Well, waiting for first eight numbers in a few days =)

 

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'I'm in Robbie film Better Man but can't see it'

 

It is a moment a budding young actor will cherish forever – his first appearance on the big screen – but it could be a little while yet before he can see it for himself.

 

Thirteen-year-old Alex was selected as an extra in the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man – which sees the Rock DJ star portrayed as a monkey throughout.

 

The teen, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, said he had found it "massively exciting" to step out onto a movie set for the first time, but as the film is rated 15 he is not yet allowed to go to the cinema to watch it.

 

Despite this, he said it had given him a taste for life as an actor, and a determination to pursue a career in the industry.

 

Alex was cast as one of the kids playing football in Stoke-on-Trent near the beginning of the movie, in a scene which follows the early years of Robbie Williams' life.

 

"On the first day they picked out costumes from the time period for us and took photos so they could recreate them exactly the next day," Alex said.

 

His scene took two days of filming, and Alex said he was thrilled to have been able to meet director Michael Gracey and learn more about how a film is made.

 

"The kid playing young Robbie was wearing a motion capture suit which was so interesting to see in real life," Alex said.

 

Alex is a member of Midlands Screen Acting School, and put his name forward after a call went out for youngsters who would like to be in the film.

 

"I wasn't nervous at all, I was just excited for the opportunity for him," said his mum Hannah.

 

"He's always wanted to be an actor, his whole life, for as long as I can remember."

 

Hannah said she had been to see the film herself, adding she had wanted to stand up in the cinema and shout "that's my son!".

 

She added: "It was just such a great opportunity for him to be involved in something so huge, and also something so local at the same time."

 

Williams' connection with Stoke has endured throughout his career with Take That and as a solo artist, and in 2022 he played a special homecoming gig at Port Vale Football Club.

 

Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy8yzp7w8yo

 

 

Boy meets Robbie Williams after starring in biopic

16 December 2024

 

A 10-year-old boy who has made his screen debut as a young version of Robbie Williams has said meeting the singer on the red carpet was "amazing".

 

Carter-J Murphy from Failsworth in Oldham, plays the former Take That star in the newly-released biopic Better Man, directed by The Greatest Showman filmmaker, Michael Gracey.

 

The young actor also joined the cast of Coronation Street earlier this year in the role of Harry Platt, the son of Sarah Platt and Callum Logan.

 

His mother Abbie said her son's rise to fame in the last year had been "mental" and she was "really, really proud of him".

 

The young actor met Williams on the red carpet during the film's European premiere in London, and said he was "really nice" and supportive.

 

Carter-J told BBC Radio Manchester he had started his acting career through a dance school at the age of three, before deciding he "might as well just carry on with this as a career" after falling in love with the craft.

 

"I then just started getting auditions after auditions," he said.

 

'Just crazy'

 

Carter-J said he was shocked to be offered the part of Harry Plat in Coronation Street earlier this year, and said people around his hometown had started recognising him in the street.

 

His mother Abbie said: "Being from Manchester anyway, you grow up watching Coronation Street, so when your child gets cast as one of the Platts, it's just crazy.

 

"I am really, really proud of him."

 

Carter-J said he enjoyed playing the younger Williams as "I am more like him", adding the experience of attending the premiere was great as there was "loads and loads of famous people".

 

When it comes to acting, he said he aimed to "just think what I would feel if I was Robbie, what would he feel like, will he feel this way in this situation."

 

The 10-year-old said he now had two weeks off filming Coronation Street for Christmas, and was looking forward to enjoying some downtime after a busy year.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp832p45g2ro

 

 

'How I became Robbie Williams' chimpanzee'

27 December 2024

 

It's 2001 and nine-year-old Jonno Davies is standing in the crowd as Robbie Williams entertains 65,000 people at the Milton Keynes Bowl.

 

"He was just this symbol of cool, and that stuck with me for a long time... He was like the rock star of the day for me," he recalls.

 

Now 32, Davies is appearing in cinemas around the world in Better Man, a musical biopic in which he plays his childhood hero.

 

But he is far from recognisable, partly because of his hard work studying and recreating William's voice and mannerisms, but mostly because he's represented on screen as a computer-generated chimpanzee.

 

"I am the lead. I am Rob. Rob is me. Just with a monkey layering on top," he explains.

 

Director Michael Gracey, who previously made The Greatest Showman, says the decision was inspired by conversations with Robbie Williams where he described himself as a performing monkey.

 

On set, Davies was dressed in a performance capture suit, and later he was transformed into a primate by Weta FX - the same company behind Gollum in Lord of the Rings.

 

Davies says: "I play Rob from the age of 15 right the way through to the end of the film... It's full body, voice, dancing - the whole shebang."

 

He adds: "I feel the audience aren't watching it going: Do I believe that's him? Does that look enough like Robbie? Does that sound like Robbie? Because there's a monkey, we've already gone beyond that idea of comparison.

 

"It meant I didn't have to be vain. I wasn't looking at the monitor going 'Oh god, the double chin'... It was just about being truthful to the storyline."

 

That said the actor says his face can be seen for a "tiny split second" at the very end of the film: "Kudos to anyone that actually sees that."

 

The Chesterfield-born actor was cast as the Angels singer about a week before production was due to begin.

 

Actor Kate Mulvany, who plays Williams' mother Jane, suggested Davies after having worked with him on the Amazon Prime series Hunters.

 

When The Greatest Showman director phoned Davies inviting him to audition, the actor was working a "side hustle" performing at children's parties as PT Barnum - Hugh Jackman's character from the film.

 

He recalls: "I was kind of going 'Okay, this is a weird but wonderful turn of events'".

 

Auditions took place in Australia, where he ran scenes with Raechelle Banno who plays All Saints singer Nicole Appleton in the film.

