Love & Mercy is a film based on the life of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. More specifically, the film depicts Brian’s (Paul Dano and John Cusack) creative ingenuity, his struggle with mental illness and how a chance encounter with Melinda Ledbetter (who is now his wife) saved him from his controversial psychotherapist.

The Bechdel, Russo, and Race Test

Love & Mercy does not pass the Bechdel, Russo or race test.

There are extremely few women in Love & Mercy and there are even fewer women in the film that have names. Women talk to each other maybe 2-3 times in the film, and while in two of those instances the women who talk to each other have names, Love & Mercy does not pass the Bechdel test because men are always either directly or indirectly referenced (e.g., Melinda [Elizabeth Banks] and Gloria [Diana-Maria Riva], Brian’s housekeeper, talk to each other on two separate occasions about how Dr. Landy [Paul Giamatti], Brian’s psychotherapist, is mistreating and abusing Brian and how Dr. Landy is forging documents). Love & Mercy also fails to pass the Russo and race test, and the film does not pass these tests because the film is extremely heteronormative so there are no LGBTI characters in the film and because there is only one non-White individual (i.e., Gloria) in Love & Mercy.

*The Bechdel test entails three requirements:
1. It has to have at least two (named) women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something besides a man

*The Vito Russo test entails three requirements:
1. The film contains a character that is identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex and/or transgender
2. The character must not be solely or predominately defined by her sexual orientation, gender identity and/or as being intersex
3.The character must be tied into the plot in such a way that her removal would have a significant effect

***The race or people of color (POC) test has three requirements:
1. It has two people of color in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something other than a White person

****Just because a film passes the Bechdel, Russo and race test does not mean that it is not sexist, heterosexist, racist and/or cissexist, etc. The Bechdel, Russo and race test is only a bare minimum qualifier for the representation of LGBTI individuals, women and people of color in film. The failure to pass these tests also does not identify whether the central character was a woman, a person of color or a LGBTQI individual and it does not dictate the quality of the film.