63
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80The Beach Boys makes up for its narrative familiarity by exploring some of the lesser-known behind-the-scenes tidbits.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerThe film is a level-headed look at artists who promoted joy but lost their own.
- 70ColliderNate RichardColliderNate RichardWhile hardcore fans won't learn anything they didn't already know, 'The Beach Boys' documentary is a perfectly entertaining love-letter to the SoCal band.
- 70Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydLos Angeles TimesRobert LloydRunning less than two hours at a time when four-hour rock docs are not unusual, this is a swift, compact telling, with surprisingly little in the way of music and whole swaths of recording history skated over. But it looks fantastic, with a bounty of archival photographs and home movies, many of which are new to me, even as a veteran of these things.
- In the end, The Beach Boys is part an exploration of a family dynamic and a top view of one of America’s most important bands, with a soundtrack that is undeniably superb (a collection of songs released alongside the film is a must-listen).
- 60The GuardianThe GuardianPerhaps the last 48 years are omitted for reasons of space. The film would need to be twice as long to cover them, and the second half would feel more like a particularly lurid soap opera than a music documentary. But it seems more likely it’s out of a desire to append a happy ending on to a story that doesn’t really have one.
- 60The New York TimesNicolas RapoldThe New York TimesNicolas RapoldAny deviations from the film’s obligatory timeline tour are very welcome, like a mortifying studio recording of Murry holding forth, and it’s a treat to hear the esteem for Brian among the Wrecking Crew, the storied group of session musicians.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonSan Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonThe Beach Boys is a breezy CliffsNotes version of the band’s ups and downs and cultural relevance and should interest established fans — even if they know it all already — and younger music enthusiasts who are looking for a window in.
- 50RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoRogerEbert.comBrian TallericoA documentary should produce more than what would result from just listening to a band's collected discography. But you’d get nearly as much from a marathon of Beach Boys recordings as you would from watching this two-hour film.