 

He recalls: "I thought I mucked it up. Then a few hours later [Gracey] called me into his office and he said 'look we'd love you to play Robbie'.

 

 

"You know, you dream of these roles. You dream to lead productions like this, to be in such huge scale films. But as soon as that penny drops, and you know that you are actually the one to do it, there's a sense of pressure.

 

"They're gonna actually find out that I'm rubbish. And all this time I've just been sort of lucking through it. And that's actually something that Rob feels a lot. And so, it was a really useful connection for me to have."

 

In 2022, Davies is rehearsing for a scene on stage at the Royal Albert Hall when Williams, who he has not met yet, is in the audience.

 

"I was about to sing and in he steps, plonks himself in the middle of the front row," the actor says.

 

"Wow that's Robbie Williams, that's who I'm playing, don't mess it up. I probably did because voice was going and knees were buckling."

 

He didn't mess it up. Not according to Williams himself who describes the performer as a "fantastic human being".

 

The musician says: "He's such a lovely person, and he's immensely talented. Watching him do his thing – which is my thing – was very interesting, confusing, wonderful, and a weird thing to watch. He's amazing."

 

Davies, who grew up in Milton Keynes, attended Bedford School between 2001 and 2010.

 

While attending he took part in musical productions of Bugsy Malone, Fiddler on the Roof and History Boys.

 

He says: "If it wasn't for Bedford School, I don't think I would've become an actor.

 

"I was applying for university and our head of drama approached me and said 'I don't think this is what you want to be, you want to be an actor'.

 

"Having somebody say that really made me think it might be a possibility... I think a lot of people had that support, it wasn't just a one off."

 

 

Now the actor's name is on one of the seats at the school's theatre and he likes to return to visit the pupils.

 

"Anything I feel that I can learn I'd love to pass on to them," he says.

 

"Maybe we can do like a motion capture day somehow. Do some animal studies, as it were."

 

In the same year he started at Bedford School he went with his parents to watch Robbie Williams play at Milton Keynes Bowl.

 

"I was just looking at the epitome of cool strutting about, giving it large," he recalls.

 

"I just thought that is someone that exudes confidence and I kind of want to be a bit like that.

 

"So, then meeting him, working with him on this piece, and then being the one to have the privilege of playing him- it's nuts how life can kind of come around in weird circles."

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgrw0qnvl1go

 

 

The Bedford boy playing Robbie Williams as a chimp

 

Jonno Davies stars in Better Man, the movie about the rock star’s life. Now 32, he reflects that, “if it wasn’t for Bedford School, I don’t think I'd have become an actor.” Interview by Danny Fullbrook.

 

Listen to:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0kds5jx

Making Of the Better Man is the reason why we can wait for Blu-Ray release sooner but... better do not see its release for a while ;)

 

@1877811722087510126

 

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REVIEW: Robbie Williams' ‘Better Man’ successfully turns pop star into a chimp

 

Washington Post

Published Jan 10, 2025

 

The last time this reviewer was the target market for Robbie Williams, it didn’t go so well.

 

In December of 1997, the British pop singer and former boy band sensation released his breakthrough hit “Angels,” or so I’m told. Like much of my generational cohort in the States, I hadn’t the foggiest idea who Williams was.

 

Though his lean croon and good looks had earned him incandescent fame overseas; and though he was redefining himself after years of pelvis-pumping partial stardom as one-fifth of Take That; and though his solo star was only just beginning to rise with “Angels,” launching what would become one of the most storied careers in British music, my floor of the dorm was too busy bumping Wu-Tang Clan and the Foo Fighters to care. Robbie who?

 

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“Better Man,” a delightfully unhinged musical biopic from director Michael Gracey, chronicles the singer’s tumultuous rise, celebrates his effervescent body of Brit-pop hits, and gives the project of ensconcing Williams in the hearts and minds of the global masses another go. American audiences might be shocked at how well it works on all fronts. Especially considering that Williams is rendered throughout as a CGI chimpanzee.

 

That might feel like burying the lead – the chimp thing. At first glance, it feels very important that Williams – who narrates his tale – is visually present only as a monkey. But it takes only a few moments of trailing Williams through the trials of his boyhood in 1980s Stoke-on-Trent – where he’s taunted by bullies, doted over by his fading Nan (Alison Steadman) and abandoned by his spotlight-hungry dad (Steve Pemberton) – for one’s disbelief to hang itself on a hook, and for this simian form to fit the bill with uncanny precision.

 

Voiced and portrayed through motion capture by Jonno Davies, this monkey manifestation of Williams (developed by the New Zealand-based Weta FX) is astonishingly expressive and strangely disarming. Davies feels at all times present just under the fur, and Williams feels just as present in Davies’s portrayal. Several times, Gracey has us gaze directly into eyes that sure feel like human eyes. By the end of the film, I wondered if I would have given a hoot about Williams if he *weren’t* a monkey.

 

Then again, it’s more than momentarily unsettling to watch a monkey drilling sloppily carded lines of coke, splayed on a bed surrounded by groupies, dancing and romancing his very human future fiancée Nicole Appleton of All Saints (Raechelle Banno), or (later) shooting up in their locked bathroom.

 

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If the monkey bit, which is neither explicitly addressed by Williams nor perceived by anybody around him, is to be understood as how Williams sees himself – both as a singing, dancing source of mindless entertainment and as a man who has struggled to “evolve,” as he briefly hints – the roiling, raucous flow of the film itself can be understood as how Williams remembers himself. Gracey, who directed 2017’s “The Greatest Showman,” lends nearly every transition the seamless sweep and molten logic of a dream.

