‘Better Man’ Movie Review: The Monkey-Leading Robbie Williams Biopic Actually Works
Photo from Paramount Pictures
From Jeff Nelson
Michael Gracey’s Better Man is unlike any other biopic out there but not for the reasons you’d expect. The standard rise-and-fall relationship with fame and all of its clichés are present, yet the filmmaker behind The Greatest Showman put an outrageous spin on it that re-energizes an exhausted genre.
The semi-biographical musical tells the story of a singular British pop superstar named Robbie Williams (played by Jonno Davies but voiced by Williams). Even if you aren’t familiar with the bad boy musician’s rise to fame, you have certainly seen similar stories play out a hundred times. But, you haven’t seen one where the artist is replaced with a CGI monkey; it’s better than it sounds.
Gracey separates this music biopic from the crowd by narrowing his subject’s life experiences through a vulnerable lens of self-loathing. The decision to replace Williams with a CGI monkey comes from these negative emotions and the inescapable feeling that he was performing for crowds like a monkey on display. It beckons back to his childhood, where his cabaret-obsessed father (Steve Pemberton) simultaneously represented a source of artistic joy and traumatic self-hatred. You are born with the spark or you’re a nobody – a paralyzing fear that courses through Williams’ psyche at every significant point. He’s the only monkey you’ll see on the screen, surrounded by human characters who all project something different onto him. We see him through a physical manifestation of these experiences.
Williams got his first taste of fame when he joined a boy band called Take That, although the spotlight was always just out of reach from the shadow of frontman Gary Barlow (Jake Simmance). To cope with his inner demons and artistic aggravation, he fell into a drug addiction. Gracey elevates formulaic plot beats with his musical sensibilities, giving Williams’ musical talents another life with dazzling dance numbers that range from emotive to rousing.
Gracey allows Williams to reflect on his journey, which weaves between humorous self-deprecation and the dark corners of his addiction. Better Man wins points for its bold honesty, giving the artist the space to express himself within and outside of his work via narration. However, the film loses some of its luster as it leans further away from musical numbers and relies on typical biopic tropes. The emotional impact is there, clinging onto its profound revelations involving identity and self-hatred, but the third act’s sentimentality is clunky.
The story’s hook relies on the effectiveness of a computer-generated monkey, which was impressively created by Weta – the company responsible for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and Caesar in Planet of the Apes. It allows Williams’ character to pop without making him feel like he belongs in a different movie altogether. Davies is equally magnificent in bringing this incarnation of the artist to life.
Better Man transforms an overly familiar story’s clichés into something invigorating and full of heart. Rather than trying to reinvent the music biopic wheel, Gracey changes the lens through which we see it with surprising success. His creative decisions frequently hinge on collapsing on themselves, but they never do. It doesn’t emerge from its genre trappings entirely unscathed, particularly in the overly sentimental third act. However, its exploration of identity and self-doubt offers plenty of dramatic highs to match Gracey’s musical peaks.
Rating: 3.5/5
Better Man hits select theaters on December 25th, 2024, and goes nationwide on January 10th, 2025.
