At least for American audiences, the film musical Better man is pretty hard to sell. It's a strange-sounding project – a music biopic that replaces the lead actor with a CG chimpanzee and revolves around the career of an international superstar and former boy band member never really broke through in the States. Americans do not share the allure of pop singer Robbie Williams with the rest of the world, despite his 14 chart-topping albums, his regular presence in British tabloids and… sassy, viral-friendly music videos. (Note: This video alone has 107 million views, and that's not even close his most-watched hit, “Angels.”) So the idea of a biopic might not be immediately popular with US viewers, even if this “monkey protagonist” gimmick adds a little more intrigue.
Even though the film is based on Williams' life, it's still better to think of it as a fantasy film. Director Michael Gracey previously transformed PT Barnum's career into the thrilling, extremely popular musical film The greatest showmanwhen glossing over or revising most of the reality of Barnum's life and work. While Better man The truth about Williams' story is similar plays with images and emotions over factsespecially when it comes to music. Just as Gracey replaces Williams with a monkey for various reasons (more on that in a moment), he fictionalizes and expands his subject's story. More importantly, he tells the story through fantasy sequences so daring, expressive and visually stunning that the effects dominate the film.
Image: Paramount Pictures/Everett Collection
Actor Jonno Davies plays Williams throughout the film, adapted into a short film, as he grows up as a boastful, attention-hungry blowhard in a tense, working-class household. His first chance at national fame comes as a teenager when producer Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Herriman) chooses him to join the hugely successful boy band Take That. (Time later described the fan base surrounding the band as “The 90s version of Beatlemania.”)
The usual behind-the-scenes drama ensues: depression, drug abuse, arrogance and alienation, a low point, a recovery and revival. But the basic beats aren't as important as the way Gracey portrays them, through bravura sequences in which Williams and his cohorts travel through a spinning, mutating fantasy version of London's Regent Street, or through zombie-like hordes of paparazzi, who attack Williams underwater. in a standard situation AquamanThe trench warfare.
Better man is obviously built more around Williams' emotional experience of his life than a sober reconstruction of its events: he probably never actually fought 110,000 versions of himself in a bloody, over-the-top battle royale set on “Let me entertain you.” If nothing else happens, Timeline nick-pickers may be up in arms over the way music from Williams' entire career is used to represent emotional moments from entirely different parts of his story. But the full-on fantasy approach allows Gracey to avoid the usual queasy questions about fidelity to the truth in a biopic. When your protagonist is a monkey operating in a human world, how could anyone miss that this approach is more about image and sensation than factual precision?
This central idea of Robbie Williams as an ape-man among humans gives Gracey added visual appeal, but also serves as a powerful metaphor. He and Williams gave different reasons for the approach: In the film itself, Williams simply says that he always saw himself as “a little less developed” than other people. In other interviews, Gracey has spoken about wanting to distance the audience from reality in order for them to do this or simply that you need a trick to avoid making the same biopic again.
And before the film's release, Williams and Gracey released a video clip in which they gave a completely different reason: Gracey says he was inspired by Williams' complaint about being “dragged on stage to act like a monkey.” and he decided to make the idea literal and tangible.
But aside from these justifications, presentation Better manBecause Gracey represents a literal animal, a different creature than everyone else around him, Gracey draws on the themes of Williams's alienation and sense of separation. Whether the obstacle is his endless hunger for attention, the way he struggles with drugs and alcohol while his boy band colleagues seem physically and emotionally healthier, the way his fame distances him from his family and former friends, or just the way he constantly yearns to gain the approval of a father who is busy achieving his own fame sets Williams apart from the world. The film's focus on the most self-deprecating, instinctive version of its self-image underlines the message in every shot, without the need for exposure.
And the monkey image also has a destructive, animalistic side. Wētā FX, the effects house behind the Planet of the Apes films, gives Williams an expressive and believable chimpanzee face and detailed chimpanzee fur, while keeping his body language and body shape largely human. Still, there is an atavistic danger in Williams' angry or frightened moments on screen, as he beats his chest or bares his fangs. In these moments he feels far more dangerous to those around him and far less in control than any other human character.
All of that, plus the ambitiously wild musical sequences, wears off Better man as a spectacle film worth sharing in multiplex cinemas and with the audience Evil. It's apparently aimed more at fans of immersive, Wētā-centric fantasy worlds like the films “Planet of the Apes” or “Lord of the Rings” than for fans of pop music history – or even of Williams himself. (Netflix has (for those seeking a more factual approach.) In the end, viewers may be curious to learn more about Williams as an artist and personality, or to delve deeper into his discography.
But that Better man The experience is more akin to watching an outstanding Bollywood musical or a Baz Luhrmann spectacle Moulin Rouge! to be seen as a consequence of Behind the music. Most musicals translate emotions into songs. This one goes a step further and translates emotions into a daring central gimmick. It's experimental and explosive. Even for those who are not familiar with Williams' work or have no prior knowledge of his career, it is worth a visit just to see how Gracey fills the screen with energy and verve, with a mesmerizing production that captivates the senses to overwhelm the audience and ensure that they leave singing.
Better man is now in the cinema.