 

For those well versed in Williams’s work, “Better Man” retrofits pieces of his oeuvre into a surprisingly coherent narrative. His 2002 hit “Feel” becomes an anthem of his childhood alienation. The 2000 stomper “Rock DJ” fuels one of the most eye-popping dance sequences I’ve seen in years. His ouster from Take That and his drowning in dejection is beautifully set to “Come Undone,” another track from 2002’s “Escapology.”

 

And when Williams finally in 2003 makes it to the stage of Knebworth, where 375,000 fans converged for “the biggest music event in British history” (as we are repeatedly reminded), he dips back in his catalogue to 1997’s “Let Me Entertain You” – as close to a mission statement as one could hope for from Williams, here inspiring a gory battle scene between the singer and his own insecurities: i.e., the proverbial monkeys on his back.

 

“You can’t manufacture a miracle,” as Williams sings in “Something Beautiful” – the song that launched his long collaboration with producer Guy Chambers (Tom Budge). But there’s nothing miraculous about Williams’s career – if anything, “Better Man” reveals the singer’s sometimes frightening singularity of purpose, the unbroken vector of his ambition, the wide-screen scale of his ego.

 

If any miracles are performed here, they belong to Gracey, who in one swoop has managed to reinvent the biopic, up the ante on the ongoing revival of movie musicals and raise the legacy of Robbie Williams to a level that feels fully earned – especially if you ask Robbie Williams.

 

RATING: 3.5 stars out of 4

 

https://torontosun.com/entertainment/movies..._source=twitter

 

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Robbie Williams biopic ‘Better Man’ feels like an evolution of the form

 

For many Americans, director Michael Gracey’s kaleidoscopic portrait of the Brit-pop sensation’s career will double as an overdue introduction.

 

Review by Michael Andor Brodeur

(3.5 stars of 4)

 

The last time this reviewer was the target market for Robbie Williams, it didn’t go so well.

 

In December of 1997, the British pop singer and former boy band sensation released his breakthrough hit “Angels,” or so I’m told. Like much of my generational cohort in the States, I hadn’t the foggiest idea who Williams was.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...s-movie-review/

 

Rob's reaction on TIFF ovation

 

Review: Robbie Williams Biopic 'Better Man' is a Wild Good Time

 

Jan 10

Kilian Melloy

 

"Greatest Showman" director Michael Gracey helms the new Robbie Williams biopic "Better Man," and his frothy visual style kicks the film into a colorful, kinetic stratosphere. In the previous film, Gracey synchronized laundry blowing back and forth on a line for a rooftop dance sequence; here, he mounts a show-stopping dance number filled with casual comic violence (car crashes, people clocked by doors and soccer balls) in which mobility scooters serve as dance partners in a flawlessly coordinated, and epically gonzo, set piece.

 

That's only one example of the wild abandon (and yet, precise execution) "Better Man" makes its brand. The film is already famous for depicting Williams as a CGI monkey (with actor Jonno Davies doing amazingly emotional work with the screen capture process, as well as providing the character of "Robbie Williams" with his speaking voice), but that's only the start of the movie's astounding visual achievements.

 

The closer you look, the more cleverness you see. The editing scheme alone is a marvel, reflecting Williams' restless ambition with sudden scene transitions that come out of nowhere and transport Williams from a fall down a stairwell to a collapse on stage during a concert, or from a lonely re-enactment of his father's performance of Sinatra's "My Way" to an imagined duet that's filled with yearning for some paternal affection.

 

That moment, and plenty of others focused on Williams' relationship with his absentee dad, is also a reminder of one of Williams' primary motivations. Not only does this kid – who shot to fame at the age of 15 when he became a member of the boy band Take That – have "a hole in [his] soul" that only fame can fill (as the film's first song tells us), but his dad (Steve Pemberton) looms large in his pantheon of all-time great singers. No matter how much he accomplishes (or how low he falls), Williams hungers to hear his father express a little pride in him.

 

The movie is so CGI-heavy that it sometimes looks like a cartoon. But it also portrays Williams-as-monkey so realistically (and Davies is so charismatic despite the CGI dress-up) that you often forget you're looking at a metaphorical depiction – the way Williams sees himself, as he explains in the film's opening moments – and you go along for the ride.

 

That's no mean feat, considering how exciting and emotionally stirring the movie is at its best moments. That includes episodes of intense self-doubt that forever pit the evolving Williams against an ever-growing catalogue of self-doubts. The character has a number of distinct looks throughout the movie, and the striking differences in clothing and hairstyles help us relate to the moments of failure in Williams' past that crop up to taunt him again and again, personified as earlier versions of himself. It's an effective shorthand for the deeply embedded fear of being "a nobody" that torments Williams.

 

"Better Man" is unapologetic about its hallucinogenic sensibilities. This film is, after all, showing us Williams' internal vision of himself and his life; not just his perspective on otherwise objective reality. We can't understand the depths of his ugliness, his shame, his love, or his drive without the sort of over-the-top energy that percolates in every scene. It's no surprise that, on top of everything else, this is a musical, featuring a number of Williams-written songs.

 

In another apt choice, the film's coarse, English-working-class language and sensibilities offset the essential elegance of Williams' true oeuvre. He calls it "cabaret," but it's rooted in a love of the American songbook and a tradition of singing and affect that goes along with it. There's a delicious frisson (and boundless energy) that springs from the film's dual nature when the slick elegance of a well-tailored tux or the bouncy, buoyant choreography of a big dance number collides with a grotty episode of dance club sex, a jealousy-driven domestic spat with wife and fellow pop star Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), or Williams' inflated ego being punctured by losses of family, friends, and career opportunities.

 

 

Review: Robbie Williams Biopic 'Better Man' is a Wild Good Time

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Jonno Davies in a scene from "Better Man" Source: Paramount Pictures via AP

 

Jan 10

Review: Robbie Williams Biopic 'Better Man' is a Wild Good Time

Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 3 MIN.

