'Robbie Williams' vs. 'Drug Monkey'

 

Sonny Bunch

Jan 17, 2025

 

Way back in 2024 after the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black bombed in the United States, I quipped that it shouldn’t be surprising American audiences had no interest in a movie about a one-hit wonder that was marketed as if it were Bohemian Rhapsody. Which is to say, the marketing mistakenly leaned on the musician’s hits as a draw to get people into the theaters. After getting some pushback from outraged Europeans—she was a bigger deal there than here—I quipped that it made about as much sense as opening a movie about Robbie Williams on 2,000 screens here.

 

I did not realize that plans were afoot to do just that: Better Man is a musical biopic about the life of Robbie Williams starring Robbie Williams playing himself as a motion-capture CGI chimp (more on that in a moment). The film was sold to American audiences with monkey-Robbie looking into the camera in a trailer and saying “I’m Robbie Williams,” followed by roughly 99.9 percent of Americans saying “Yes, and?” which was in turn followed by much of the rest of the English-speaking world saying “Wait you don’t know who Robbie Williams is?” which was in turn followed by accusations of parochialism lobbed back and forth across the Atlantic. (And, I guess, Pacific, since I presume the good people of Oceania also love Williams.)

 

Like Back to Black, Better Man is bombing. Not because of the quality of the film, mind you, but a complete miscalculation in advertising tactics. Advertising is arguably the most important and quite frequently the hardest part of making movies. It’s why stars earn big paychecks (name recognition theoretically means heightened awareness and a built-in fanbase) and why intellectual property dominates the release schedule (same basic concept, just with brand names rather than actor names). If you pitch Better Man to American audiences as “the Robbie Williams movie” they’re going to stare at you blankly.

 

However, if you pitch it as “the musical where a CGI monkey does deranged amounts of cocaine while getting handjobs in clubs all while battling demonic versions of himself and coming to terms with the fact that the only reason he wants to be famous is to fill the hole in his soul that comes from decades of neglect by his loutish, clownish father” … well, I don’t know if you’d have a hit on your hands, precisely, but you would at least have a movie that American audiences might be interested in. Downplay the reality of the story; play up the surrealism of your movie. “Better Man” means nothing to me. “Drug Monkey” at least makes me say “Wait, what?”

 

Because musical biopics aren’t like historical biopics such as Oppenheimer or The Imitation Game in which audiences hope to experience the drama inherent in world-important figures. No, as I noted in my review of A Complete Unknown, the reason people go see musical biopics is that they like to hear actors playing musicians they recognize sing songs they enjoy hearing. It’s why Bohemian Rhapsody was a massive hit and Rocketman a milder one and why A Complete Unknown is performing solidly if unspectacularly and why last year’s Bob Marley: One Love legged out to nearly $100 million domestic.

 

So I can’t really tell you if Better Man succeeds as a musical biopic since I don’t really care about the music or the musician involved. I can tell you that it kinda-sorta succeeds as a deranged vision of celebrity excess, one that acknowledges the base truth of so much of modern pop stardom: that it’s empty, that it’s manufactured, that it’s pursued by people seeking little more than public adulation to fill the vacuum within themselves.

 

Williams is playing himself as a monkey because he’s unevolved, his maturity having been stunted since he became famous at the age of 15 when the boy band Take That took off in the United Kingdom. The simian aspect also eases audiences into the surrealism of the world of the musical; we don’t blink when Take That’s antics spill into a London street and then into a record store and then a club and on and on, even if this particular sequence has the visual panache and coherence of Argylle-era Matthew Vaughn.

 

Better is a later song, after Williams has been kicked out of the band, chronicling via montage his marriage to Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), one that began with joy and crumbled into apathy and worse after she was pressured into getting an abortion at the behest of her record label. It’s a compact story of love lived and lost badly, one that makes plain the affection the two shared without lingering too long on anything that might distract from us seeing a monkey chug bottles of vodka or do battle with hundreds of duplicates of himself in the crowd of the largest concert in English history.

 

In a way, the movie plays like a 135-minute ode to parental neglect, since Williams is driven to the heights of pop stardom to prove to his worthless, absent father that he has “it.” Prove it he does, ending with a triumphant one-man show that he closes with a rendition of “My Way.” Yet one can’t help but think of another film that ends with the same song: Goodfellas. Success at the cost of one’s soul might not count for much. But then, it doesn’t appear as though Williams had much of a soul to lose. So maybe it’s a wash in the end.

 

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/robbie-williams-vs-drug-monkey

‘Better Man’ Review: Robbie Williams’ Vibrant Musical Biopic Carries A Tune

 

Kenny Miles reviews Better Man, which treats the life of Robbie Williams with a wild, unorthodox biopic that traffics in tropes but presents its story and star in an offbeat way.

