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Better Man • Robbie Williams Biopic (2024)

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    Btw, just wanted to say thanks to Joseph & Philip for unlimited by pages threads nowadays. So I suppose you have already noted now the Better Man thread is combined and not divided anymore :)

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    Better Man review by Bobby Blakey Throughout the years there have been a ton of biographical films focusing on the careers of musicians and bands. Within them there are a select few that took a more

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New songs were sang at the TIFF!
Thank you Frogec. I look forward to hearing it in the movie. Rob says is was an unrehearsed version that he sang live so would like to hear it in context with the movie.

Better Man’: Toronto Review

 

 

Robbie Williams gets an inventive biopic treatment by The Greatest Showman’s Michael Gracey

 

Most music biopics celebrate the genius or groundbreaking artistry of their subject. What’s refreshing about Better Man, a tribute to Robbie Williams, is that it harbours no illusions about what drove the UK pop superstar. As he explains in this very entertaining, surprisingly moving film, all he wanted was to be famous, and that candour creates a fresh way of viewing both Williams and the biopic format, stripping away the genre’s pretensions to focus on the neediness that compels many performers. But the picture’s audacity doesn’t end there, with director Michael Gracey casting Jonno Davies to play Williams — and then rendering him as a monkey through special effects.

 

Premiering in Telluride and Toronto, Better Man will be released in the UK and US around Christmas. The British singer, who turned 50 earlier this year, was always more of a sensation in Europe than North America – although Netflix’s four-part 2023 documentary may have helped to raise his profile. But even those unfamiliar with Williams’ hits as a solo artist or, earlier, with the 1990s boy band Take That should still enjoy Better Man’s lively structure and energetic musical numbers courtesy of Gracey, who previously directed The Greatest Showman — a moniker that would be equally appropriate for Williams himself.

 

Focusing on Williams’ life prior to 2001, the film presents him as a CGI monkey (played by Davies). The idea came to Gracey from conversations he had with Williams, who frequently commented that he has felt like a performing monkey — a bit of hyperbole the director takes literally, visually illustrating how the young man feels ugly and weird in comparison to those around him. But encouraged by his entertainer father Peter (Steve Pemberton), who abandoned the family when Williams was a boy, he pushes himself toward stardom, successfully auditioning for Take That and becoming a pin-up at the age of 15. After a few years, with drugs and alcohol consuming him, Williams is cut loose from the group, forced to reinvent himself as an adult singer.

 

Early on, someone complains that the young Williams is a “cheeky little bast*rd”, but Gracey recognises that this is the singer’s great strength. An admirer of Frank Sinatra, who his father also adored, Williams longs to be the centre of attention, both master entertainer and irrepressible scamp. The film spends almost no time digging into Williams’ creative process or artistic ambitions — the impish singer doesn’t think in such lofty terms. Rather, he wants No. 1 records and obscene wealth, and Better Man refuses to judge him for what others might decide are shallow reasons to get into music. If anything, Gracey argues that being true to one’s own self is the most important thing any artist can do.

 

Davies’ cocky, charismatic performance gets around the problem that many biopics have, which is the temptation to ensure that the actor closely resembles the subject. The impressive CGI work is initially jarring, but soon it becomes a poignant means of experiencing Williams’ rise, fall and redemption. The character’s self-loathing is etched on his digital face — no matter how successful Williams gets, all we (and he) see is this misfit creature.

 

In other regards, though, Better Man contains plenty of genre cliches. Williams’ descent into drugs is predictably gruelling, and his mundane problems with romantic fidelity are hardly unique. But within a conventional framework, Gracey celebrates his subject’s unique skill at delivering an ineffable wow factor. Most forcefully, that comes across in the musical set pieces, which turn the singer’s tunes into theatrical extravaganzas. Take That’s career takeoff is scored to ’Rock DJ’ — who cares if that was a Williams solo hit long after he left the band? — as an entire city becomes a backdrop for a show-stopping dance number. As on The Greatest Showman, the director goes for the emotional jugular in these sequences, emphasising what is most joyous or moving about tunes like ‘Angels’ and then finding expressive camera movements to match.

 

None of these songs are particularly deep but, Better Man suggests, that doesn’t mean they’re shallow. That generous, open-minded attitude infuses the entire film, which is snarky but also emotional, thoughtful without being ponderous. ’Let Me Entertain You’ goes the title of another Williams classic — Better Man never shortchanges that seductive sentiment, or forgets the insecure artist at its heart.