 

"Greatest Showman" director Michael Gracey helms the new Robbie Williams biopic "Better Man," and his frothy visual style kicks the film into a colorful, kinetic stratosphere. In the previous film, Gracey synchronized laundry blowing back and forth on a line for a rooftop dance sequence; here, he mounts a show-stopping dance number filled with casual comic violence (car crashes, people clocked by doors and soccer balls) in which mobility scooters serve as dance partners in a flawlessly coordinated, and epically gonzo, set piece.

 

That's only one example of the wild abandon (and yet, precise execution) "Better Man" makes its brand. The film is already famous for depicting Williams as a CGI monkey (with actor Jonno Davies doing amazingly emotional work with the screen capture process, as well as providing the character of "Robbie Williams" with his speaking voice), but that's only the start of the movie's astounding visual achievements.

 

The closer you look, the more cleverness you see. The editing scheme alone is a marvel, reflecting Williams' restless ambition with sudden scene transitions that come out of nowhere and transport Williams from a fall down a stairwell to a collapse on stage during a concert, or from a lonely re-enactment of his father's performance of Sinatra's "My Way" to an imagined duet that's filled with yearning for some paternal affection.

 

That moment, and plenty of others focused on Williams' relationship with his absentee dad, is also a reminder of one of Williams' primary motivations. Not only does this kid – who shot to fame at the age of 15 when he became a member of the boy band Take That – have "a hole in [his] soul" that only fame can fill (as the film's first song tells us), but his dad (Steve Pemberton) looms large in his pantheon of all-time great singers. No matter how much he accomplishes (or how low he falls), Williams hungers to hear his father express a little pride in him.

 

The movie is so CGI-heavy that it sometimes looks like a cartoon. But it also portrays Williams-as-monkey so realistically (and Davies is so charismatic despite the CGI dress-up) that you often forget you're looking at a metaphorical depiction – the way Williams sees himself, as he explains in the film's opening moments – and you go along for the ride.

 

That's no mean feat, considering how exciting and emotionally stirring the movie is at its best moments. That includes episodes of intense self-doubt that forever pit the evolving Williams against an ever-growing catalogue of self-doubts. The character has a number of distinct looks throughout the movie, and the striking differences in clothing and hairstyles help us relate to the moments of failure in Williams' past that crop up to taunt him again and again, personified as earlier versions of himself. It's an effective shorthand for the deeply embedded fear of being "a nobody" that torments Williams.

 

"Better Man" is unapologetic about its hallucinogenic sensibilities. This film is, after all, showing us Williams' internal vision of himself and his life; not just his perspective on otherwise objective reality. We can't understand the depths of his ugliness, his shame, his love, or his drive without the sort of over-the-top energy that percolates in every scene. It's no surprise that, on top of everything else, this is a musical, featuring a number of Williams-written songs.

 

In another apt choice, the film's coarse, English-working-class language and sensibilities offset the essential elegance of Williams' true oeuvre. He calls it "cabaret," but it's rooted in a love of the American songbook and a tradition of singing and affect that goes along with it. There's a delicious frisson (and boundless energy) that springs from the film's dual nature when the slick elegance of a well-tailored tux or the bouncy, buoyant choreography of a big dance number collides with a grotty episode of dance club sex, a jealousy-driven domestic spat with wife and fellow pop star Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), or Williams' inflated ego being punctured by losses of family, friends, and career opportunities.

 

The man, the monkey, and the movie lean into everything – success and failure; joy and heartbreak; rapture and ugliness – in order to paint a full picture of what it means, and what it takes to be, an entertainer. As Williams hears at a crucial turning point, "A song is only good if it costs you something." A career as a singer, therefore, is liable to cost you everything. Even so, the film's Williams (and the real Williams, or so we hope) finds his way to happiness... and a final, fitting, and very working-class-English valediction.

 

https://www.edgemedianetwork.com/story/337321

 

Review Roundup: BETTER MAN - What Do Critics Think of the Robbie Williams Biopic?

 

Following a limited release, the film is now in theaters nationwide.

 

By: Josh Sharpe Jan. 10, 2025

 

Since its initial debut at the Telluride Film Festival, reviews have been trickling in for Better Man, the musical biopic of British superstar Robbie Williams. Following a limited release in December, audiences can now see the movie nationwide as it comes to more theaters.

 

Under the direction of The Greatest Showman's Michael Gracey, the film is told from Robbie’s perspective, capturing his signature wit and indomitable spirit. It follows Robbie’s journey from childhood, to being the youngest member of chart-topping boyband Take That, through to his unparalleled achievements as a record-breaking solo artist – all the while confronting the challenges that stratospheric fame and success can bring.

 

In the film, Williams is depicted as a monkey version of the musician. Jonno Davies performs the motion capture and voice, with Williams and Adam Tucker also lending their voices to the character. The movie also stars Steve Pemberton, Damon Herriman, Raechelle Banno, Alison Steadman, Kate Mulvaney, Frazer Hadfield, Tom Budge, and Anthony Hayes.

 

In addition to directing, Gracey wrote the screenplay with Oliver Cole and Simon Gleeson. Find out what critics think of the music-filled movie below!

 

Stephen Farber, The Hollywood Reporter: "As you might expect from the helmer of The Greatest Showman, several of the musical sequences are exhilarating, even with a monkey at the microphone. Gracey and choreographer Ashley Wallen bring the dance sequences to life in a riot of color and movement. As he demonstrated in Showman, the director has a gift for putting large numbers of bodies in motion and exciting the audience."

 

Pete Hammond, Deadline: "A production on this scale requires top notch crafts mavens and Gracey has them, including superb cinematography from Erik A. Wilson, dazzling Production Design by Joel Chang, and colorful costumes from Cappi Ireland. The aforementioned tremendous Visual Effects were supervised by Luke Millar and viz effx producer Andy Taylor. Musically Better Man simply soars, and in fact this film could make Williams finally a household name in America just as he is in the UK and Europe. He himself says in the film “there is no one who does it better” and he may be right. I want the soundtrack asap."