 

Kenny Miles

January 17, 2025

 

Musicals aren’t my favorite genre because most seem similar to me, even in Golden Era Hollywood. I admire off-the-wall ones, like Tommy, a wild Ken Russell rock opera from the 1970s (I was disappointed when Joker: Folie a Deux wasn’t like this). I was disappointed attending the Telluride Film Festival and scanning the hostile, negative reactions to Better Man on Letterboxd, but I am glad I gave that movie a chance.

 

When Better Man sings, it truly soars. The musical numbers are not just luminous but burst with imagination and energy, striking visuals, and catchy tunes. It’s an entertaining visual and auditory feast. The ape metaphor drives home the point that Robbie Williams lived a life where fans ogled at him, and pop stars and famous people were zoo animals. It is an ambitious, bonkers premise that I respect, and we need more filmmakers to take risks like this.

 

Some more dramatic bits about Robbie Williams’ life don’t work for me, and that is where the musical has pacing issues, interrupting the narrative flow. “To be famous, you have to show off and be cheeky,” Robbie observed as a boy, which isn’t too far from the truth. The main focus is the storytelling elements about battling inner demons and his honest struggles with insecurities that come with making it big, and we see a lot of his life spent grappling with this.

 

The Greatest Showman director, Michael Gracey, is an expert in his craft of making musicals, and Better Man is no exception. The film features some truly dazzling musical numbers, showcasing Gracey’s talent, but it does struggle to maintain the same energy during the dramatic storytelling elements. Many moments stuck with me from the “Rock DJ” sequence that went viral, a lovely dance number on a boat, and a shot of Robbie falling through broken ice into a body of water. The final bombastic scene in Better Man felt rather self-indulgent, but his life story is told on his terms. Let him have fun.

 

There was a lot of talk from Americans unfamiliar with him, and maybe it is an indictment on modern moviegoers that they don’t have a sense of discovery but prefer simple comfort. I remember “Millenium” and the James Bond vibes of the music video. I was disappointed when it didn’t appear, but I digress. I recommend you experience it and form your own opinion about this unique musical biopic.

 

https://weliveentertainment.com/welivefilm/...c-carries-tune/

Well, dear friends!

 

It's time to say goodbye to this thread because of 50 pages limitation...

Rather sad - it was one of the best thread thru the last few years at our Take That & Robbie Forum!

 

 

 

Now go to this thread - let's continue our discussions of BETTER MAN:

http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=277473

 

 

 

 

THANK YOU again for your participation, doubts, emotions and messages...

When this topic had been just opened we didn't know we would watch the movie at all.

It was a long a winding road for BETTER MAN.

 

But in the end we got the movie we can be proud together being with Robbie and Take That for so long time.

 

Believe me, I'm very very very happy.

I just hope you also got or will get a new emotions from this honest, creative and f*cking amazing FILM.

 

You've been sensational

You really did your bit

It's been emotional

You know I love that shit

You look incredible

Even from afar

I think you're sexy and you're funny

And I love you 'cause you love me

And I wish that you could always stay

Now go away

 

;)

 

@1880000668385350042

Events

 

Festivals:

30.08.2024 - Telluride Film Festival (US) -

World premiere + with Robbie

10.09.2024 - Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) (Canada) - Canadian premiere + with Robbie

25.09.2024 - Fantastic Fest (US)

10.10.2024 - Mill Valley Film Festival (US)

16.10.2024 - Santa Fe International Film Festival (US)

18.10.2024 - Middleburg Film Festival (US)

22.10.2024 - Chicago International Film Festival (US)

~26.10.2024 - Philadelphia Film Festival (US)

29.10.2024 - SCAD Savannah Film Festival (US)

02.11.2024 - Miami Film Festival GEMS (US) 09.11.2024 - St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF) (US)

20.11.2024 - International Film Festival of India (IFFI) (India) - Asian premiere 04.12.2024 - Festival International De Cine De Los Cabos (FICC) (Mexico) - Latin America premiere

08.12.2024 - Whistler Film Festival (Canada) - Western Canadian premiere

14.12.2024 - Red Sea Film Festival (Saudi Arabia) - Middle East premiere

31.12.2024 - Haifa Film Festival (Israel)

02.01.2025 - Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) (US)

05.01.2025 - Festival Opatija (Hungary)

15.02.2025 - Festival Velenje (Slovenia)

More dates of the Festivals:

https://awardswatch.com/2024-2025-film-awards-calendar/

Special premieres:

27.11.2024 - UK & European premiere (London, Odeon) + with Robbie

04.12.2024 - Spain premiere (Madrid, Capitol Cinema) + with Robbie

06.12.2024 - Italian premiere (Rome, Auditorium Parco della Musica) +

with Robbie

08.12.2024 - German premiere (Cologne, Cinedom) + with Robbie

10.12.2024 - Dutch premiere (Amsterdam, Royal Theater Tuschinski) + with Robbie

11.12.2024 - Australian premiere (Melbourne, Village Cinemas Crown)