 

Production companies: Lost Bandits, Footloose

 

International sales: Rocket Science, info@rocket-science.net

 

Producers: Paul Currie, Michael Gracey, Coco Xiaolu Ma, Jules Daly, Craig McMahon

 

Screenplay: Simon Gleeson, Oliver Cole, Michael Gracey, based on the life story of Robbie Williams

 

Cinematography: Erik A. Wilson

 

Production design: Joel Chang

 

Editing: Jeff Groth, Lee Smith, Martin Connor, Spencer Susser, Patrick Correll

 

Music: Batu Sener

 

Main cast: Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Steve Pemberton, Damon Herriman, Raechelle Banno, Alison Steadman

 

https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/better-...5197045.article

Edited by Sydney11

Nice to hear from Jonno Davies , very enthusiastic guy . Interesting video with lots of little detail .

 

 

 

Video thanks to TheMovieReport.com

Edited by Sydney11

They did a really great casting job - it really struck me that they found an actor who can speak as eloquently about Rob as Rob himself does.

The letterbox’d reviews are interesting. Mainly positive, but the full range of loved/liked/meh/hated represented.

 

Hopefully people will be intrigued enough to go and see it just to see where they fall in that spectrum.

Better Man’: Toronto Review

Robbie Williams gets an inventive biopic treatment by The Greatest Showman’s Michael Gracey

 

Most music biopics celebrate the genius or groundbreaking artistry of their subject. What’s refreshing about Better Man, a tribute to Robbie Williams, is that it harbours no illusions about what drove the UK pop superstar. As he explains in this very entertaining, surprisingly moving film, all he wanted was to be famous, and that candour creates a fresh way of viewing both Williams and the biopic format, stripping away the genre’s pretensions to focus on the neediness that compels many performers. But the picture’s audacity doesn’t end there, with director Michael Gracey casting Jonno Davies to play Williams — and then rendering him as a monkey through special effects.

 

Premiering in Telluride and Toronto, Better Man will be released in the UK and US around Christmas. The British singer, who turned 50 earlier this year, was always more of a sensation in Europe than North America – although Netflix’s four-part 2023 documentary may have helped to raise his profile. But even those unfamiliar with Williams’ hits as a solo artist or, earlier, with the 1990s boy band Take That should still enjoy Better Man’s lively structure and energetic musical numbers courtesy of Gracey, who previously directed The Greatest Showman — a moniker that would be equally appropriate for Williams himself.

 

Focusing on Williams’ life prior to 2001, the film presents him as a CGI monkey (played by Davies). The idea came to Gracey from conversations he had with Williams, who frequently commented that he has felt like a performing monkey — a bit of hyperbole the director takes literally, visually illustrating how the young man feels ugly and weird in comparison to those around him. But encouraged by his entertainer father Peter (Steve Pemberton), who abandoned the family when Williams was a boy, he pushes himself toward stardom, successfully auditioning for Take That and becoming a pin-up at the age of 15. After a few years, with drugs and alcohol consuming him, Williams is cut loose from the group, forced to reinvent himself as an adult singer.

 

Early on, someone complains that the young Williams is a “cheeky little bast*rd”, but Gracey recognises that this is the singer’s great strength. An admirer of Frank Sinatra, who his father also adored, Williams longs to be the centre of attention, both master entertainer and irrepressible scamp. The film spends almost no time digging into Williams’ creative process or artistic ambitions — the impish singer doesn’t think in such lofty terms. Rather, he wants No. 1 records and obscene wealth, and Better Man refuses to judge him for what others might decide are shallow reasons to get into music. If anything, Gracey argues that being true to one’s own self is the most important thing any artist can do.

 

Davies’ cocky, charismatic performance gets around the problem that many biopics have, which is the temptation to ensure that the actor closely resembles the subject. The impressive CGI work is initially jarring, but soon it becomes a poignant means of experiencing Williams’ rise, fall and redemption. The character’s self-loathing is etched on his digital face — no matter how successful Williams gets, all we (and he) see is this misfit creature.

 

In other regards, though, Better Man contains plenty of genre cliches. Williams’ descent into drugs is predictably gruelling, and his mundane problems with romantic fidelity are hardly unique. But within a conventional framework, Gracey celebrates his subject’s unique skill at delivering an ineffable wow factor. Most forcefully, that comes across in the musical set pieces, which turn the singer’s tunes into theatrical extravaganzas. Take That’s career takeoff is scored to ’Rock DJ’ — who cares if that was a Williams solo hit long after he left the band? — as an entire city becomes a backdrop for a show-stopping dance number. As on The Greatest Showman, the director goes for the emotional jugular in these sequences, emphasising what is most joyous or moving about tunes like ‘Angels’ and then finding expressive camera movements to match.