 

Peter Debruge, Variety: "Gracey takes audiences through all the expected beats of Williams’ career, from his breakthrough as a member of Take That to his record-breaking solo concert at Knebworth, but does so with a CG chimpanzee standing in for the Britpop bad boy. Against all odds, the gimmick works, distinguishing the project from so many other cookie-cutter pop-star hagiographies. If you want to fawn over this boy-band backup singer turned solo superstar for four hours, check out the “Robbie Williams” doc series on Netflix. But if you want to see a chimp doing coke with Oasis, or getting a fateful hand job in front of manager Nigel Martin Smith (Damon Herriman), this is your movie."

 

David Erlich, IndieWire: "Stick it out through Williams’ long night of the soul, however, and “Better Man” rewards your patience with an ending that makes good on its gimmick, and — to a surprisingly moving degree — also on its choice of title song. Williams finds the beneficence required to share the spotlight with the one person who needs it more than he does. It might feel like a cop-out in a less vulnerable biopic, but here it’s a beautiful testament to a man who followed a familiar path in his own way, and the perfect ending to a film that does exactly the same."

 

Kristy Puchko, Mashable: "This poignant use of CGI animation is also surrounded by a terrific supporting cast. Whether it’s Steve Pemberton as Williams’ conniving deadbeat dad or Alison Steadman as his devoted grandmother, the actors bring a pulsing authenticity that makes this family, broken as it is, feel achingly real. This is all the more impressive considering they were acting opposite an actor wearing all that mo-cap gear. Together, cast and crew build a glorious complex look into the life a world-class entertainer whose arrogance and vulnerability are on balanced display."

 

Brian Truitt, USA Today: "'Better Man' isn’t perfect – as a straightforward effort, it doesn't hold a candle to, say, "A Complete Unknown." But it’s never boring, either. And the film is easily the most idiosyncratic of its kind, at least until that inevitable Barry Manilow biopic featuring a yeti."

 

Hanna Ines Flint, IGN: "With Better Man, Michael Gracey delivers an exhilarating jukebox musical biopic that demonstrates the cinematic fireworks that can happen when craft, performance, and music harmoniously come together. The bold risk of transforming Robbie Williams into an enjoyable CGI chimp pays off both emotionally and visually. Turning his back catalogue into epic musical numbers with stunning choreography and heart-wrenching storytelling, Better Man comes out swinging and winning."

 

Alex Godfrey, Empire: From start to finish, though, beats that huge heart. Gracey never forgets where he’s going, with cinematography (courtesy of Erik Wilson, who’s worked on all the Paddington films) that supports this wounded little ape, props him up, even when he’s his own worst enemy. There is great tenderness and sensitivity here. And a bleach-blond chimp in a red Adidas tracksuit. It’s a heady concoction.

 

Clint Worthington, RogerEbert: "You won’t see another music biopic quite like “Better Man,” regardless of your level of familiarity with its subject. There’s a surfeit of charm here that helps sell the nonsensical gimmick; Gracey moves us fast enough through the Cliff’s Notes of Williams’ life that you barely stop to process the image of a fully-dressed chimpanzee getting a handjob from a groupie in a nightclub. To say nothing of the curious sensation of welling up at a tuxedoed ape belting “My Way” as a spiritual reclamation of his own celebrity. It’s brash, in your face, and on the nose. But that’s Robbie Williams. Could a biopic of him play out any other way? C’mon. Let him entertain you."

 

Wendy Ide, The Guardian: "Better Man is a notable step up for Gracey. The synthetic, rather soulless panache of The Greatest Showman demonstrated his skills as a slick visual stylist, but here he directs from the heart, tapping into the rawness and vulnerability beneath the CGI monkey suit."

 

William Bibbiani, TheWrap: "'Better Man' takes full advantage of Gracey’s infectious musical zealotry, turning in a bravura, rapturous film with one of the best filmed and choreographed numbers of the 21st century as its centerpiece. (Or it’s one-thirderpiece. I’m not sure if a scene that plays around the 30-minute mark qualifies as the center of anything.) Williams’ music is varied enough that Gracey is able to transform his songs into graceful ballets, elaborate oners, tragic melodramas and a badass action sequence in which Williams violently murders the parts of himself that represent suicidal ideation."

 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Revie...Biopic-20250110

 

What It Takes to Be the Better Man

 

By Armond White

January 10, 2025 6:30 AM

 

The ingenious Robbie Williams biopic is a showbiz landmark.

 

How brilliant is Better Man? Imagine all those ideas on identity, fate, talent, libido, and self-referential consciousness in the screwball comedy Being John Malkovich remade into a movie musical about British pop star Robbie Williams. It starts daringly, with Williams confessing, “How I really see myself: narcissistic, punchable.” And then we see that self-image: a hairy, big-eared chimpanzee with dagger-like incisors, a wiry torso, trim buttocks, and an intense stare, but who winks.

 

This high-concept auto-biopic, from a screenplay that Australian director Michael Gracey co-wrote with Oliver Cole and Simon Gleeson, stirs more real feeling about evolution than even Charlie Kaufman’s Malkovich script. Young chimp Robbie awkwardly sings along with his pop-loving dad, eventually connecting primitive behavior to the problems of modern celebrity. We see the need for attention and affection, as well as fame’s misdirection into anarchic, destructive habits and deceptive egotism. At the height of Robbie’s fame, a concerned family member asks, “How can you not know who you are when thousands of people are screaming your name?” It’s a terrific screenplay.

