Love & Mercy (2014) - September 15, 2015

[Akijama]

Amazon pre.order

Love & Mercy Official Trailer #1 (2015) - Brian Wilson Biopic HD - YouTube

[floridaswamprat]

Looking forward to this. Love the Beach Boys.

[Buscemi]

I hope this has a great sound mix like it did in the theatre.

[kidglov3s]

I loved this, so far it's my favorite of 2015 (out of the 49 I've seen so far). It would interesting to have commentary from Brian Wilson.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

I hope this has a great sound mix like it did in the theatre.

I agree - the 7.1 mix was outstanding.

[javi92]

Good film but, for me, I don't see a lot of replay value. Could be persuaded depending on the extras.

[Akijama]

SANTA MONICA, CA (July 13, 2015) -The critically acclaimed musical biopic about the fascinating life of the Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson, Love & Mercy will be available on Digital HD August 25th and on Blu-ray™ (plus Digital HD), DVD (plus Digital) and On Demand September 15th from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. Golden Globe® nominee John Cusack (Best Actor, High Fidelity,2001)stars in”one of the best performances of his career” (The Hollywood Reporter) alongside Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, Looper) as troubled musical genius Brian Wilson at two pivotal stages of his life – the 1960s, at the peak of The Beach Boys’ fame and the 1980s, as Brian reclaims his life after a mental breakdown. They are joined by Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games franchise) as Wilson’s present-day wife Melinda, and two-time Golden Globe® winner Paul Giamatti (Best Actor, Barney’s Version,2011; Best Actor, John Adams,2009).



Love & Mercy is an unconventional portrait of Brian Wilson (portrayed by both John Cusack and Paul Dano), singer and songwriter for The Beach Boys. The film intimately examines the unique journey and ultimate salvation of this musical icon, whose success came at an extraordinary personal cost.



The “emotionally exhilarating” (Hitflix) film is listed on a number of critics “must see” lists, and has been nominated for several awards in 2015, including at the SXSW Film Festival, the Dallas International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Academy Award®-nominated producer Bill Pohlad (Best Picture, The Tree of Life,2011), Love & Mercy bonus material includes two behind-the-scenes featurettes (looking at the production and costume design and also how the personal history of The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson inspired the film), deleted scenes and audio commentary with director/producer Bill Pohlad and executive producer/co-writer Oren Moverman. Love & Mercy will be available on Blu-ray and DVD for the suggested retail price of $24.99 and $19.98, respectively.



DIGITAL HD/BLU-RAY/DVD SPECIAL FEATURES*

“A California Story: Creating the Look of Love & Mercy” Featurette
“A-Side/B-Side: Portraying the Life of Brian Wilson” Featurette
Deleted Scenes
Audio Commentary with director/producer Bill Pohlad and executive producer/co-writer Oren Moverman

*Subject to Change



PROGRAM INFORMATION

Year of Production: 2015

Title Copyright: Love & Mercy © 2015 Malibu Road, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Artwork & Supplementary Materials © 2015 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Type: Theatrical Release

Rating: PG-13 for Thematic Elements, Drug Content and Language

Genre: Biography, Drama, Indie, Music

Blu-ray Closed Captioned: NA

DVD Closed Captioned: English

Blu-ray Subtitles: English SDH,English and Spanish

DVD Subtitles: English and Spanish

Feature Run Time: 122 minutes

Blu-ray Format: 1080P High Definition 16×9 Widescreen (1.78:1)

DVD Format: 16×9 Widescreen (1.78:1)

Blu-ray Audio Status: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio™ and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital

DVD Audio Status: English and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital

[Sodslaw]

Watched this last week in its very limited release here in the UK,the Blu Ray release is timed with my Florida trip so will pick it up on my holiday

[Spire]

Not a day one purchase, but loved it in theaters. Was kinda funny/coincidental that I became borderline obsessed with Pet Sounds a few months before its theatrical release. I thought Dano did a great job as younger Brian Wilson.

[kidglov3s]

It was a misstep to put Eugene Landy in charge of the cover art.

[Dubstar]

is that the final specs for the bluray? if it it - that peeves me, why not include the 7.1 audio mix that is on the theatrical DCP - I'm surprised that Lionsgate isn't doing a DTS-X mix to it.

[lolwut]

Awful cover art.

[Buscemi]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

is that the final specs for the bluray? if it it - that peeves me, why not include the 7.1 audio mix that is on the theatrical DCP - I'm surprised that Lionsgate isn't doing a DTS-X mix to it.

I was thinking this was a sure bet for Dolby Atmos. I guess Lionsgate only thinks their big-budget titles deserve such treatment.

[Spencer_Kain92]

worth a blind buy?

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

I was thinking this was a sure bet for Dolby Atmos. I guess Lionsgate only thinks their big-budget titles deserve such treatment.

What would a film like this gain from Dolby Atmos? Outside of the studio sessions, most of the film is conversation. There's no need for overheads and for theatrical Atmos, no need for the surround channels to have separate feeds for each speaker, with the possible exception that I suppose for the studio sessions, they could have made each musical instrument a separate object.

