomes what new territory is covered here?

The answer: not much. We get archival interview clips and voiceovers from Brian’s late brothers Carl and Dennis, whose deaths are basically glossed over and interviews with band members Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, David Marks and Brian Wilson, though Wilson – now suffering from dementia – is only briefly seen. We also get anecdotes from Brian’s first wife Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford and praise from fellow artists Don Was, Ryan Tedder, Janelle Monáe, and Lindsey Buckingham.

We hear again that the brothers’ father and band’s first manager, Murry Wilson, was controlling and abusive but don’t delve into how physically and mentally abusive he was. We hear about Brian’s initial nervous breakdown and subsequent end to touring and briefly touch upon his drug use and reclusiveness but completely skip over the years where his life was under the control of psychologist Eugene Landy. Though Dennis’ brief association with Charles Manson is mentioned, his decline into substance abuse and subsequent drowning is not.

In many ways, this is a feel good documentary that glosses over much of the drama and acrimony that exists to this day with Love and Johnston in one camp and Wilson, Jardine and Marks in the other. If The Beach Boys represent a carefree, endless summer for you then this doc is right up your alley. If you know that life has multiple seasons then this look at The Beach Boys will leave you disappointed.