 

By never breaking the anthropoid conceit — keeping Williams a chimp from working-class childhood obscurity to adult pop-stardom — Better Man evolves into the most honest and exploratory showbiz movie ever made. Through the figure of Robbie Williams, who always shows a glint of dark Celtic mischief, Gracey explores the same combination of instincts and insecurities that distinguished the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy and avoids sentimental mythologizing. Williams says, “My DNA is cabaret — Sinatra’s ‘My Way.’” He refers to Sinatra, Sammy Davis, and Dean Martin as “the gods” and says, “They make other people’s problems go away.” His own problems get complicated with his debut in the boy-band phenomenon Take That.

 

Gracey traces Robbie’s history with behind-the-scenes wit (Williams singing backup to his golden-boy rival Gary Barlow) and irrepressible monkey shines (“Always appear attainable,” Take That’s manager encourages, whether performing at gay clubs or for adolescent girls.) Elton John’s Rocket Man and Freddie Mercury’s Bohemian Rhapsody were never this sharp or cheeky. George Michael’s travails deserve to be seen so clearly.

 

“These are my people! I felt like Elvis!” grins simian Williams, and when he gets his first solo hit, Gracey outdoes Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, from 2022. The original music video for Williams’s “Rock DJ” was a macabre fantasy where the audience-pleasing star stripped naked, then skinned himself down, revealing his muscular and skeletal systems — a wry, sci-fi comment on pop sacrifice. Here, Gracey stages an epic, one-take street extravaganza that celebrates Williams’s success. The elaborate choreography and colorful vision match Vincente Minnelli’s style but underneath carry a delirious energy equal to Ken Russell’s maddest visions of neurotic excess. This could be the insight Gracey aimed for and missed in his P. T. Barnum film The Greatest Showman. But watching Better Man’s meta conceit, we become doubly aware of the icon’s desperation.

 

At the heart of this Darwinian joke, Williams experiences deep ambivalence. Leaving Barlow’s mansion in a fit of envy, he drives away into red-tinted road rage, plunges off the road, then underwater and under ice — another Russell-worthy vision of self-destruction by which the film shows Williams’s psyche. The subsequent plot turn toward Williams’s fling with All Saints singer Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno) perfectly balances romantic melodrama and the shock of adulthood: Appleton’s abortion fuels Williams’s dejection, triggering the unresolved filial relationship with his distant, showbiz-loving father (Steve Pemberton) whose humor he learned and borrowed. Gracey steadily checks Williams’s sarcasm and self-pity with comments from family and friends that are often rude or just piercing vernacular.

 

Throughout the film’s ape act (performed by actor Jonno Davies), musical numbers convey everything Williams learns — about self-expression (“songs only matter if they cost you something”) and the awareness he put into the compositions “She’s the One” and his biggest hit, “Angels,” about the confidence instilled by his grandmother (Alison Steadman, from Mike Leigh’s heartfelt-strivers universe). During his career highpoint — signing an 80-million-pound contract with EMI, singing “Let Me Entertain You” before 125, 000 fans at Knebworth stadium — Williams is haunted by images of himself at his monkey-worst. He is more dangerous and emotionally naked than in that “Rock DJ” video.

 

Better Man illuminates the illusion of fame. But it also explores the definition of character that has become so politicized, falsified, and misunderstood lately. Robbie Williams Primate observes, “They say your life freezes when you become famous. So I’m 15: Stunted, unevolved.” Such a confession sheds every sense of vanity and keeps Better Man true to a pop star’s real charm.

 

The only thing to be improved about Better Man is the title (not to be confused with A Different Man, the repugnant indie film about deformity). This amazingly non-narcissistic auto-biopic deserves the title of Williams’s 1998 album The Ego Has Landed.

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/01/what...the-better-man/

I am still in astonishment about how good the majority of the reviews are. If Rob's next music album will have the same good reviews then I guess he will be very happy.

Saw a very foul mouthed tweet that the movie failed in the UK and Australia either. I thought the UK figures are quite fine. But what do I know?

 

It’s not making enough money at the box office, folks.

 

Unless an absolute miracle happens (and I don’t think it will - the reviews and word of mouth have been great for weeks,

and people are still not turning up to the cinema) it is going to be considered a massive box office bomb.

 

Hopefully people will catch it on streaming, but the headlines and think pieces about its box office performance are going to be harsh for a while.

I think it will be a tabloid side sentence....."Robbie Williams whose latest attempt to break America failed" or "Robbie Williams whose movie was a massive bomb". I think it would be worse if it would have been a critics disaster.

Anyways, what would have been considered a success? I don't think the figures for the Uk are bad as example. But again, I have no real idea about that.

I've seen cool t-shirts in USA cinemas: Robbie Williams - Better Man - World Tour.

Very interesting, is it pre-advert or just a fictial t-shirts of super heroes as American like to wear everywhere?

 

----

 

 

Better Man

Grosses

Domestic (1,2%)

$103,187

International (98,8%)

$8,615,277

Worldwide

$8,718,464

 

Budget: $110M =>

7% gross of budget

(before wide release in US)

// 16 days since release

 

IMDB - 7.7 (6.5K marks)

 

vs.

 

 

The Brutalist (maybe the best movie of 2024)

Grosses

Domestic (99,4%)

$1,354,377

International (0,6%)

$8,054

Worldwide

$1,362,431

 

Budget: $10M =>

10% gross of budget

(before wide release in US)

// 21 days since release

 

IMDB - 8.1 (4.1K marks)

 

p.s. By the way, more correct number is 1 291 theaters (for 10 Jan in US).

The Brutalist is also a Box Office bomb, yes.

 

It would need to make back at least twice its budget to be considered a ‘hit’.

That is because it is common knowledge that it costs almost as much to market a film as it does to make it.