On the other hand, because of his hearing problems, Brian mixed everything mono. So maybe we should have heard the music the way he did.

Having said that, the theatrical mix did sound great. If it was 7.1 in the theatres, there was no reason for the BD not to also be 7.1. They should have just left it alone and transferred it over. Wouldn't have cost them a penny.

[Dubstar]

I tweeted a question / concern to Lionsgate Home Entertainment regarding the non-inclusion of the 7.1 mix - will be interesting if they decide to explain why it's missing (if at all).

[MediumBlu]

I posted another (longer) reply to this thread that I don't think has yet been approved. Maybe because I had links in it? I hate that too, put a lot of thought into it.

I agree with the member that mentioned the artwork being uh..(my words) underwhelming. The US poster art is awesome. If they wanted to deviate from that maybe they could've used the UK poster art. But, that's really a minor quibble for me, personally.

Prior to the announcement, my hope was for Deleted Scenes and Audio Commentary with Bill Pohlad and Oren Moverman. I basically got my wish on those two which I'm super stoked about. The Featurettes will hopefully be more than fluff EPK's.

My only real nit-pick (besides the artwork) is the lack of an Isolated Soundtrack. Atticus Ross' score is so engrossing from the opening "Black Hole" sequence all the way through all of Brian's oncoming psychosis. To date, there has bee no score/soundtrack release for the film which is also a shame. I had hoped for an Isolated Score to remedy that. It does say the supplemental material is subject to change so maybe that will still be included.

In my original post, I mentioned my love for this film. If you're a devotee of Brian Wilson and his music and know the story, LOVE & MERCY is something of a religious experience. The film is so exquisitely crafted that any small blemish or wrong note gets lost in the whole texture. This was obviously a labor of love for all involved, that much is clear from the outset. Repeated viewings will continue to reward the discerning viewer.

[kidglov3s]

I just can't get over how lame that cover art is.

Originally Posted by MediumBlu

In my original post, I mentioned my love for this film. If you're a devotee of Brian Wilson and his music and know the story, LOVE & MERCY is something of a religious experience. The film is so exquisitely crafted that any small blemish or wrong note gets lost in the whole texture. This was obviously a labor of love for all involved, that much is clear from the outset. Repeated viewings will continue to reward the discerning viewer.

Right after I saw it all I wanted to do was see it again. I see this as one I will be revisiting often.

[MediumBlu]

Originally Posted by kidglov3s

Right after I saw it all I wanted to do was see it again. I see this as one I will be revisiting often.

Ironically (or not), that's exactly what I did. I saw the film on June 5th and immediately went to the very next showing that same day. I've now seen the film 10 times and will likely see it at least once more before the run is up.

Very few films have really touched me quite like this one. Sorry to digress but, I think back to when I was like in my early twenties and Terrence Malick's THE THIN RED LINE was released. I was excited about the prospect of his return to directing. Having seen DAYS OF HEAVEN and BADLANDS on cable several years prior. There was a great pre-release exposé in Vanity Fair I think, or maybe Esquire about the long road to producing THE THIN RED LINE.

Like that film, LOVE & MERCY really had me hooked long before the release date. When I first got into Brian and Beach Boys music more deeply in the mid 1990s there was an occasional rumor that there would be a biopic about Brian. Then more than an a decade ago, I think there was one in the pipeline at Warner Brothers that never saw the light of day. Fast forward to 2011 when LOVE & MERCY was first announced in a NY Times blog, that's where I saw it anyway. A year or so later, news that the script was completed by Oren Moverman. And from there I followed the production all the way up to release date.

Last year, when the film premiered at TIFF, I was very close to saying "screw it" and driving up to Toronto to see this film I had been waiting on. But I was patient and waited for the US release date to approach.

The thing that I think resonates so much for me about LOVE & MERCY is that you can just tell when a film is undertaken for the purpose of taking the medium to another level and doing something new. Really swinging for the fences, as some might say. It could have easily been a paint-by-numbers biopic and probably done better at the box office but I'm not sure that it would have meant as much to me.

Another film I can think of where the production team just really threw everything into the project was David Fincher's ZODIAC. So much detail and effort went into every inch of every frame of that film. Consequently, it's one of my very favorite films like Malick's THE THIN RED LINE.

I also think that the old axiom of 'if you're still thinking about a film or its characters days and even weeks after seeing it, the filmmakers succeeded at least on some level'. For me, it's about the layers of a film like LOVE & MERCY that allow for even deeper exploration. Whether you know the story or not going in. I think it's safe to say that even if you don't know the story, one might leave the theater and be intrigued enough to at worst do a Wiki look up and at best watch any number of the countless documentaries or read a book like Peter Ames Carlin's CATCH A WAVE.

[kidglov3s]

Easy pre-order for me at $12.96 on Amazon right now, no matter how ugly the art is.