Better Man: Film Review

Better Man is not your average film biopic. Why? Well, instead of Robbie Williams being portrayed by an actor, he’s depicted as a CGI monkey. It’s a bananas concept but it somehow works really well.

 

This biographical drama, directed by The Greatest Showman’s Michael Gracey, tells the story of Robbie Williams’ life from his early years to his career beginnings in Take That and his phenomenally successful solo career. While it is a celebration of Robbie’s accomplishments, it also gives a startling and heartbreaking look at the price of fame and his battle with depression, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts.

 

First, let’s address the elephant – or monkey – in the room. I wondered if I’d be able to take the film seriously with this bizarre concept but it all makes sense once you see it. It shouldn’t work but I got used to it within about 10 minutes and it didn’t take me out of the story. Sure, it’s a little weird seeing an ape snorting cocaine or getting involved in sexual business but if any celebrity is going to be portrayed as a chimpanzee, it makes sense for it to be the Me and My Monkey singer. Also, it helps that the visual effects are very realistic and you feel empathy for monkey Robbie thanks to Jonno Davies‘ motion capture performance.

 

Williams was heavily involved in the project and his interviews with Gracey form the voiceover. This can sometimes be a bad sign; this could mean that the biopic will be a puff piece that only portrays its subject in a positive light. That is not the case with Better Man at all. The Angels singer is brutally honest about his mistakes and takes responsibility for his actions instead of blaming anyone else. Better Man doesn’t just make a cursory mention of his bad times, it probably dedicates as much time to it as his professional achievements. It’s surprising for a celebrity to be this candid in their own film but Williams has always been unfiltered and copped to his failings.

 

Rather than lazily showcasing his hits at the right moments in his career, Gracey recontextualises the songs and presents them where they make the most sense emotionally. For example, a young boy Robbie sings Feel and the Rock DJ musical sequence (the standout of the film) involves Take That. These are obviously not correct timing-wise but they are in the right place for the beat of the story. I particularly enjoyed a beautiful couple’s dance on a boat to She’s the One after introducing Williams’ then-partner Nicole Appleton.

 

It’s not just the songs that appear out of sequence – this film takes the real timeline with a pinch of salt and this may frustrate diehard fans. For example, the singer’s Knebworth shows came after his Royal Albert Hall performance but the film presented them the other way around. This may bother nitpicking fans but overall I think most viewers won’t know this and will embrace the film’s timeline.

 

This biopic is better than it had any right to be. I loved the blunt and cheeky voiceover, the staggering honesty and the fact that it doesn’t try to tell his whole life story, just the biggest and craziest years. I highly recommend this.

 

4/5

 

https://missflicks.com/2024/12/22/better-man-film-review/

The Simian Better Man Is a Pleasant Evolution of the Musical Biopic

 

In a post-Walk Hard world, it’s good that many biopics of creative individuals are taking chances and messing around with the form. Sure, masterpieces like All That Jazz demonstrated decades ago what wild experimentation and an acute mode of storytelling could accomplish far from the more banal, hagiographic celebrations of a given artist, but in this century there’s still plenty worthy of celebration for their own attempts to mess things about.

 

Rocketman, the sublime version of the Elton John story told from the perspective of a recovering addict and his flawed memories of the past, seems to have opened the doors for others to make similarly bold moves for contemporary audiences. In 2024 we’ve already seen Pharell’s tale told via the mode of an animated Lego movie. This made for a wild, experimental, yet immensely delightful collision of form and content titled Piece by Piece that under the careful direction of Music doc legend Morgan Neville elevates the otherwise linear tale of success to a visual triumph.

 

And then there’s Better Man, the semi-truthful, mostly biographical story of Robbie Williams. Directed by Michael Gracey, whose The Greatest Showman is one of the best contemporary film musicals to truly enter the canon, the film quite literally monkeys around with the truth. For rather than just aping the checkbox events of William’s decades-long career, we see the singer portrayed in simian form, a chimp-like figure with a chip on his shoulder and a dream for grand success. Stripped away from this highly effective and boldly inventive mode of retelling, it’s likely that the story would be just one among many other similar storylines following a boorish, drug addled drunkard discomfited by his success and drowning his sorrows in excess. To its immense credit, Better Man in almost every mode tries to get past these trappings and into deeper, and thus all the more accessible, issues of mental health, self-destruction, and more.

