Better Man

 

“🎶 Let me entertain you! 🎶”

Brash, satirical and bitingly self-aware, Better Man is a bold biopic about the bad boy of British pop, Robbie Williams that uses a CGI ape stand-in to visualise the pop star’s experiences as a ‘performing monkey’ in a classic stardom story with a unique twist that helps distinguish it from other accounts of famed musical artists. 

Discussion Points:

Director Michael Gracey, known for The Greatest Showman wanted to visualise Robbie Williams’ self-image as a performing monkey, and as a result, we get an entire movie led by a CGI ape stand-in for Williams - like watching Rocketman or Bohemian Rhapsody but with Caesar from Planet of the Apes as the lead. And it bizarrely works. Despite its oddities, you come to settle into this classic rise and fall and rise again of the British bad boy of pop and forget your watching a CGI ape inject heroin, crash cars and sing to adoring crowds. The effects work is immensely impressive, but what else would you expected from WETA Digital. Outside of Williams’ own story, cliches and all, he was a born entertainer - which makes this a very entertaining watch! From glitzy musical numbers, to brash concert extravaganzas, it’s clear that director Michael Gracey has a talent for big screen blockbuster musical making with mass appeal … or should that be ape-eal? Came into this a loose fan of Williams’ music and have come out a much bigger fan and absolutely loved his new song for the film “Forbidden Road” and I was truly moved seeing Robbie’s journey from self-hatred and self-destructive unevolved stunted superstar to redemption and forgiveness as a truly better man.