And don’t forget the cinema chain needs to take a cut of the ticket price to pay its own running costs and make a profit.

 

A film that cannot make enough at the box office to cover its cost of production and marketing is a bomb - it is a financial loss.

 

This is the rule that everyone who knows movie box office goes by.

 

Most films will make most of their money on their opening weekend. It is rare for a film to have ‘legs’,

and make money in cinemas for a long time. Typically the percentage of its opening weekend box office a film makes from cinema box office drops from week to week,

because the people who are going to see it at the cinema see it in the first few weeks after release.

 

The Greatest Showman was a film that surprised everyone by having legs - it opened low, was initially considered a flop, but

people started vibing with the songs and taking big groups of friends to see it, and it gained a momentum all of its own.

The songs became hits, people wanted to see the film because they heard the songs, and it all caused a positive feedback loop.

 

That was the hope for Better Man. But it’s not happening. The reviews are good and people are enjoying it but not in high enough numbers to move the needle in pop culture and get the momentum it needs to be a box office hit.

Edited January 11Jan 11 by Kathryn24601

Talking about Oscars rules :lol:

 

Well, but having Star Wars with 6 of 9 nominations of Best Score is fine on other side =)))

 

Denis Villeneuve Criticizes Oscars Over 'Dune: Part Two' Disqualification

 

We haven't even got to the official ceremony, but the 2025 Oscars are already causing controversy. There has been an ongoing battle between The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Dune: Part Two over Hans Zimmer's phenomenal score for the 2024 sequel. According to The Academy, the score is ineligible for submission in the Best Original Score category, something which Zimmer himself disagrees with, though he is ultimately more focused on the quality of the score and movie than its awards potential. However, like Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) announcing himself as the Lisan al Gaib, Dune: Part Two's director, Denis Villeneuve, has come to the rescue, defending Zimmer's score, and questioning The Academy's decision.

 

During an interview with SlashFilm, Denis Villeneuve called out The Academy for excluding Zimmer's score. "I am absolutely against the decision of the Academy to exclude Hans, frankly, because I feel like his score is one of the best scores of the year," the director boldly claimed. Few would disagree with him, except for the judges at the Golden Globes. The 2025 Golden Globes awarded Challengers with Best Score, beating out Zimmer's Dune: Part Two score, which was in contention. Villeneuve didn't comment on the Globes loss, but he knows how powerful Zimmer's score was, saying:

 

"I don’t use the word genius often, but Hans is one."

 

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ruled out Zimmer's score for the sequel because it featured too much similarity, and sampled too many sounds from the score for 2021's Dune. Villeneuve continued, saying that the sequel's score had to feature some continuity from the original, as he views them as "one big movie that is cut in half." According to him, Part Two's score is "rooted in Part One, of course, because there is a continuity." The director then confirmed that he's not taking the ruling as seriously as some people on the internet, saying, "I'm not here to complain. The soundtrack is really a continuity of Part One."

 

Hopefully once it is on streaming it will be a hit like 'Tiger King' was. It annoys me though that on Wikipedia and social media (the two places most people get their information) people had deemed it a flop before it was even released.

 

I just think Americans --general public-- just want to continue with that narrative. After all nobody likes to admit they were wrong or accept change. It's just an ego trip for some people there. Robbie referenced this in his interviews ''why do I have to break America to be deemed a success?'' ''what about Brazil or Japan?''

 

It goes back to what Jason said in interviews in the '90s about how they (Take That) were just as happy to be successfull in Belgium as if they were in the US.

 

I don't mean to be dissmissive but I'm surprised all his fans across Europe and Australia/New Zealand haven't all rushed into the cinemas. Unfortunately, it will obviously go onto Paramount+ and I don't know about anyone else but I don't know a single person with a subscription there.

Edited January 11Jan 11 by nirvanamusic

A few more interviews with Michael...

 

 

 

 

"Holding the Audience in the Palm of Your Hands": 'Better Man' Director Explains How Robbie Williams Saved 'The Greatest Showman'

 

It turns out we can thank Robbie Williams for more than just a killer discography. According to Better Man director Michael Gracey, the pop icon was instrumental in saving The Greatest Showman from being canned at the 11th hour. During a recent Q&A session at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Gracey shared the unbelievable story of how a last-minute intervention by Williams helped keep his debut feature alive. Gracey started by recalling his initial encounter with Williams at a Hollywood party hosted by his lawyer, but the real story began years later while working with Hugh Jackman on The Greatest Showman:

 

“So, I met Rob at a classy Hollywood party, briefly, at my lawyer's house. And then years later, when I was doing The Greatest Showman, Hugh Jackman kept referencing Robbie Williams, like, to the point of annoyance. So I’d play a song, and he’d say, ‘It should be more like a Robbie Williams tune.’ And we’d talk about entering the ring and holding the audience in the palm of your hands, like Robbie Williams. And I was like, what are you talking about? Like, you can choose any entertainer in the history of entertainment. And every reference was Robbie Williams.”

 

The project had been in development for nearly seven years when Jackman threw a wrench into the works. Just before filming was set to begin, he expressed serious doubts about the music, which he believed wasn’t strong enough to carry the film:

 

“Hugh was getting a lot of people in his ear about the music. And he called me on a Saturday and said, ‘Listen, I’ve been thinking about this. A musical lives and dies on this music, and the music isn’t good enough; we need to start again.’ And I thought, if the studio hears this, they’re going to shut us down. Like, they’re not going to go into production on their original musical with Hugh saying he wants to rework all the music.”

 

Faced with the potential collapse of his first film, Gracey took a bold leap and decided to reach out to Williams for help. “When [Hugh] said this, my only shot at getting this made was getting in touch with Robbie Williams," he said. "So I called my lawyer, and my lawyer’s daughter Casey is good friends with Ayda Fields, who is married to Robbie Williams. So that was my three degrees of separation. I told [my lawyer] I had to meet Robbie this weekend, or the movie won’t happen.”