 

None of these songs are particularly deep but, Better Man suggests, that doesn’t mean they’re shallow. That generous, open-minded attitude infuses the entire film, which is snarky but also emotional, thoughtful without being ponderous. ’Let Me Entertain You’ goes the title of another Williams classic — Better Man never shortchanges that seductive sentiment, or forgets the insecure artist at its heart.

 

Production companies: Lost Bandits, Footloose

 

International sales: Rocket Science, info@rocket-science.net

 

Producers: Paul Currie, Michael Gracey, Coco Xiaolu Ma, Jules Daly, Craig McMahon

 

Screenplay: Simon Gleeson, Oliver Cole, Michael Gracey, based on the life story of Robbie Williams

 

Cinematography: Erik A. Wilson

 

Production design: Joel Chang

 

Editing: Jeff Groth, Lee Smith, Martin Connor, Spencer Susser, Patrick Correll

 

Music: Batu Sener

 

Main cast: Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Steve Pemberton, Damon Herriman, Raechelle Banno, Alison Steadman

 

https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/better-...5197045.article

 

Interesting review -thanks Tess - it sounds like it's a film befitting Rob's exhuberance - sounds like Michael Gracey has done a brilliant job B-)

They did a really great casting job - it really struck me that they found an actor who can speak as eloquently about Rob as Rob himself does.

 

Yes doesn't he! Smart young man.

Amazingly, the Guardian has given it a good review!

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/sep/1...an-movie-review

 

Of course the reviewer can’t resist a sneer in there ‘who is this for??’ he asks, as if Robbie is not a hugely

successful artist

 

 

They like to hate him but they still write about him ... 4/5 stars - not bad I guess :)

Better Man is a thoroughly unique musical biopic centered on British pop star Robbie Williams

 

If you grew up in Britain in the ‘90s, you either loved or hated Robbie Williams, the pop star who rose to fame in boy band Take That before going solo.

 

Elsewhere, especially in the U.S., your level of familiarity probably depends on how into music or British culture you are. But regardless of whether a viewer knows much about Willams, it’s safe to say Better Man will have them engaged from the word go.

 

Williams himself narrates this explosion of color and music that recounts his life from childhood through his struggles with fame and addiction. The sophomore film from director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) is a bold vision with varying degrees of success. It's far more exciting and inventive than many musical biopics, creating truly fantastical and cinematic musical numbers as opposed to merely diegetic moments recreating the subject's own performances. Ashley Wallen, who also choreographed Showman, brings their precise, high-energy style to the dancing (it shines most particularly in the boy band sequences), be it large group numbers or a more romantic waltz.

 

Gracey, who started in music videos, has somewhat curtailed his tendency to cross-cut rapidly, instead giving us wider shots that actually allow us to see the choreography and intricate staging. (To be fair, his previous tendency for quick cuts has been a rampant problem in recent movie musicals, not a fault unique to him.)

 

But the movie makes a BIG choice that is both fascinating and not entirely successful. In many of their conversations, Gracey was struck by Williams 'description of himself as a monkey performing for others’ entertainment. To that end, Gracey depicts Williams as he sees himself — in simian form.

 

With the magic of WETA, actor Jonno Davies transforms into an ape-ified version of Williams (and Williams does much of his own speaking and singing). Its most effective result is the seamless way it allows a physical actor and biopic subject to bring the story to life. But it's incredibly distracting to buy into Williams as a Planet of the Apes-worthy creature amidst an entirely human cast. The concept and its audaciousness is admirable, but it doesn't entirely work. There’s flickers of genius in the way it evokes the interiority of something like Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, and perhaps it would’ve worked better if the monkey rendering were only used in musical numbers.

 

This is no knock on Davies’ physical performance. It’s robust and energetic, and the magic of motion-capture allows every hint of emotion on his face to render on that of the monkey’s visage.

 

Williams bares all in the storytelling, exposing his infidelity as well as the depths of his addiction and self-loathing, refusing to curtail the uglier parts of the story out of a sense of self-preservation. It’s refreshingly honest for a musical biopic that has the involvement of its subject.

 

Through the musical form, Gracey creates a vibrant, electrified piece. Though it hits many familiar beats of a pop-star musical, it feels fresh and original because of the ways it uses its music. And though it doesn’t shy away from the uglier parts of fame’s bruising effect on Willians, it never wallows in its darkness either. Perhaps that is credit to Williams' own brilliant sense of humor and tendency to use it as a defense mechanism, but it’s a rare thing that a biopic gets to be so demonstrably witty and bright without losing its teeth.

 

Better Man is beautifully emotional and engaging, and it’s an admirably big swing. But it would have a greater shot at making audiences go ape if the primate concept were used more judiciously. Grade: B

 

https://ew.com/better-man-review-robbie-wil..._source=twitter

Edited by Sydney11

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