Coming together in 1961, The Beach Boys were on a collision course to becoming one of the most influential Rock-n-Roll bands in American history. Distinguished by otherworldly vocal harmonies, a Surf Rock-influenced sound, and a slew of Top 10 hits, The Beach Boys truly are America’s band. A story that does not have a parallel line, or is only filled with positivity, much has been written about The Beach Boys saga through the decades.
Documented in books, interviews, and various films, now in 2024 the world is presented with the newest documentary simply titled The Beach Boys. Released on May 24, 2024 for streaming via Disney+, the direction was led by Frank Marshall, while each member of The Beach Boys also found representation. Including new with Mike Love, Brian Wilson, David Marks, and Al Jardine, there is also achieved video footage featuring the late Carl Wilson and Dennis Wilson.
With a running time of just under two hours, some may argue it cuts the story of The Beach Boys a little short with many years of history omitted. While the film does a nice job of compounding the most important points of the band’s history (including their formation, early successes, struggles to adapt, and relationships together), you still cannot help but feel like something is missing.
In fairness, there was a lot to cover here, and considering that both Carl and Dennis are no longer alive, the production does a fine job of including them equally within the fabric of the story. With this being said, you also get plenty of insight from Love and Briand Wilson, but perhaps the best interviews come from Jardine. Jardine, an original Beach Boy, comes across candidly and gives you a great perspective of the band’s internal workings as an outsider of the family unit of The Wilson brothers and cousin Mike Love.
Beyond this, the use of old film footage and intertwining of each member’s personality, present a relatively focused picture of everything. Yet again, with so much to talk about, you could walk away from The Beach Boys feeling a bit unfilled. This leaves you to wonder why it was chosen to compress everything about The Beach Boys’ history into two hours, and not in a long-form documentary, like the 1995 The Beatles Anthology documentary television series or Hulu’s 2024 Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story. Then again, if you look at it from the point of view that The Beach Boys was approached in the way it was, it is still quite decent. Thoughtfully touching on their history, it is also nice to see modern artists like Janelle Monáe and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder speak enthusiastically about The Beach Boys’ massive impact.
All in all, going into The Beach Boys film you may have extremely high hopes considering Frank Marshall did a stunning job with 2020’s The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart film in less than two hours. However, you have to consider there might be more stories to tell with The Beach Boys. For all things considered, Cryptic Rock gives The Beach Boys film 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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