 

Williams’ rise from precocious teen member of a boyband, through to his solo success and tabloid fascination, all whilst battling serious addiction and mental health issues, provides the more linearized elements of the story. Yet it’s the film’s flights of fancy, from grand musical theatre sequence to unapologetic cabaret-style grandiosity that elevates things from mere quotidian concerns about a sad millionaire with daddy issues to something far more delightfully cinematic.

 

What’s somewhat odd for North American audiences, and something that may well be a total shock to many in the U.K., is that at best Williams is considered a one hit wonder, if at all. As the film culminates with a Knebworth concert, wrapping some 125,000 in attendance around his finger, it’s the fellow headliners Oasis and others that on this side of the pond were the dominant exports from that era of so-called Britpop in which neither artist comfortably fits. Where Queen and Elton John, for example, truly were a global superstars that very much are beloved both in the U.K. and over here, Williams burns far less bright in North America than on his native soil.

 

That’s not to say that his story is undeserving, it just makes it a bit strange for those outside his bubble to truly grasp just how bloody huge he was during his peak. Although “Angels” from his 1997 record peaked at number 53 on the U.S. charts some two years after its release in Britain, legendary anthems like “Let Me Entertain You” made barely a mark over here. As for his time in Take That, the boyband craze that took the U.K. by storm barely made a blip, while the likes of The Spice Girls could still fill stadia 30 years on, generated a Hollywood film, and paved the way for the likes of Brittany Spears, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and others, but equally for the global fascination with the K-Pop and J-Pop bands that fuel millions of fans.

 

So although it takes a bit of a leap even for the musically conscious to simply accept that, yes, Williams was, and still is, a really, really big star in the U.K., it does make some of the braggadocio moments feel oddly provincial when seen outside of the milieu of his success. Of course, much of the point of the film is to point out over and over that such grandiosity and douchebaggery that Robbie exhibited was merely a mask behind which a scared little boy with a penchant for the cabaret stylings of crooners hid, it still feels strangely discombobulating to try and connect from afar to that level of fandom, with the fascination of his travails less earned from the outside than perhaps other legendary artists have accrued.

 

Williams serves as the narrator throughout, and re-recorded many of his songs to fit within the emotional and narrative context of the storyline. As is often the case, many storylines are shifted around for convenience or downright softened, making even his most boorish of behaviors come across as charismatic and deserving of empathy, even if in actually they may have been slightly more destructive and barbaric. Jonno Davies provides the motion capture, and it’s an enormous credit to both his exceptional physicality and the army of boffins at Weta Workshop (the same VFX company that brought the latest Planet of the Apes films to life) that the chimp shtick never gets in the way of expressing the deep emotionality that much of the film expresses.

 

In fact, after a while you almost forget that you’re watching a mo-cap animated figure, another level of suspended disbelief that gives the film much of its power. Even for the uninitiated the tunes prove to be well presented and peppered in ways that drive the narrative forward, and everything from grand dance sequences to moments cuddling on a couch are done in convincing and effective ways.

 

Although Better Man suffers a bit from repetition, the glimpses into the audience of the performer’s own reflected past but one example that’s played out far too many times, there’s still a lot to love about this telling. Much of this has to do with both the committed performances and the rigorous direction by Gracey, assuring that even the most bombastic elements are grounded, and even the most chimpanzee-like antics illustrate a deeper humanity. It’s this deft collision between the fantasy and the reality of this popstar’s life that fuels this telling, and if nothing else there’s never a time where it feels like the kind of gormless celebrity worship that Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping so deliciously parodied.

 

As audience members we are left at the end not really knowing if indeed Robbie Williams is to this day a decent human being, making the film feel at once a confessional and perhaps a convenient excuse for all that transpired. Still, the film makes a pretty good argument that he is indeed a Better Man, at least in contrast to his hellion-like behavior at the height of his success where he almost destroyed his career, was unfaithful to those closest to him, and betrayed both his family and friends. From a man who pleaded to the crowds that we let him entertain us, that is more than enough.

 

8/10

 

https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/better...e-effects-music

Film Review: ‘Better Man’ Takes a Very Unusual Approach to Telling the Story of Robbie Williams

 

You really can’t make a traditional biopic anymore. If there’s not something different about your film, audiences just won’t accept it these days. Cradle to the grave just doesn’t work. You either need to zoom in on a specific period in your subject’s life or tackle the genre in a different manner. With Better Man, the story of Robbie Williams has a hell of a hook, one I know most people were not expecting. It sounds bonkers, and it is, but somehow, it works.

