“It cannot – and does not – offer much in the way of fresh, or penetrating, insight into the band so much as tell a familiar story with authority and clarity”
The Beach Boys, Disney+
“The Beach Boys are a fascinating subject but you have to ask which narrative of ‘America’s band’ would Disney dare (or care) to tell? Perhaps predictably, Disney tries to have its cake and eat it too. The tragedies and ironies are not glossed over. We hear studio recordings of Murry berating and demeaning his sons, while Brian’s mental health issues are a constant presence, acknowledged by Brian himself in archive footage. Yet the tone is almost relentlessly upbeat and reverential, drawing on glorious music and brilliantly curated and edited archive footage to put a positive spin on events.”
Neil McCormick, The Telegraph
“There are no gimmicks here, no flashes of directorial flair; simply plenty of archive footage alongside interviews with Jardine and Love, raking over cooling coals with the kind of equanimity that only comes after the passing of many decades. Unlike other Disney+ music docs (namely Peter Jackson’s six-hour long Get Back), The Beach Boys is concise at only 120 minutes. It cannot – and does not – offer much in the way of fresh, or penetrating, insight into the band so much as tell a familiar story with authority and clarity.”
Nick Duerden, The i
Insomnia, Paramount+
“All this veers from suburban drama to full-on screaming horror movie, which gives Vicky McClure plenty of opportunity to show what a versatile actress she is. We have to believe in her simultaneously as a competent, conscientious lawyer, as a devoted mum, and as a woman spiralling into the nervous breakdown she has feared all her adult life. This demands a performance much more subtle than her turn as a bomb disposal officer in ITV’s Trigger Point, where her main acting challenge was to outrun exploding shrapnel while strapped into an armour-plated vest.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
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