 

The next day, Gracey knocked on Williams’ door. Though the pop star had just woken up, he quickly became intrigued as Gracey explained the situation and played the film’s songs for him. Williams, for his part, actually believed that Gracey was coming round to offer him the leading role in the movie, as he told BBC last month. Gracey continued:

 

“I knocked on Rob’s door the next day, he answers, he’s bleary-eyed and just woken up, and he’s like, ‘What is it exactly you want?’ I explained I was working on an original musical, the music is theatrical, and it’s quite pop. I told him the story and played the songs and asked to get his opinion. He was tapping his foot and enjoying it, and I said the only thing more bizarre than me showing up here is what I’ll ask you now.”

 

Gracey then made a bold request. He asked Williams to record a video message for Jackman, sharing his thoughts on the music. Williams delivered in spectacular fashion:

 

“I asked him to tell Hugh Jackman, and I asked if I could film him talking to the camera as if it was Hugh, telling him what he thought of the songs, and that video is better than anything I could have written. He said he’d spent the last year working on an album, and he would ditch that entire album to sing these songs, and if they were having a cup of tea, he’d bludgeon Hugh to death just to play P. T. Barnum in the movie.”

 

The message worked. Jackman called Gracey immediately and agreed to move forward with the original music: “I sent it to Hugh, and he called me immediately and said, ‘Let’s do it.’ So Robbie is the saviour of my first movie.”

 

Better Man is in theaters now. The Greatest Showman is streaming on Disney+.

 

https://collider.com/better-man-robbie-will...eatest-showman/

 

Right comment:

 

Homefair

I have to say that while I hugely enjoyed The Greatest Showman & all its music, Gracey's new musical Better Man is miles above it! So creative, heartfelt, raw & risk taking. With all the critical acclaim, why it's not up for more awards is beyond me.

 

I think it's because the money came from independent sources, Rob himself and China.

Local 'mafia' doesn't want to support other players not from thier pool.

I am still not getting it, maybe because I never followed movies' success rather what I see bypassing. So in the US we consider the movie a flop despite it is only 2 days officially released US wide?

In Europe and Australia the numbers are not great, too?

 

I am still not getting it, maybe because I never followed movies' success rather what I see bypassing. So in the US we consider the movie a flop despite it is only 2 days officially released US wide?

In Europe and Australia the numbers are not great, too?

 

It would need make 10x as much as it has by now by the end of the weekend to be considered a success.

Which seems really unlikely given the general attitude towards it we have seen so far.

 

Most people just are not responding well to the trailers and the advertising. The marketing is not winning hearts and minds

even among the general public in countries where he has a large fanbase.

 

This is partly a demographic problem. Cinema-going skews young and male. Robbie’s existing audience is middle aged

and skews female. The younger male demographic doesn’t usually like musicals, they definitely don’t like boybands,

And we all know that there is a strong contingent of hatred hanging on among the older male audience.

 

The younger female audience who love musicals are spending their money on Wicked.

And the advertising doesn’t seem to be tempting them in - there’s no character for young women to focus on

in the advertising and there are no stars.

 

I think Paramount took far too long to open up the wider release in the US which allowed the negative discourse to continue, swell and expand far longer than it should have, and maybe that has effected elsewhere. Just having six theatres was always going to produce low figures for people to run with.

 

Personally and I have seen this mentioned a few times elsewhere, the film should have come out at least 10 years ago to have had some sort of success. Paramount acquiring the film for 25 million dollars was ambitious but unrealistic for that market.

 

https://variety.com/2025/film/box-office/bo...man-1236272189/

 

Going back to the film Here starring Tom Hanks that was deemed the biggest box office flop of last year at 13.4 million worldwide on a budget of 45-50 million, not 110 million.

Edited January 11Jan 11 by nirvanamusic

both of your posts, Katheryn and nirvana, make a lot of sense. if there would be a young actor - as example - the girls could adore, it might have been something else.

So is there anything positive we can take out of this? In the moment all we see is that the Americans have now officially said 'no'

A positive is that the film is so incredibly highly rated. I haven't seen ratings that high for a long time, and that can't be faked. Would the film have been as good on a lesser budget? It seems that huge production figure is what is really hampering the percentages and determining the fail factor.

 

I can see it doing well on streaming but no one I know has Paramount+.

 

I feel bad for Robbie because the reality is more mature individuals outside of America would simply address the fact he isn't known in their country then procede with their opinion. The whole failure and nasty, mocking vitriol isn't needed. A lot of them say his music, vocals, performance isn't good enough and below standard for America. ''They'll give anyone a biopic now.'' But the fact is, what have these individuals achieved personally themselves? We don't know.

Edited January 11Jan 11 by nirvanamusic

The us wide release apparently made 580k in a day.

Well, it’s still more exposure than Robbie has had in the USA for the past 25 years.

There is no such thing as bad publicity, as they say.

 

People who hadn’t heard of him before have sampled his music.

 

The reviews are generally good enough that people will curiosity-watch on streaming.

Streaming has a much lower barrier to watching.

The news coverage of it being a massive flop - and that is what the coverage is going to be - is all going to

point to the fact that the film is well-reviewed.

 

There is a possibility that it attains ‘cult status’. That people with a contrarian bent will seek it out.

 

 

As I am a person worrying far too much :-) I also worried for the movie and the case it might not be successful. Well, Jennifer Lopez movies in the last years were all flops as far as I know and nevertheless she goes on being called a huge star. Rob has however always considered himself with low self esteem so I hope he will thrive on the critics and his guts to try.

I also think that he never had a good timing for 'breaking' America....they do not even like Justin Timberlake anymore.