Pop Culture Pick: Let Better Man Entertain You

The Robbie Williams biopic impressed me

Welcome to Pop Culture Pick, a catch-all for subjects I want to highlight outside of the usual weekly Weekend Watch columns. In this edition, an appreciation for Robbie Williams biopic Better Man. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite

While music biopics are not a new phenomenon, the awards success and box office bonanza of 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody has certainly led to a renewed enthusiasm for them.

But while Rhapsody itself and some recent entries into the genre have opted for more of a straightforward approach marking a certain set of milestones in the artist or band’s development, others go in a refreshingly different direction.

One prime example –– which arrived in US cinemas on 25 December for an awards-qualifying run, launched in the UK on Boxing Day and will be out in the States for wide release this week –– is Robbie Williams biopic Better Man.

Though the film, directed by Michael Gracey from a script he wrote with Simon Gleeson and Oliver Cole, does follow some of the usual beats, tracking Williams from his childhood, through his recruitment into UK super group Take That and further into his solo career, it does so with a few major differences.

First, let me address the chimp in the room. Yes, through the whole film, Williams is played by a CG monkey (primarily via performance capture by actor Jonno Davies, with Williams providing his voice and some narration). This makes the film so much more alive than some of the more basic biopics we’ve seen.

Everyone else in the film is human and no one makes any mention of Williams being a primate (an idea that Gracey suggested when Williams talked about feeling less evolved and like a “performing monkey” when playing concerts), but it works so perfectly, encapsulating both Williams’ cheeky demeanor and his attitude to his stardom.

I’ll freely admit that I was never a big fan of Williams –– I always found him too abrasive for my tastes. But Better Man certainly helped me see the human side of him, even if that humanity was wrapped in a singing simian.

What also works about the movie is that it’s a warts-and-all portrayal of Williams and the issues he’s not only faced but brought upon himself. This is not a hagiography which seeks to show us how great he is. In his own narration, Williams describes himself in various denigrating terms. Yes, we get to see how well he performs, but the movie is shot through with honesty. It puts it more along the lines of the underseen Rocketman than, say, Rhapsody.

Better Man makes a virtue of its limitations –– the team couldn’t get access to Take That songs written others for the most part and focuses on Williams’ songs (largely co-written with others) to great effect. Angels in particular, which has long since been a staple at funerals, is used for one here.

Williams himself isn’t perfect and the film is not either –– there are sequences that are audacious but don’t always quite work, such as when some past ape forms rise up to take him down at a giant concert, putting the terms “monkey on your back” and “facing your demons” on screen in such literal fashion that the result is chaos rather than revelation.

All in all, though, I’m somewhat in awe of what Gracey –– who previously made The Greatest Showman –– and his team have achieved.

A Better Man is in UK cinemas now and on limited release in the US. It’ll be on wide release on 10 January.