Robbie Williams As A CG Chimp Is The Strangest, Most Brilliant Biopic Decision I Didn’t Know I Needed

The biopic formula has become rather mundane and uninteresting, save for the few biopics that actually pull us in and dare to do something memorable. But for all their posturing, Better Man is perhaps the weirdest, coolest biopic I’ve seen in recent memory — and most definitely in the least year. Directed by The Greatest Showman’s Michael Gracey, Better Man, which follows the rise of British pop star Robbie Williams, is a spectacle, with many sequences shot like music videos. The spectacle doesn’t mean there’s no heart at the story’s core, and it kept me watching despite being overlong.

All I really knew about the film before seeing it was that Robbie Williams was being portrayed as an anthropomorphic chimp, a decision I found confusing until Williams, via voiceover, tells us that we’re to view him as he sees himself. If that sounds off-putting, that’s because it is — at least at first. Better Man quickly establishes that Williams, from his early days, doesn’t think very highly of himself and suffers from clinical depression, often brought to life through Robbie’s (Jonno Davies in motion capture) inner voices taking physical form as self-incarnations to berate him and make him lose focus.

Better Man Is An Impressive Musical Spectacle

Musical Numbers & A Unique Portrayal Of Robbie Williams Make It An Immersive Experience

The biopic doesn’t assume its audience knows the details of Williams’ life, but the rise of the singer’s 90s boy band, Take That, sadly and unsurprisingly follows similar ebbs and flows of other such music groups. It’s enough to be familiar while offering us a behind-the-scenes look at Williams himself, who struggled with his dad’s (Steve Pemberton) absence in his life and whose addiction to fame turned into an addiction to drugs. The film turns the mirror on Williams as it underscores how he isn’t always the best person, especially to the important people in his life.

Williams becomes a figure who is simultaneously sympathetic and frustrating. He’s a flawed person, and, at the start of his career, a young one who wanted fame more than anyone else if it perhaps meant that he could understand what drew his dad, Peter, also a singer, to life onstage and away from his family. Williams posits that changing his name from Robert to Robbie — courtesy of Take That’s manager, Nigel Martin-Smith (a consistently sour-looking Damon Herriman) — allowed him to hide behind it.

And we see that shift right before he goes onstage, from that of a forlorn young man to a performer who’s all too happy to play the fame game. At the same time, Better Man doesn’t coddle its subject. Even the decision to visualize him onscreen as a chimp rather than as a human says a lot about Williams and Gracey, who, along with co-writers Simon Gleeson and Oliver Cole, aren’t afraid to delve into the psychological aspects beyond the sensationalism. I wasn’t expecting to be so captivated by every moment and yet I couldn’t look away and feel something.

Beyond the personal and psychological, Better Man excels because it leans into the spectacle of a pop star’s life. When Williams falls in love with Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), of All Saints fame, the pair duet Williams’ cover of “She’s the One” and dance on a yacht. The dance choreography, editing, and cinematography by Erik A. Wilson are exceptional, offering a champagne-like coloring and romantic mood that is filmed to showcase the quickness of Robbie and Nicole’s affections. It’s later shattered by a montage that reveals the tragic realities that happen thereafter, but it’s no less moving in the moment.

Other moments, like Take That’s rise to fame, is filmed like a rousing, spectacular music video. Costume changes, choreography, and great use of the London streets elevate the biopic from something dour and run-of-the-mill to something effusive and entertaining. Just as Robbie Williams has entertained us for decades, his biopic does the same, only here he’s openly afraid of being thought a fraud. This sentiment permeates the entire film and, though it could have focused on the sensationalist aspects and kept it at that, it doesn’t rest on its laurels.

It boasts the creativity of something like Piece by Piece, which documented Will Pharrell’s life through a LEGO world, but Better Man has more depth to recommend it beyond the simple excitement that comes from doing something different. If there’s one complaint I have about the film is that it’s too long, indulging a bit in the second half when it could have cut some of the repetitiveness of Williams snorting cocaine. There’s only so much we can watch of it before it starts to drag.

Luckily, it’s not enough to deter from the film’s very many creative attributes. It tells a cohesive story filled with lush visuals and extraordinary musical setpieces that make it an immersive watch. I walked away from Better Man feeling a bit annoyed that I hadn’t seen it sooner. Now that I have, I feel the need to sing its praises. Who knew that a musical biopic starring a CG-animated chimp as Robbie Williams would resonate this much? I certainly didn’t and I hope that you’re just as surprised and entranced by this fantastically strange and unique project as I was.

Better Man is in nationwide theaters on January 10. The film is 134 minutes long and rated R for drug use, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some violent content.

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Roadshow Films

8/10

Pros

• Robbie Williams as a CG chimp is a surprisingly good decision
• The film balances visual spectacle with heart and depth
• Williams is portrayed as a flawed person

Cons

• The film, at over 2 hours, can feel too long