By John Corrado

In their documentary The Beach Boys, co-directors Frank Marshall (The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart) and Thom Zimney (Western Stars, Springsteen on Broadway) team up to offer a polished look at the history of the California surf rock band The Beach Boys.

Made up of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and neighbour Al Jardine, who was always hanging around at the Wilson’s musical house, the band would become known for their harmonizing, defining the beach sound that was synonymous with 1960s California surf culture.

But beneath their sunny harmonies, the Wilson brothers faced tensions with their father Murry, who managed the band with an iron fist during their early years, as well as Brian’s struggles with drug abuse and paranoia. Brian would eventually leave the touring group due to a nervous breakdown, so he could focus on writing songs and producing music for them in the studio instead.

This allowed Brian’s genius to flourish, fully coming to fruition on their 1966 album Pet Sounds, but also positioned him head and shoulders above the rest of the group in a way that exacerbated underlying family tensions. The band was also being driven by their “rivalry” with British rock band The Beatles, which pushed both bands to innovate and be better (ironically, Pet Sounds initially found more success in England, with Capitol Records not really knowing how to market it in America).

The film features new interviews with Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine, as well as fellow band members David Marks and Bruce Johnston. Despite opening on him sitting at the piano, Brian actually appears least in the film, leaving the others to recount some of the most tumultuous moments. We also hear from musicians like Janelle Monae and Ryan Tedder, who talks about how their music presented a compelling image of warm California life for him as a kid in Oklahoma.

While it’s interesting to hear them tell these stories in their own words, including opening up about their abusive father, there isn’t a whole lot of new information for fans of the band (and the film doesn’t even take us past the mid-1970s). Even at nearly two hours, it can feel more like a primer for the band’s complex history, which might have been better served by a longer mini-series. The film also blends the new and archival interviews (including through voiceover) in a way that can make it hard to tell if what we are hearing is new material.

The film is perhaps most compelling as a look at the band outgrowing their initial image, trying to navigate retaining their following as their music became more experimental and they naturally aged out of being clean-cut young men in short sleeve button up shirts. As such, the moment’s focusing on their increasingly complex musical arrangements and the recording sessions for Pet Sounds are some of the most enjoyable.

It’s very much an overview of the band’s complicated history, but a consistently entertaining one; The Beach Boys works best as a slickly edited assembly of archival images and music, capturing enough of their signature sound through the wall-to-wall pop hits on the soundtrack.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

CALIFORNIA – CIRCA 1964: Rock and roll band “The Beach Boys” perform onstage in circa 1964 in California. (L-R) Dennis Wilson, Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, Brian Wilson, Mike Love. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

The Beach Boys is available to stream exclusively on Disney+ as of May 24th.