 

Better Man is able to distinguish itself by taking the piss out of how traditional this biopic would otherwise be. Williams is a superstar singer, sure, but the rise, fall, and redemption angle has been done so many times before. What makes it so unique here? Well, if you’re somehow not aware, Williams is depicted at all times as a CGI chimpanzee. No one calls attention to it, ever. To everyone else, it’s just Williams. To us, and to the man himself, it’s a chimp telling his tale. Readers, it livens things up in a way that damn near stunned me.

 

We meet Robbie Williams (Jonno Davies for motion capture, Williams himself for the voice) as a boy (or as a young chimp) trying to impress his performer father Peter (Steve Pemberton). That will be a through line for his whole life, especially when Peter leaves to seek his own success. Left with his mother and grandmother, he’s not much of a student, but he is a showman. Eventually, that sheer force of personality makes him a part of a boy band that blows up, managed by the dismissive Nigel Martin Smith (Damon Herriman), beginning his rise to stardom.

 

As he becomes more and more famous, Williams becomes a drunk and drug addict, romances Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), and gets into all sorts of trouble, all the while having Peter come in and out of his life. It’s all the sort of thing you’d get bored by, if not for the man himself having so much charisma, plus…yeah, he’s a monkey the whole time. In addition, there’s a sneakily emotional ending that works way better than you’re expecting, too.

 

Having Robbie Williams voice his CGI self while Jonno Davies plays him through motion capture works so much better than you’d expect it to. Truly it does. They combine to never call attention to the gimmick or to their work, instead capturing the cinematic portrait of the man. It’s real strong teamwork. That’s important, too, since the other performances more or less fade into the background. Steve Pemberton is solid, but he’s in and out of the narrative. In addition to Raechelle Banno and Damon Herriman, supporting players here include Tom Budge, Frazer Hadfield, Anthony Hayes, Kate Mulvaney, Alison Steadman, and more.

 

Director/co-writer Michael Gracey is emboldened by the ape aspect, which puts the film’s tongue firmly in cheek, even when covering all the expected territory. Along with co-writers Oliver Cole and Simon Gleeson, Gracey does the greatest hits, both in terms of the life story and the music. The script is nothing to get too excited about, but Gracey’s direction, which manages to never call extra attention to the chimp, is a highlight. I was not a fan of The Greatest Showman, but Gracey has won me over here. Plus, Williams himself has such personality, that shines through, helping to keep the flick from ever seeming plodding.

 

Better Man works because it dares to be different in one sense. The biopic aspect is more or less standard issue, but the CGI chimp, alongside Williams’ charisma, is undeniable. Plus, while the original song Forbidden Road is no longer Oscar eligible, it’s a lovely tune at the end. If you’re a Robbie Williams fan, this is a must see. Everyone else? Prepare for something more fun than you might be expecting.

 

SCORE: ★★★

 

https://awardsradar.com/2024/12/23/film-rev...obbie-williams/

Better Man’ Review: Robbie Williams’ Wild Biopic Swings Big

 

During his time in the spotlight, pop singer Robbie Williams fell into all of the typical rock star trappings of sex, drugs, and alcohol. And with the popularity of music biopics like Rocketman, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Back to Black, why not make a movie about his life, right? Well, someone did. But there’s a catch.

 

Better Man is the story of Williams’ rise to fame as a member of the boy band Take That, his dismissal from the group due to substance abuse and unruly conduct, and his eventual rise to success as a solo artist. All typical rock star movie stuff.

 

The thing is, in this movie, Williams is portrayed as a chimpanzee. In his own words, he’s showing the audience how he sees himself.

Surprisingly, this approach works. More than works, actually. It turns a rudimentary rock star biopic into something unique and worth watching. And despite what one might think, the chimp angle doesn’t really get old. In fact, by the time Robbie is singing “My Way” with his father during the movie’s epilogue, the viewer half expects simian Robbie to morph into human Robbie but hopes that he doesn’t. Because the chimp is what they want to see. Frankly, it’s the best part of the movie.

