A new documentary I Am Chris Farley recalls the life and laughs of Chris Farley. The film examines Farley’s amazing talent as well as the demons that led to his death at the young age of 33 in 1997.
I Am Chris Farley features many of Farley’s colleagues and friends, including David Spade, Adam Sandler, Dan Aykroyd and Lorne Michaels. Check out the trailer for the film about the Saturday Night Live alum.
You will find I Am Chris Farley in theaters down by the river starting on July 31, 2015.
Slate has put together a movie montage supercut featuring scenes of childhood summers from various films. Along with the sound of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” the video Nostalgia of Summer is sure to take you back to your childhood . . . or at least make you remember some of these movies. Although it skews toward more recent movies, it still is a nice nostalgia trip.
[2024 Update: Unfortunately the video is not presently available.]
What is your favorite movie featuring children in the summer? Of course, Stand by Me (1986) is a great movie about childhood, but so is To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Leave your two cents in the comments.
Arnold Schwarzenegger this week dressed up as his Terminator character and surprised fans at various locations around Los Angeles, including Madame Tussauds wax museum. The funny stunt helps promote the July release of Terminator Genisys, but it all was for a good cause too.
The Terminator visit was to help promote the OMAZE campaign with donations benefiting After-School All-Stars, which provides after-school programs. Check out the funny video.
You will be able to see Schwarzenegger on the big screen in Terminator Genisys starting July 1, 2015. By supporting After-School All-Stars, you can win a trip to the movie premiere with Schwarzenegger himself.
This new video from Slate illustrates how a movie director can dramatize a monologue through the use of camera movement. In the video, Alisha Harris narrates several examples, including clips from movies such as Citizen Kane (1941), Night of the Hunter (1955), and Forrest Gump (1994).
[2024 Update: Unfortunately, Slate’s video is not presently available.]
In the new movie Love & Mercy (2015), director Bill Pohlad takes the unusual approach to use two different actors to convey the complexity of the genius of Beach Boys singer-songwriter Brian Wilson. And surprisingly, it works very well.
Of course, the technique can only work if the actors are up to the task, and both Paul Dano and John Cusack give outstanding career performances in Love & Mercy. Dano has always been good of portraying some level of madness, but his portrayal of Wilson is much more subtle than Dano’s over-the-top craziness in There Will Be Blood (2007). It also was surprising how much Dano looks like a young Brian Wilson given the right hair. While John Cusack does not really look like Brian Wilson, his performance is surprising in his portrayal of vulnerability without his usual “I-know-more-than-everyone-else” winking. The supporting cast is also outstanding, including Elizabeth Banks in one of her best performances and the always wonderful Paul Giamatti.
Love & Mercy features two story arcs intertwined, tracing Wilson’s descent into drugs and mental illness through Dano in one story while also telling the ascent of Wilson’s recovery and escape from the control of Dr. Eugene Landy (Giamatti) through Cusack’s Wilson. Through the stories, we also see Wilson’s torment from an abusive father and an abusive therapist. But his tragedy and triumph are also about the music, and some of the most interesting parts of the film show Wilson in the studio, creating the brilliant Beach Boys album Pet Sounds and struggling to create the follow-up album Smile.
Conclusion? If you are interested in the history of rock music or in movies about tortured genius, you may find that Love & Mercy is one of the best rock biopics in recent years. If you do not trust me, Rotten Tomatoes has an 88% critics rating and a 96% audience rating for the film.
Bonus Trivia: The title of the film is taken from the song “Love & Mercy” from Wilson’s 1988 self-titled solo album. If you wait for the credits during the film, you will see and hear Wilson performing the song, whose opening line seem like an in-joke: “I was sitting in a crummy movie. . . .” But I suspect Pohlad chose the song because it is an uplifting message fitting for a movie about redemption. Wilson once said, “‘Love and Mercy’ is probably the most spiritual song I’ve ever written.”
Since Brian Wilson is still alive, one may wonder how difficult it must be for him to watch a movie about his struggles. If you are interested in what he thinks, in a recent NPR interview, Wilson discussed the movie and how some parts are difficult for him to watch. He also talked about his new album No Pier Pressure and his favorite Beach Boy song, which also happens to be my favorite, “God Only Knows.”
What did you think of Love & Mercy? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In the new movie Love & Mercy (2015), director 
. If you wait for the credits during the film, you will see and hear Wilson performing the song, whose opening line seem like an in-joke: “I was sitting in a crummy movie. . . .” But I suspect Pohlad chose the song because it is an uplifting message fitting for a movie about redemption. Wilson once said, “‘Love and Mercy’ is probably the most spiritual song I’ve ever written.”