Reviews

Better Man

I still don’t know what Robbie Williams looks like. Perhaps that’s all for the better. The power of Better Man is enhanced tenfold by the clever use of CGI. British pop superstar Robbie Williams plays himself in his own biopic -which makes sense on at least one or two levels- HOWEVER, Williams and every incarnation of Williams in the film has been replaced by an anthropomorphized chimpanzee.

You see, Robbie feels “less evolved” than other people. When I saw the preview, I thought I’d find the dynamic off-putting, a lackluster movie gimmick of sorts. After watching the film, however, I feel this was a stroke of brilliance. It allows the viewer to locate Williams at all times, which can be difficult in a throng or in a boy band, and it also allows for Williams to have a constant air of humility for the viewer cannot ignore his simian-like physical appearance.

The easy comparison of this musical biopic here is A Complete Unknown, a film with fantastic performances, and -yet- Better Man is a better film. One of the reasons for this is I’m not constantly saying to myself: “Timothée Chalamet is far better looking than Bob Dylan could ever imagine being.” Or, more likely, “if Bob Dylan looked like Timothée Chalamet, he wouldn’t have made the music he made.”

I’m going to mention A Complete Unknown a bit in this review, because if you saw the competing musical biographies juxtaposed side-by-side, you might realize how much better this one is. In some ways, Better Man is a typical musician biopic. Robbie Williams’ struggles with substance abuse immediately put me in mind of Back to Black, the most recent Amy Winehouse tell all. Substance abuse is a classic problem of meteoric fame; it came to Williams by age 21, and (imho) it renders silly the problems encountered by Bob Dylan. “They don’t want me to use an electric keyboard.” Oh, I’m sure it was a big deal at the time, but in retrospect it looks very small, especially when we know substance abuse killed Amy Winehouse. How did it not kill Robbie Williams?

The key relationship in Better Man is between Williams and Peter Conway (Steve Pemberton), Williams’ unevolved father. The film makes it very clear that Conway, a minor league singer, would rather be a lounge lizard than a father. Williams’ strive for personal success is as much a cry for parental attention as it is to fill any need for fame. His father instilled in him a love of classic crooners. And dutifully before every concert -like a parental tribute- Williams pays homage to Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.

But that’s a ways away when the film begins.

Before that, Robbie Williams has to take us through his love for showmanship, turning an errant pratfall into a laugh for “Pirates of Penzance,” turning a ho-hum audition into a career-making wink to become part of Take That. For Robbie Williams, the show is about presentation every much as it is about sound. This makes the CGI chimp coup all the more poignant.

And the film LOVES Robbie’s music and showmanship. I made a note at the time of how much I was enjoying “Rock DJ,” a song I’d never heard before. Now, let’s say you’re coming from A Complete Unknown … how much did you enjoy, say, “Blowin’ in the Wind?” Nobody is going to tell you “Rock DJ” is a better or more important song. Those just aren’t true. Not by any measure of how one rates music or art. But in A Complete Unknown, we don’t get a full song, we don’t get what the song means or why it’s important or even a true reaction of how it affects people. “Rock DJ” is a simple, stupid, garbage nothing homage to a party lifestyle, but on screen this scene is so much more fun, so much more alive, so much more electric than the James Mangold take on any Dylan song that if you put the films side -by-side, I’d stop watching A Complete Unknown and concentrate entirely on Better Man. And I say this knowing that Bob Dylan is an American treasure and Robbie Williams is a guy I’d never heard of.

Coming into this film, the only thing I knew about Robbie Williams came from an episode of “Ted Lasso” where Williams is a no-show. Now? I want to own this soundtrack. And while I still don’t know what Williams looks like, I find him a Better Man than most.

♪How white supreme must Donnie T be
Before you can call him the Klan?
How boxed in must a monster be
Before a horror is planned?
Yes, and how many slams must a review have
Before you can call it a pan?

The answer, Boss Hogg, is written in the blog
The answer is in the frogblog♫

Rated R, 134 Minutes
Director: Michael Gracey
Writer: Simon Gleeson, Oliver Cole, Michael Gracey
Genre: I can sing, too!
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Fans of biopics
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Makers of A Complete Unknown, when they realize exactly how weak their picture looks compared with this one.

♪ Parody Inspired by “Blowin’ in the Wind”

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