Director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) co-wrote the screenplay for Better Man with Simon Gleason and Oliver Cole (both actors making their feature debut as writers), but with Williams playing himself (at least the voice), the pop star seems to have signed off on the story. And, indeed, everything at least seems to follow the public impression of his life fairly closely, warts and all. Williams may not be proud of some of the situations he put himself in over the years, but he at least seems to not be ashamed anymore. He owns his past. He even seems to find some humor in it.

 

As a musical, Better Man most closely resembles something like Rocketman, where the songs of the primary subject are not just used in diegetic ways, but also as full-blown production numbers. More than once, the cast breaks into song and dance routines, running around city streets or floating aboard luxury cruise ships like no one is watching. Or maybe like everyone is watching. It’s all quite a spectacle.

 

The problem is that Robbie Williams’ music is not nearly as recognizable (nor as good) as Elton John’s, so while the musical numbers are impressively shot and choreographed, they don’t quite have the kinetic energy or emotional impact as those in Rocketman. They’re just not as much fun, even with a monkey leading the festivities.

Now, the chimp thing is not all laughs and giggles. It does have its serious moments. As the movie goes on, Robbie starts to see his past self everywhere he goes, always as the chimp of course. Even this is somewhat humorous, as the chimp goes through bleached hair and shaved head phases just as the real Robbie did, but the symbolic imagery of Robbie’s illicit past chasing him is unmistakable. It all comes to a head in a Planet of the Apes-style scene as his troubled history catches up with him just as he happens to be playing the biggest show of his life at Knebworth. It’s outrageous, but it’s also kind of creepy. Just like the movie as a whole. Outrageous and creepy.

 

Maybe having a chimp as the focus would make every mediocre movie better. Would Madam Webb have benefited from a Dakota Johnson chimp lead? How great would Twisters have been if the “Tornado Wrangler” had a chimp on his team? What if Robert Zemeckis had used Here’s de-aging budget to turn Tom Hanks into a chimp? The possibilities are endless. Let’s hope this trend continues. Because in the case of Better Man, the chimp doesn’t exactly save it from mediocrity, but it at least makes the mediocrity more entertaining.

 

GRADE: C+

 

https://www.showbizjunkies.com/movies/better-man-review/

Edited December 23, 2024Dec 23 by Sydney11

This!

 

@1871209580568400283

 

https://consequence.net/list/best-movies-of...-annual-report/

In short: Better Man isn't just a great movie. It's a movie that makes you rethink all the possibilities of this genre.

 

34th nomination for animation awards.

 

Annie Awards 2025

 

https://annieawards.org/winners

 

Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in a Live Action Production (Luisma Lavin, Seoungseok, Charlie Kim, Shaun Freeman, Carlos Lin, Kaori Miyazawa)

 

Some pics from our special screening :)

 

In Russian language the construction 'Better man' has no a direct translation because the construction with ER in the end means 'bigger, longer, better', etc.

 

So in our variant the movie called like 'Be Better: History of Robbie Williams' if trying to translate back to English

 

By the way, when Elton John' biopic Rocketman was released it named Рокетмэн what means exactly Rocketman.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for posting those photos Alex, Amazing ..

I heard the film version of She's The One today, it's really beautiful & I cannot wait to get the album :heart-old: :heart-old: :heart-old:

Better Man review: Forget Wicked, this is the best movie musical of the year

The Robbie Williams biopic is an honest, entertaining and endlessly endearing spectacle that seems certain to play well with a crowd.

 

4/5

 

Whatever your feelings on the music, personality or life story of Robbie Williams, there can't be many people who didn't do a double take when it emerged who would be playing the former Take That star in his new biopic, Better Man.

 

As you’ll no doubt have heard by now, Robbie is portrayed throughout the film – directed by The Greatest Showman's Michael Gracey – as a monkey. More specifically, he’s played by young actor Jonno Davies who, thanks to the work of acclaimed visual effects company Weta FX, has had his performance transformed so that for every minute of the movie, whether he’s playing football on the street as a kid, performing to thousands in concert, or snorting cocaine backstage, he’s depicted as a chimpanzee.

It sounds like a ridiculous idea, and for the first however many minutes of the film, you may well find yourself wondering what on earth you’ve gotten yourself into. But against all odds, Better Man eventually reaches a point where you stop thinking there’s anything unusual going on at all. Somehow, it just works.

