Kathryn24601

Yes, enjoyed that. Even the reviewer who said she didn’t love it sounded like she did by the end. I think the Times review that just flashed across my timeline is the first truly bad one from a major newspaper. Not that I’ve read it, as it is paywalled. That is pretty good going considering how wild the swing is.

Actual reliable international record sales seem to be impossible to get hold of! There must be a load of data from around the world that is just missing. I know Robbie is hugely popular in countries that never show up when sales and certifications are listed online. I assume that is why he says he has sold more than 80 million albums but Wikipedia will only list 75 million.

I am starting to get Rob withdrawal. He must be doing a load of promo work that is going to be released in the next few weeks, right? At the moment it seems like we’re getting little bursts of activity then nothing for a week…

That’s a great point, Elisabeth. I guess I am just having a case of the anxieties on Rob’s behalf.

So I just watched the video of Rob singing Better Man at the Bambis, and I think this is going to be a problem, folks. He struggles to hit the notes. You can feel him straining. His voice just doesn’t have the brightness in its tone that made that song. He compensates by doing his typical audience interaction bit. It’s ok if he is singing but to a crowd that knows the song and will join in on the choruses, but if he is promoting in places where they don’t (and it’s really not that well-known in Europe) it is going to fall flat. Particularly in America. In America they would expect him to stand on the spot and deliver a vocal. Guh.

I’ve been encouraged by the positive critic reviews but the repeated refrain of, basically, ‘he’s an asshole’ is starting to worry me. The thing I have noticed about Rob is that he is his own harshest critic. I am starting to think that the idea of telling his story from his perspective is not such a great idea if that means the focus is entirely on his flaws and foibles.

It was a surprise screening at Fantastic Fest - which is a genre film convention - last night. A slew of good reactions on Twitter plus a few grumbles (I don’t think this is an audience that would normally go in for musicals or pop stars).

I think Kidz didn’t do so well as a single purely because The Flood persuaded so many people to rush out and buy Progress. The audience already had it. This is also why solo Robbie didn’t end up with that many No1 singles at his height - most fans just bought the album the week of release.

I always find it funny nowadays that Take That sing it in full live while Robbie deliberately does a bait-and-switch to cut it short. Robbie’s youthful charisma has a huge amount to do with its success. It’s never quite the same with one of the others singing it.

Well, this 40 year old who enjoyed her last cruise will definitely go and see the film. Quite a stereotypical view of middle-age there. Don’t forget, Robbie fits into that age bracket himself!

Well, if you saw a film had gotten an average review score of 3.4 out of5/8.3 out 10/85% critics saying it was good, would you think it worth a watch? It’s always hard with aggregation because films that some people love and others hate tend to end up with an average score in the middle, which does not really reflect what people thought of it. I would say that these average scores would certainly not put off anyone already interested or intrigued by the premise, though. Probably not high enough to tempt someone who isn’t already curious, though. There’s quite a lot of ‘that sounds wild, I have to see that’ reaction out there. I think it’ll get people in to cinemas Where Rob is already famous. Not so sure about the US.

Well, TIFF is now over and Better Man is not scheduled at London Film Festival (Unless it is the surprise film), so I guess all the reviews we are going to get until December are in. Currently standing at 3.4 On Letterboxd, 8.3 on IMDB, and 85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Given than the film is divisive and some people really don’t get on with it,I don’t think it is going to get much higher than that. It is possible it will drop with wider reviews but there seems to be enough enthusiasm that I think it will be ok.

It doesn’t really have a chorus - it has a repeated refrain instead. Which it does open the song with. I really like this one.

There wasn’t a debut album at the time they were released as singles. Back then bands released a couple of singles to see if there was enough interest to make an album. Those early singles got added to the first album, but you need something stronger to launch the album proper. Coming out of the dance era they needed to release dance-pop first to build up the interest for A Million Love Songs.

That’s the Mashable review by Kristy Puchko - very positive, but very very spoilery.

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

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.

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.

Ah, that is more like it! And is getting the sort of ‘this I have to see’ responses one would hope for.

Aaand, I’ve just read the extremely spoilery last line of a bad review on Letterboxd that makes it sound absolutely bonkers amazing. So now I don’t know what to think!!

Variety: https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/bette...pic-1236127062/ Playlist: https://theplaylist.net/better-man-review-m...uride-20240902/ So the monkey thing either works for people or it doesn’t. Hopefully it will arouse enough curiosity for people to go and see it, but I am definitely racketing my expectations downwards. Particularly since I am a pedant and I kinda hate whe movies play fast-and-loose with the truth, as this one obviously does.

I loved Rocketman, but it was a very sanitised version of ‘warts and all’. Not as sanitised as Bohemian Rhapsody (which outright lied), but when you compare it to what Elton admitted to in his book it makes him look practically innocent. He did a lot more sex, drugs and violence than the film shows.

It’s way too late to change anything now that it has premiered.

Hmm, I am tempering my expectations also. I just don’t think it is going to be received with the enthusiasm we had hoped for. The few reviews I am seeing on Letterboxd so far also appear to be quite put off by the warts and all nature of it. People always claim they want a warts and all account and that they admire honesty, but I don’t think they really do. They want to be shown sympathetic and likeable character; they want comforting lies. Hence Bohemian Rhapsody doing so well. I am afraid that the many people who think badly of Rob are going to be given ammunition. I hope I am wrong.

The ‘wife’ references in that review have me puzzled!