Love and Mercy, the tragic and revealing story of musical genius Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, proved to be the ideal title for this shocking true story.

Without diving into the details and spoiling anything, it’s a movie that emotes joy, anger, sadness and surprise. The underrated Paul Dano portrays Brian Wilson as he’s writing and making music with The Beach Boys in strange, unorthodox fashion as they created one of music’s greatest albums (“Pet Sounds”) and the always down-to-earth John Cusack plays the delicately charming and haunted adult Brian Wilson during the late 1980s. Impressively, Cusack and Dano escaped into Brian Wilson so well that they projected one complete character throughout the film with seemingly identical mannerisms, tendencies and personality.

They were one man.

And Elizabeth Banks (Melinda Ledbetter) and Paul Giamatti (Dr. Eugene Landy) were terrific in their roles.

For the casual fan of The Beach Boys, it was known that they were not all sunshine and fun. Love and Mercy reveals some of that raw tension during their prime in 1960s southern California. However, there were moments of wonderful collaboration that resulted in unmistakably great music. In keeping with that spirit of showcasing this band’s immense talents, here’s a Beach Boys promotional video from 1966.

Here’s to Some Good Vibrations This Week!