 

It wouldn’t be completely true to say that you forget he’s a chimp – he’s up there in every frame, after all – but you certainly stop seeing it as a pointless, attention-seeking gimmick: the rationale that he’s shown this way due to being a “cheeky monkey” and “performing monkey” begins to make perfect sense, and you find yourself getting swept up in the sheer emotion of watching Robbie’s story unfold across the extreme highs and disastrous lows.

 

It helps that the film is more from the Rocketman school of recent music biopics than the Bohemian Rhapsody one. In other words, the plethora of hits sprinkled generously throughout the runtime are worked into the narrative via dynamically staged musical numbers, rather than simply performed on stage and in the studio. This gives the film a more heightened, less realistic feel that plays into its quirky conceit and provides all manner of memorable moments.

 

It’s at its best during the inspired stretches where it truly leans into its inherent absurdity. This is most notable during Robbie’s performance of Let Me Entertain You at Knebworth, which transforms into something altogether more surprising that wouldn’t be out of place in a Planet of the Apes movie.

 

But there are other great musical moments, too, including a spirited Regent Street-set performance of Rock DJ, an inventively choreographed version of She’s the One and an intensely moving rendition of Angels.

 

And there’s some meaty subject matter in here too. On the one hand, this is no hagiography, and the film doesn’t shy away from showing Robbie at his worst, especially when focusing on a key moment from his relationship with Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno).

 

But the film is also deeply empathetic about the undue pressures placed on those who get super famous super young, and the lack of resources on hand to insulate people from the dark side of that mega-fame.

 

It’s a theme which feels just as prescient as ever when considering both the tragedy surrounding the death of Liam Payne and the recent BBC Two documentary Boybands Forever, the airing of which prompted Robbie himself to write an open letter to former Take That manager Nigel Martin-Smith.

Better Man is by no means a perfect film. The narration provided by Robbie himself can be a little on-the-nose, and there are times where it inevitably slides into the usual naff pitfalls and clichés of any musician biopic, even if it’s far easier to forgive them when such an ambitious decision has been taken at the conception stage.

 

But what it is, is an honest, entertaining and endlessly endearing spectacle that seems certain to play well with a crowd. And if you think the idea of getting teary at Steve Pemberton and a monkey performing a Frank Sinatra staple sounds completely outlandish, then think again. Forget Wicked, this is the movie musical of 2024.

 

Better Man is released in UK cinemas on Boxing Day.

 

https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/better-ma...obbie-williams/

Edited December 23, 2024Dec 23 by Sydney11

Loving all these reviews -especially the US ones -where they don't know him.

 

Love your photos Alex. :cheer:

 

I have heard so many adverts for this film on the radio in the past few days -if it's not Wicked being advertised, it's Betterman.

 

It's nearly time to find out if all the adverts convert to bums on seats. B-)

:)

 

@1871451679838908761

A big thanks to RWfanfest for posting this Telegraph review on their Facebook page , https://www.facebook.com/RWfanfest

 

Better Man, review: Robbie Williams’s dazzling biopic is pure monkey magicThe Take That singer’s decision to tell his life story via a CGI chimpanzee may seem stupid – but it’s utterly inspired

 

4/5

 

 

When stars endorse their own biopics, more cynical viewers might end up wondering just how closely the events shown on screen cleave to the truth. But in this new jukebox musical about the life of Robbie Williams – directed by The Greatest Showman’s Michael Gracey, and narrated perkily by its famous subject – the question is more or less moot, since throughout the film Williams himself only ever appears as a computer-generated monkey.

 

Bullied on the rainy byways of Stoke-on-Trent as a child: a chimpanzee. Auditioning for Take That: a chimpanzee. Grieving for his beloved nan: a chimpanzee. Performing at Knebworth in front of a six-figure crowd: a chimpanzee. Two things about this are remarkable. (Three, if you include the actual he’s-a-chimpanzee thing.)

 

One is that no one on screen ever passes comment on this – not even his father or grandmother, played by Steve Pemberton and Alison Steadman, who might have understandably wanted to sit young Robbie down for a talk. The other is that within around 15 minutes, you find yourself idly thinking: I can’t believe they found an actor who is such a close fit for Robbie Williams. It is, without question, one of the stupidest gambits in the history of musical biopics. But it also proves one of the most inspired.

Via motion capture technology, Williams is mostly played by 32-year-old Jonno Davies, who gives what I’m tempted to say is the best performance of this type since Andy Serkis’s Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. The physical integration is seamless; the emotional fine details rivetingly subtle and present.