13.12.2024 - French premiere (Paris, Le Grand Rex) + with Robbie

19.12.2024 - Belarusian premiere (Minsk)

21.12.2024 - Russian premiere (Moscow, October)

29.12.2024 - UAE premiere (Dubai, Dubai Mall's Reel Cinemas) + with Robbie

07.01.2025 - Ukranian premiere (Kyev)

04.02.2025 - Chilean premiere (Santiago)

18.02.2025 - Argentinian premiere

11.03.2025 - Brazilian premiere

 

Other dates:

09.10.2024 - AACTA - Members Screening (Australia)

25.10.2024 - Film Independent - Members Screening (US)

16.11.2024 - Deadline Contenders Film (US) + with Robbie

26.12.2024 - Better Man - Worldwide cinema release

17.12.2024 - Golden Globes Nominee Luncheon (LA, USA) +

with Robbie

02.01.2025 - Better Man - Pre-Screening Party + Q&A GALA with Robbie (Melbourne, Australia)

08.01.2025 - Better Man - DIFF - Advance Screening (Dallas, USA)

10.01.2025 - Better Man - US wide cinema release

12.01.2025 - Better Man with In-Person Q&A (New York, USA) + with Robbie

06.02.2025 - AACTA Festival - In the Director's Chair: Michael Gracey on Better Man (Australia)

06.02.2025 - AACTA Festival - Meet the Nominees: Actors (Jonno Davies) (Australia)

06.02.2025 - AACTA Festival - Meet the Nominees: Writers (Simon Gleeson) (Australia)

08.02.2025 - AACTA Festival - Actor on Actor (Damon Herriman and Kate Mulvany) (Australia)

More dates of the premieres per country:

https://www.gawby.com/movies/7580822/releasedates

 

The most important Awards dates:

05.01.2025 - Golden Globes Award +

with Robbie

07.02.2024 - AACTA Awards +

with Robbie

16.02.2025 - BAFTA nominations

03.03.2025 - Oscars Ceremony

More dates of the Awards:

https://www.goldderby.com/feature/2025-osca...s-2-1205955652/

Oscars predictions:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/mo...ast-1235957278/

reserved *

Hello, did you miss me?

I know I'm hard to resist

Y'all can come and help me

Pick the sweetcorn out of this

It's hard to be humble

When you're so f***ing big

Did you ever meet a sexier male chauvinist MONKEY

 

Welcome a board again!

This thread has been so fun to read and be a part of :)

The FULL scene is on YT now!

(please don't watch this before watching the movie itself!)

 

Hello, did you miss me?

I know I'm hard to resist

Y'all can come and help me

Pick the sweetcorn out of this

It's hard to be humble

When you're so f***ing big

Did you ever meet a sexier male chauvinist MONKEY

 

Welcome a board again!

 

 

:lol:

 

Super effort by everyone these past number of weeks . I am still trying to catch up on some of the articles in the old thread

 

Loving all the updates Alex. Thanks a million B-)

 

I still live in hope that the movie will do better on streaming ..... always the Optimist is me :lol:

Why ‘Better Man’ Became A ‘Passion Piece’ For Director Michael Gracey And VFX Supervisor Luke Millar.

 

By Joe Fordham

 

A week before the December 25 opening of Better Man, Paramount Pictures’s unusual rock music biopic loosely based on the life and times of U.K. rock star Robbie Williams, the Visual Effects Society (VES) hosted a special screening followed by a 38-minute discussion of how Wētā FX transformed the bad-boy British rock star into an anthropomorphic chimpanzee.

 

VES technology committee member Barbara Ford Grant emceed the event. Her guests included the film’s director-writer-producer Michael Gracey, who began his career in Australia as a digital effects artist at Animal Logic before embarking on a career in music videos. Joining Gracey on stage was the production’s visual effects supervisor, Luke Millar, whose career has notably included the simian armies of director Matt Reeves’ two Planet of the Apes films.

 

Following the screening, the moderator summarized the filmmakers’ task as having involved 600 crew, who tackled approximately 2,000 vfx shots, amassing 9.5 petabytes of data, to transform Robbie Williams into an ape, from ages 7 to 30.

Director Michael Gracey explained the film’s metaphor — portraying a pop star as an ape — sprang from his perceptions of the heightened reality of a movie musical, blended with an empathy with animals, and observation of Williams’ self-deprecating humor: “Rob referred to himself as a performing monkey.”

 

Without belaboring the intricacies of Wētā FX’s sophisticated on-set performance capture processes — honed over years from The Lord of the Rings creature Gollum, to the Planet of the Apes films, and beyond — Millar and Gracey explained the fundamentals of how they translated Williams’ swagger to a man-sized, bipedal ape.

