Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile

This film tells (using modern day interviews and archival footage and sound tapes) the story of how in 1967, while his band The Beach Boys triumphantly toured abroad, Brian Wilson was trying to push the boundaries of conventional pop music with a new follow-up to the Beach Boys' cutting-edge mega-hit, Pet Sounds. The new album was to be called "SMiLE". SMiLE pushed the envelope both musically and lyrically, and was supposed to out-do the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper record. But Brian wasn't able to sell the project to his band-mates when they returned. The project was shelved and Wilson's well-documented decline into depression, drug abuse, recluseness, and obesity had begun. Thirty-odd years later, Wilson announced that in 2004, SMiLE would be performed live in its entirety in London. This film tells the story of a damaged but healing artist bringing his greatest work to light.

7

109 min

Cast

Brian Wilson

as Self

David Anderle

as Self

Hal Blaine

as Self

Jeff Bridges

as Self

Elvis Costello

as Self

Carol Kaye

as Self

George Martin

as Self

Van Dyke Parks

as Self

Sylvie Simmons

as Self

Michael Vosse

as Self

Andrew Loog Oldham

as Self

Tony Asher

as Self

Danny Hutton

as Self

Lou Adler

as Self

Melinda Wilson

as Self

Rob Reiner

as Self

Probyn Gregory

as Self

Darian Sahanaja

as Self

Jeffrey Foskett

as Self

Director

David Leaf