There have been many documentaries and films about Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ creative force, widely recognized as genius due to his novel approaches, pop composition, exceptional aptitude and mastery of recording techniques. But most have focused on his 1960s heyday or the difficult times during struggles with mental illness and drug addiction.

Brian Wilson: I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times, was a 1995 meditative documentary from record producer Don Was; Brian Wilson and the Story of ‘SMiLE’, a chronicle of that unfinished album. Then in 2004, Wilson and Darian Sahanaja made Love & Mercy, which was a narrative but offered insights about his life and work.

The new, affectionate documentary, Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, by Brent Wilson (no relation), aims, among other things, to restore justice to all of his creations, including those he made as a solo artist, which has not been sufficiently recognized.

The film benefits from unprecedented access into Brian’s life, feelings and thoughts. “It felt it was like a good time to look back,” says Brian. “I have so many memories of LA, of growing up, the good times with my band, we were just kids when we started, and memories of my brothers Dennis and Carl, who I miss so much. I hope our film shows people the love I feel and the hope I have to share love through my music.”

The film contains new interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Jim James, Nick Jonas, Taylor Hawkins, Gustavo Dudamel, Jakob Dylan, Bob Gaudio and other artists influenced by Wilson’s music.

Brent Wilson began work on a documentary after his feature, Streetlight Harmonies, but the initial interviews didn’t go well. “He had a physical reaction when I put a microphone on him,” he says. “He’s always hated being interviewed, feeling he’s answered all the questions many times. They were sessions of pain, as he just wasn’t into it. After the second interview, I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got no film here, I’m done. My career is over.’”

Brian’s publicist-manager, Jean Sievers, then suggested that he contact Jason Fine who had grown close to Brian after writing about him in Rolling Stone over the years. “Doing my research, I had read a lot of Jason’s articles,” says Brent. “I loved those about his better days, after 2015 when they drove around L.A. together and just talk. For my film. I just wanted to hang with Brian for several days.”

Brent and his crew captured the musician hanging out with Fine at his favorite spots in Los Angeles. Fine says: “Brian has lived in Los Angeles his entire life. Being there with him is such a cool experience because this is his town, and he’s got memories on every corner.”

In the car was an iPhone filled with all of Wilson’s music and other albums he loves, and periodically he’d call for a random tune from his past and start talking about it. “He’d ask, ‘Do you have the album Love You?‘” says Fine. “‘I’d love to hear ‘The Night Was So Young.’” Some of the music that he really cares about has not been used before or is less known.

Brian speaks emotionally about his brothers Dennis and Carl Wilson, especially when he hears their voices in the music.  Their loss still really weighs heavily on his mind.

“One of my goals for the movie was to find the real Brian Wilson,” says Brent. “Because Brian is a myth, there are songs about him, paintings of him, movies about him, but I don’t think the myth is accurate.”

Unlike other music documentaries, this one lacks a linear narrative, it’s not a biopic.  It’s more of an impressionistic film, with music serving as the driving force that carries it through.

It shifts back and forth between the saga of Brian and the Beach Boys and conversations between him and Jason Fine, The two cruise around LA, talking and listening to Brian’s music and stopping at key locales: Paradise Cove, the home of “Surfin’ Safari”; Wilson’s childhood home in Hawthorne; the houses he lived in the ’60s and ’70s; the Beverly Glen Deli, The Malibu Sushi.

Brian Wilson did more than just write great music – he turned pop music into hymns and chorales of cultural significance. As Bruce Springsteen says in the film: “The beauty of it has a sense of joyfulness even in the pain of living. You sense the joyfulness of hard emotional life.”

At one point, Fine asks Brian if it was weird writing songs about surfing even though he didn’t surf, and he replies, “Yeah, Dennis surfed. I never learned how to surf.”  When Fine asks about the “SMiLE” and why he shelved it, Brian says, “We thought it was ahead of its time. We waited 30 years, and we finally finished it.”

Fine fields Brian’s laconic, one-sentence answers, knowing when to push further and when to stop, but occasionally, he manages to bring the “inner” Brian out as never heard or seen before.

Brian, who just turned 79, seems in good shape for his age, even if he still hears voices. As is known, it took decades to diagnose Brian with schizoaffective disorder–after his many complaints that he was hearing strange voices in his head.

Even when Brian doesn’t reveal much, he comes across as honest, tender, and above all vulnerable. Brian is seen trying to play the part of a pop star, singing along with his brothers, Al Jardine and Mike Love, but sometimes he is not fully there.

Don Was is seen in the studio separating tracks of songs, and at the end, where Brian layers Carl Wilson singing “God only knows what I’d be without you,” it’s interesting to hear that famous song without instruments. Was then collects the instruments–banjo, piano, harmonica–and fuses them into a richly complex and unified sound.

“God Only Knows” and “Penny Lane” are some of the greatest pop songs in history. John Elton’s dissection of these songs is revelatory, specifically when he talks about using a fifth of a chord as a bass note –“Brian dreamed up textures that no one had ever used.”

Producer and songwriter Linda Perry talks about the reflection of Brian’s competitive nature in those songs, how he was trying to outshine the Beatles, which pushed him to new heights of creativity.

Other people discuss his skills as a leader, even when he was cracking up and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The outtakes of the 2011 reissue of “SMiLE,” reveals how Brian rehearsed the other Beach Boys with rigid, nearly military discipline.

Contrary to popular notions, Brian comes across as eloquent, introspective, even funny. Naturally, his voice is weaker but he’s also more relaxed. He’s now more confident, enjoying live spectacle at the Hollywood Bowl, performing “Pet Sounds” to younger generations of audiences.

If Brian continues to record and perform, it’s because he has to—it’s his calling, he was born to be a musician. The new documentary adds light to the reasons for historians to label him as a genius, one of the most innovative songwriters of the 20th century.