 

Better Man is not otherwise an especially subtle work, and traces the usual rise-fall-redemption arc that’s long been standard for the form. It’s also occasionally corny, overripe and self-serving, and its final scene – a never-ending re-staging of Williams’s 2001 Royal Albert Hall concert, built around what feels like a 15-minute version of My Way – feels like a peculiar choice for a number of reasons. (The main one being: why would you want your audience to leave humming Sinatra?)

 

But it is also committed at all times, with a boggle-eyed mad-scientist-like zeal, to using every last gadget in cinema’s toolkit to bring about amazement. Not all of it clicks, but given how bizarre much of it is – Williams’s 2003 Knebworth gig is interrupted by a platoon of heavily armed monkeys, for instance – the hit rate is impressive.

 

Its crowning glory is an extended dance number that synopsises Take That’s rise to fame (set to Williams’s 2000 solo single Rock DJ; a brilliantly idiosyncratic choice), shot on London’s Regent Street with what looks like a supporting cast of hundreds. The camerawork is energised and the choreography crammed with funny flourishes: it’s one of those scenes that justifies an entire film’s existence at a stroke.

 

Like 2019’s Rocketman, Gracey’s film doesn’t stint on the drugs and debauchery – the film is not festive family outing material – and a plot line involving the All Saints singer Nicole Appleton (sweetly played by Home and Away alumnus Raechelle Banno) contains some harrowing twists exhumed from tabloids of old, including Appleton’s abortion following alleged pressure from her record company.

 

There’s also a lot of bad language, only some of which is directed at Gary Barlow (a hilarious Jake Simmance). The script also fails to make sense of why Williams was such a significant cultural figure, though from the often bemused tone of his voice-over, I’m not sure Williams knows either. Never mind: as its subject must have often felt himself, it’s just a pleasure to be along for the ride.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/.../bet...bie.../

Edited December 25, 2024Dec 25 by Better Man

Robbie Williams: "The Computer Was Broken In Take That"

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/cel...ewsVerp#details

:)

 

@1871451679838908761

And now this interview in a full version:

 

Hi all! I did a 'days until movie comes out countdown' on social platform Reddit. The list is basically Robbies milestones counting down from 25 to 0. I want to share the complete list with you here and the upvotes each post got. There is one extra post here which hasn't been published yet :). I think most of the data is correct, No20 is a bit of a stretch, but if you include Take That it is alright B-). N14 the text should be that Robbie stands alone and has 1 more than Elvis.

 

Since I temporarily have access to analytics I can also share which posts have the most views: Those are in descending order: 21, 20, 19, 17, 15, 14

 

The list:

 

25 - In 2022, Robbie Williams released “XXV,” an album celebrating 25 years of his successful solo career. The album features reimagined versions of his greatest hits, backed by the Metropole Orkest, highlighting his enduring impact on the music industry over a quarter-century.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1h3zz3j

Score: 25

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24 days to go- In 2005, Robbie set a Guinness World Record by selling 1.6 million tickets in 24 hours for his 2006 World Tour. This massive sale showcased his immense popularity and set the record for the most tickets sold in a single day by an artist.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1h4hy04

Score: 26

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23 days to go- At 23 years old, Robbie’s first solo album, “Life Thru a Lens,” was released in 1997. It included the breakout hit “Angels,” which became a defining song of his career and established him as a prominent solo artist.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1h5rxez

Score: 33

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22 days to go- At age 22, his first solo single, a cover of George Michael’s “Freedom,” was released in 1996. The song marked the beginning of his journey independent of Take That. The song reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart, outperforming the original by 26 places.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1h6gyjf

Score: 17

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21 days to go- Legal to drink, Robbie Williams left the popular boy band Take That to pursue a solo career. His departure was highly publicized. He was seen partying with the Gallagher brothers (Noel and Liam), embracing the Britpop lifestyle, which was a stark departure from his boyband image.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1h7acbo

Score: 21

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20 days to go- He has sold over 20 million tickets for live shows globally, making him one of the most successful live performers in the world. His charismatic stage presence continues to draw massive audiences.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1h85pe3

Score: 22

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19 days to go- In 2019, Robbie released “The Christmas Present,” his first-ever Christmas album and a double album. It features a mix of original songs and festive classics, showcasing his versatility as an artist.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1h8raz9

