Better Man is released in cinemas nationwide on December 26.
When it was announced that the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man would see the entertainer, singer, and songwriter transformed into a motion capture CGI chimp, many wondered why. What was Robert Peter Williams, born in 1974 in Stoke-on-Trent, trying to tell us? Or was this creative choice mere monkey business for an entertainer who has always been cheeky? Over the last ten years, there has been no shortage of biopics exploring the lives of well-known musicians and stars, from the beautiful fantasia of Rocketman to the disappointing mess of Bohemian Rhapsody and the turbocharged brilliance of Elvis; one could, therefore, argue that the creative choice to have William’s appear as a chimp was nothing more than a gimmick aimed squarely at putting bums on seats in cinemas. But trust me when I say this is no CGI gimmick; it’s a window into the soul of Robbie Williams that is both stunningly realised and emotionally intelligent.
Anyone walking into their local cinema this Christmas, assuming Better Man is a standard biopic celebrating Williams’ musical career, is in for a surprise. Of course, Michael Gracey’s (The Greatest Showman) fabulous movie celebrates Robbie’s music, but it also acts as a profoundly personal therapeutic exploration of Williams’ journey from amateur school productions to the dizzy heights of stardom with Take That and his subsequent descent into addiction, paranoia and fear in his first years as a solo artist. As a chimp, Robbie encourages us to explore the notion that celebrities are often nothing more than dancing monkeys whose strings are pulled by agents, industry and society. However, this artistic choice also highlights Robbie’s view of himself as a perpetual outsider. And you know what’s clever? Against all the odds, Gracey’s artistic bravery bloody works! No one was more surprised than me to discover that a biopic about Robbie Williams was, in fact, one of the most creative and engaging movies of the year.
Better Man opens in the small terrace house of Williams’ childhood in Stoke, where his loving mum (Kate Mulvany) and supportive gran (Alison Steadman) encourage his love of performance, while his distant dad (Steve Pemberton) follows his own path with no regard for his family. Throughout the film, Williams’ relationship with his dad takes centre stage. It’s clear Robbie wanted to impress and please his father, but the emotional distance was impossible to overcome as his dad followed his own desires for fame with little interest in becoming an emotionally supportive male role model. There is a raw honesty in how Better Man explores these themes of masculine role modelling, identity and the emotional barriers men place in front of their hearts as a defence from the world around them. It’s interesting that William’s comments “he found his tribe” in the gay clubs of Manchester, possibly this was because many gay men also found their relationships with their fathers challenging, distant and often cold.
Better Man also exquisitely explores how sudden fame changes individuals and moulds their behaviours into something new. Like Rocketman (2019), Better Man doesn’t shy away from shining a light on Robbie’s internal demons and his fragile ability to cope with the trappings of fame and the bubble of press and fan attention he found himself locked within. Here, the self-destructive relationship he had with Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), the barriers he erected between himself and his Take That bandmates and his constant feelings of unworthiness and failure are allowed to find a voice in a movie that acknowledges personal flaws, past hurts and the complexities of fame at a young age. Better Man may be a fantasia that aims, as Williams’ says, to give you a “right fucking entertaining,” and indeed it does, but it’s also a brave open window into the experiences that shaped the man.
Jonno Davies as Robbie Williams in Better Man from Paramount Pictures.
Throughout Better Man, you find yourself so immersed in the music, humour and reality of Williams’ early career that you forget you are watching a motion capture, CGI chimp, played brilliantly by Jonno Davies and modelled by Wētā FX. Yet, that chimp remains the heart and soul of Better Man as we watch a boy who just wanted to sing and impress his dad become a star who never felt he belonged – his emotional turmoil only heightened by the zoo of public attention and the cage of self-doubt he found himself locked within. Bold, fantastically entertaining and deeply emotional, Better Man isn’t monkeying around as it offers us a musical biopic like no other.
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