Ten Movies You’ll Want to See This Summer

Love & Mercy (June 5) — On the heels of last summer’s overlooked James Brown portrait Get On Up, here’s a study of a musical genius of the same era more dysfunctional than Soul Brother No. 1 ever was: Beach Boy Brian Wilson. He’s played by Paul Dano in the 1960s, while toiling on his masterpiece Pet Sounds, and John Cusack in the 1980s, when he was under the sway of manager, collaborator, alleged ghostwriter, and predatory psychologist Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti). Landy eventually had his license revoked and was legally barred from any contact with Wilson. Elizabeth Banks plays Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, the woman who helped drag Wilson out from under Landy's thumb. Screenwriter Oren Moverman penned the experimental Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There, so we know he doesn’t revere the boomer music gods too much to do anything interesting with them. Many who caught this at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival found it to be another successful evasion of the clichés that often sink movies about popular musicians. Confidence: 65 percent.