Score: 15

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18 days to go- Robbie Williams has won 18 BRIT Awards, more than any other artist in history. This record underscores his significant contributions to the British music scene.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1h9egqr

Score: 18

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17 days to go- Released in 2005, "Tripping" is Robbie Williams' 17th biggest UK solo single by UK charts. The song blends reggae and dance-pop elements, showcasing his versatility as an artist. It received significant airplay and charted well internationally, further cementing his global appeal.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1h9xkjf

Score: 18

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16 days to go- At the age of 16, Robbie joined Take That in 1990. The original lineup of Take That, formed in Manchester in 1990, consisted of five members: Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Mark Owen, Jason Orange, and Robbie Williams. As the youngest member, he contributed to the band’s early success.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hb653x

Score: 11

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15 days to go- He has released 15 studio albums, including the "Under the Radar" series, which features previously unreleased tracks and demos, offering fans a deeper insight into his music.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hc1mza

Score: 16

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14 days to go- Robbie has achieved 14 UK number one albums as a solo artist. This feat ties him with Elvis Presley for the most UK number one albums by a solo act.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hcmekl

Score: 12

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13 days to go- Robbie Williams was born on 13th February 1974 in Stoke-on-Trent, England. As a child, he played the Artful Dodger in a school production of “Oliver!,” showcasing his early talent in performing arts.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hdg18m

Score: 8

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12 days to go-In 2012, he performed at Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Concert, celebrating 60 years of her reign.His performance was a highlight of the star-studded event.Queen thanked him for his service years later by departing right when they were about to film dance sequence for Better Man

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1he1t08

Score: 14

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11 days to go- His songs have spent a total of 11 weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart, reflecting his consistent ability to produce hit records.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1heop1s

Score: 8

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10 days to go- "In and Out of Consciousness: Greatest Hits 1990–2010," released in 2010, spans Robbie Williams' career, offering hits for old and new fans. Includes "Angels," "Feel," and the Barlow collaboration "Shame," providing a mix of classics and contemporary tracks for a broad appeal.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hf6bc2

Score: 10

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9 days to go- He has won 9 Echo Awards, Germany’s foremost music honors, recognizing his international appeal and success in Europe.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hge148

Score: 11

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8 days to go- With 8 multi-platinum albums, Robbie’s records have achieved significant sales milestones, cementing his status as a best-selling artist. 6 of his albums are in the UK Top 100 best selling albums.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hh2y3p

Score: 12

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7 days to go- He boasts 7 UK number one singles, including hits like “Millennium” and “Candy,” showcasing his enduring popularity in the charts.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hhtubw

Score: 12

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6 days to go- From his 2000 album “Sing When You’re Winning,” 6 singles were released. The album includes notable tracks like “Rock DJ” and “Supreme.”

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hin0sw

Score: 9

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5 days to go- Robbie spent 5 years as a member of Take That from 1990 to 1995, during which the band became one of the UK’s biggest pop acts. Most notable single was "Back for good" which also charted in the US

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hj8pz0

Score: 17

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4 days to go- He is the father of 4 children with his wife Ayda Field. Family life has been a significant and cherished part of his personal journey.

URL: https://i.redd.it/jo7w2nih3d8e1.jpeg

Score: 15

 

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3 days to go- In 2003, Robbie Williams performed 3 consecutive nights at Knebworth, entertaining a staggering 375,000 people in total. This series of concerts is one of the largest live music events in UK history and underscores his exceptional ability to captivate massive audiences.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hkbl0u

Score: 23

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2 days to go- Robbie released 2 swing albums: “Swing When You’re Winning” (2001) and “Swings Both Ways” (2013). The first features swing covers and a duet with Nicole Kidman. In 2001, he performed at the Royal Albert Hall, showcasing his swing repertoire and versatility.

URL: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1hlh0vd

Score: 11

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1 day to go- As the 1️⃣ of the best-selling male UK artist of all time, Robbie Williams has sold over 85 million records worldwide. His prolific career and enduring appeal have left an indelible mark on the music industry.

URL:https://www.reddit.com/r/robbiewilliams/comments/1hlrm3j/1_day_to_go_as_the_1_of_the_bestselling_male_uk/

Score:11

 

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0 days to go - Did Father Christmas bring you everything you wanted?

