The Beach Boys

A recent Disney + documentary on arguably the greatest American rock 'n' roll band we ever produced. Culling interviews from the surviving members (since brothers Carl & Dennis Wilson have passed & any interviews w/Brian are archival since he's gotten a recent mental decline diagnosis) gives us the soup to nuts of the band w/the usual trajectory of them being the preeminent surf band until Brian's intense studio time (prompted by his distaste & mental unbeing for the road) took him into infinitely more experimental & interesting places even though their father wanted none of that. Tracing a good chunk of the later half of the doc on the revolutionary Pet Sounds recording pretty much shows why that record is what it is & why the world loves it so. Some time director Frank Marshall (Congo/Alive) does the material well but being there are so many docs made on the band (at one point I think he clipped a scene of Brian Wilson being interviewed in bed from one made in the 70's or 80's which I remember seeing when I was young) especially a recent one about the Pet Sounds follow-up Smile which Brian & Van Dyke Park reunited to finish & later perform on stage, this film feels fresh for the uninitiated but for those in on the know, not so much.