Better Man

[ivyfic]

Here's my cold take: Better Man is a really good movie.

Yes, the Robbie Williams biopic starring a CGI chimpanzee. Yes, the legendary bomb. Yes, about the pop star who's famous everywhere in the world but the US. It's a good movie.

It is in some ways a very standard music biopic--star comes from nothing, achieves fame way too fast way too young, becomes addicted to drugs, finds his way to sobriety and reconciliation. But the choice of making Robbie a chimp really, really works, because once you've accepted that bit of surreality at the center of the film, you don't question all the other creative choices--you're not sitting there wondering if the actor is doing a good impersonation of the person, or singing themselves, or if the film is accurate to real events. You are looking at a chimp. Obviously it's not real.

What it is, is an attempt to visualize what it felt like for Robbie Williams to rocket to fame at fifteen and immediately pick up a raging cocaine habit. Robbie Williams thinks of himself as a performing monkey. This is not a subtle film. This is a movie about what it's like to hate yourself.

So yeah--a tough watch (trigger warnings for suicide, drug addiction, pregnancy loss, and a shocking amount of graphic violence for a biopic), but very good. Recommend.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I also found it altered what is, as you mention, an otherwise overly familiar story. Another thing that was convenient is you could have different actors playing him with the skills to do whatever was needed.

It did indeed create a good contrast between the public reaction and the personal reality. Also, the soundtrack was great, and it had some good musical numbers.

[china_shop]

I take your excellent points! But we watched the first half hour, and I was put off by my own pedantry: the music was Robbie Williams' music, even at the start when it should have been from Take That's early catalogue. /dork

Also, yeah, it is a tough watch. /o\