 

Jonno Davies performing facial capture, and the final scene.

 

Millar commented that Wētā FX had to adapt relatable human behavior to a simian character. To do so, Jonno Davies, a performer of similar build and stature to Williams, initiated the majority of the ape-man-Robbie’s scenes; Robbie Williams then matched his performance to Davies’ body language. Wētā FX then laid ‘Robbie-isms’ onto the simian character model, aiming to capture the essence of William’s wry smile and the pop star savvy. Gracey noted, animators would then add ape behavior beyond the physical capabilities of a human face, such as in the hyper-extension of the ape’s jaw for screams.

 

For Robbie’s singing scenes, music supervisor Jordan Carroll gave notes on mouth shapes to guide Wētā’s approach to mouth-shapes. The intimacy of some scenes required Davies to occasionally abandon his head-mounted facial camera, if ever it impeded the performance, leaving Wētā FX animators the task of animating from scratch without the benefit of on-set facial capture.

 

The filmmakers went into detail to explain one of the film’s most expansive musical numbers, an apparent ‘oner’ of unbroken dance choreography, which the production captured on location in London’s busiest commercial shopping boulevard, in Regents Street. Gracey related the process of extensive rehearsal, followed by four nights of shooting the scene in four sections designed to seamlessly blend with digital takeovers. The first attempt was a bust, when legal complications, and the death of Queen Elizabeth II, scuppered plans. Five months later, the filmmakers returned, and the sequence became a showstopper.

 

To stage Robbie Williams’ 2003 UK concert at Knebworth Festival, which attracted 125,000 fans to its opening, the filmmakers made use of 2,000 extras at a music venue in Belgrade, Serbia. Visual effects used ‘tech-vis’ to plan crowd replication, using repeated takes of the heaving masses enhanced where needed, but Millar noted that vfx focused on best efforts to follow Williams’ improvisational lead, making use of the frenetic energy of the scene. “The audience rocked out,” Gracey recalled.

 

Other concerts, including where Robbie sings ‘My Way’ at London’s Royal Albert Hall, were captured in a partial stadium set in Melbourne, which Wētā transformed. Cinematographer Erik Wilson’s use of dramatic lighting, and uncoated vintage lenses, with stage lamps flaring the lens, caused optical aberrations, which Millar noted were beautiful but challenging for Wētā FX compositors.

 

Gracey and Millar’s conversation recalled the technical versus creative challenges, and their creative energy. “This was a game-changer for me,” said Gracey, who noted how he and Millar adopted a policy not to obsess over single shots, but rather to reserve their vfx critiques for shots as they flowed in sequence. For Millar, this meant, “way less iterations on vfx shots, and kept the work flowing,” and gave cohesion to the work. “It became a passion piece for all the artists working on this film,” he said.

 

Gracey commented, “I’ll never work another way.”

 

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/vfx/why-better-...lar-245097.html

 

Watch the entire video interview with Gracey and Millar HERE.

https://vimeo.com/1044818995

Edited January 18Jan 18 by Sydney11

 

 

 

That's unreal coming from Roy Keane , he hates most things :lol:

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

That's unreal coming from Roy Keane , he hates most things :lol:

View this post on Instagram

Haha that's so true! I've never seen him positive about anything :lol:

Thank you Alex and Tess in posting all the articles and reviews. I'm going to see it next Tuesday with both my daughters.. they obviously grew up with my Robbie fandom and I know they're going to enjoy the film :)

I was talking to both my son-in-laws about the film last night and while they didn't want to go see it they were aware of its fantastic reviews (but interestingly, not it's box office failure).

Edited January 18Jan 18 by Laura130262

Until now the press has not bathed into the failure as much as they normally would because I guess the reviews have been overwhelmingly good. Different to Rudebox times they also seem to like Robbie more :-)

 

Any new figures about BM?

I also want to thank anyone who posted the last weeks. Sometimes in here it is more busy than on the Rob facebook pages. This is by the way also what I like here that I feel it is a bit of good discussions like in forum times. Thank you.

 

 

 

Really interesting to read how some of the filming was captured

 

To stage Robbie Williams’ 2003 UK concert at Knebworth Festival, which attracted 125,000 fans to its opening, the filmmakers made use of 2,000 extras at a music venue in Belgrade, Serbia. Visual effects used ‘tech-vis’ to plan crowd replication, using repeated takes of the heaving masses enhanced where needed, but Millar noted that vfx focused on best efforts to follow Williams’ improvisational lead, making use of the frenetic energy of the scene. “The audience rocked out,” Gracey recalled.

 

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/vfx/why-better-...lar-245097.html

Until now the press has not bathed into the failure as much as they normally would because I guess the reviews have been overwhelmingly good. Different to Rudebox times they also seem to like Robbie more :-)

 

Any new figures about BM?

 

 

It's got to $12m