URL: https://i.redd.it/tht602v0909e1.jpeg

Score: 3

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Not posted yet (BJ exclusive! :lol: ):

00 days to go - In the '00s, Robbie Williams didn't just play the field; he owned the UK airwaves, topping the chart with 27.5B impressions and 1,024,255 spins , outplaying Sugababes, Madonna, and Coldplay.

Nice work and facts! :)

Will use this data answering "Who is Robbie Williams?" On Twitter :)

 

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'Better Man' Review: Robbie Williams Is a CGI Monkey In Wild Take on the Music Biopic

 

Better Man is a strange musical biopic that sticks its wild landing, using unique means to tell another story about the dangers of overnight fame and unlimited access to narcotics.

 

7/10

 

https://collider.com/better-man-review-robbie-williams/

Robbie Williams: "The Computer Was Broken In Take That"

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/cel...ewsVerp#details

 

It was a good interview with his real fan.

So, in video variant now:

 

Better Man review – Robbie Williams becomes CGI chimp in surreal biopic

 

A candid look at the toxic force of envy that drove his musical career but turned a talented musician into a deeply unhappy man. But why the CGI?

 

Robbie Williams – only he is a chimp! This is a pretty trad music biopic, coming with the accepted U-shaped narrative arc of humble beginnings, big break, superstardom, drugs, drink, shallow sex, dark-night-of-the-soul slump and redemptive comeback, here topped off with an unendurably protracted performance of My Way at the Royal Albert Hall in London. But the whole thing is given a cheeky high-concept twist by portraying the singer as an ape – a shrieking, scowling, capering CGI chimp – while all around are humans. Actor Jonno Davies plays the part in motion capture and Williams himself supplies the voiceover.

 

The idea supposedly comes from Williams’s fear that he is immature and unevolved, stranded emotionally for ever at the age he became famous: 15. And this chimp figure runs counter to his 2001 song Better Man, with its poignant, maybe Darwinian yearning for improvement: “As my soul heals the shame/I will grow through this pain/Lord, I’m doing all I can/To be a better man.”

 

But, of course, it is an outrageous existential humblebrag – as a chimp, Robbie is superior to the boring humanoids: funnier, crazier, braver and more charismatic. Steve Pemberton plays Robbie’s unreliable old dad, Peter, a heartbreakingly unsuccessful Sinatra-adjacent lounge singer who broke Robbie’s heart by abandoning his family but inspired Robbie with a complicated Oedipal need to prove himself, imitate him, gain his attention and surpass him. Alison Steadman plays his adored nan, who always believed in him. Jake Simmance is Gary Barlow, whose songwriting professionalism earns Robbie’s grudging respect.

 

We see young chimpy Robbie audition for hatchet-faced promoter Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Herriman) to join Take That – and the screenplay from Simon Gleeson, Oliver Cole and Michael Gracey gives Williams’s voiceover some carefully droll material about the enduring need to be quite polite about Martin-Smith for legal reasons. As Martin-Smith, Herriman has the funniest line; over dinner, he tells the fresh-faced band to look around the table. “In five years’ time we’ll all hate each other – but we’ll be rich!”

 

That is not quite what happens. Robbie’s substance-abusing antics get him expelled from the band; and he makes a bid for solo stardom with the help of his new girlfriend, Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), while eaten up with jealousy for her band All Saints and their No 1 single. Songwriter Guy Chambers (Tom Budge) unlocks Robbie’s inner talent – and here again there is some interesting, legally constrained joking about Robbie and Guy going on beach holidays together. Robbie is fascinated and woundedly envious of Oasis’s colossal success and yearns for a massive Knebworth show of his own – and for his dad to love him.

 

It is all watchably performed, but the chimp idea is not explored any further than simply making Robbie look like a chimp. We are not leading up to any Statue of Liberty on the beach moment; he just does what he would do anyway. As you gradually get used to him resembling a chimp, the ironising and surreal effect wears off, and the chimp face looks weirdly less compelling than Robbie’s vivid face, seen in pictures over the closing credits. The film is interestingly candid about the toxic, driving force of envy behind a musical career – something many music biopics omit – but in the end, however initially startling and amusing, Robbie-as-chimp feels like a distraction from his all-too-human unhappiness and talent.

 

Better Man is in UK and Irish cinemas from 26 December.

 

3/5

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/2...-surreal-biopic