Better Man Review: An Exhilarating Musical!
Robbie Williams was not a name particularly in the popular scope of United States music or the US charts. He was a born star that rose to fame in the United Kingdom with dozens of No. 1 singles and albums since he went solo in 1996 after a five year stint with the boy band Take That. Although chatter of his success made its way to the United States of America, in the way he was in the UK, he wasn’t a household name here despite his raging success in his home country.
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So, when Michael Gracey, having directed one of the most popular movie musicals of the last decade (The Greatest Showman), decided to create a movie musical biopic based on the life of Robbie WIlliams, Roadside Pictures and Paramount Pictures gave it a big thumbs up, ready to distribute it. The only catch was that Gracey wanted to portray Robbie onscreen the way he saw himself, as a computer-generated monkey. Throw it all together and you have a musical biopic, featuring a man displayed as an animal, telling a story most people in the United States aren’t familiar with.
Despite box office numbers, that sounds like a damn good time to this critic. Where audiences have become grounded in their sense of familiarity with a film’s story or characters, feeling comfortable watching already established franchises or IPs, Better Man is exactly what we need, an exhilarating musical with an original idea that will have audience’s hearts soaring in all directions.
Robbie Williams (motion captured by Jonno Davies with vocals by Adam Tucker) knew from a young age that he wanted to be a star and would do whatever it took to become one. So, when he hears on the radio of local auditions to be in a new boy band, Robbie jumps at the chance. Quickly he realizes that one doesn’t always have to be the best in the room, but instead the most confident and cheeky. Securing a stop in the band Take That, Robbie embarks on exactly the life he always wanted, that is, until it becomes the opposite of the life he imagined it would be.
#BetterManMovie is an “electrifyingly demented” musical experience you don’t want to miss. Get tickets to see it now playing in theatres everywhere. https://t.co/4yvUeA7bXE pic.twitter.com/fEL1U8rfoq
— Paramount Pictures (@ParamountPics) January 16, 2025
Where the industry often gets two, maybe three musical biopics a year, Better Man leaves the popular genre in the dust as Gracey and writers Simon Gleeson and Oliver Cole have developed not only the best music biopic in decades but one of the best musicals to grace the silver screen in years. Where the artist’s chronological musical journey is often at the forefront, Better Man focuses more on the personal journey of Robbie Williams as he battles chronic depression in the face of massive fame. It is clear that Williams’ fame and popularity exacerbates his already established mental illness that allows the film to feel like a character study of a man at its center rather than the story of his fame and fortune.
Robbie Williams was a man who had a heightened personality and ego for the industry. In the way that a music career often begins to shape a person, for better or worse, Robbie had such a spark where his antics and personality was the thing that shaped his career rather than the other way around. This is greatly amplified in the film by establishing the character of Robbie and maintaining a strong sense of who he was at the time where the action and decisions he makes tie into his personality and depressive episodes.
Where the script takes the audience on a journey of Williams in a point A to point B manner, it is also an extravagant musical that utilizes William’s songs to heighten the emotion in the film and provide foot tapping sequences that are beyond our wildest expectations. The film provides a mix of musical performances from Williams as well as musical numbers where his songs begin to take center stage and examine stages in his life that fit the tone and lyrics.
Director Michael Gracey takes us through what it took to shoot the Regent Street dance scene in #BetterManMovie. Get tickets to experience it now playing in theatres everywhere. https://t.co/4yvUeA6E86 pic.twitter.com/S94ZIs0A9V
— Paramount Pictures (@ParamountPics) January 10, 2025
For sequences like Rock DJ and She’s The One (two of the best in the film) Gracey masterfully utilizes space and imagination in a way that had this critic levitating out of their seat in awe. There is plenty of emotion within the film’s script but the amount of feeling Gracey is able to evoke in three to four minutes through a single Williams song displays why his story needed to be on a cinematic scale.
The obvious monkey in the room of portraying Williams as much, rather than casting a face actor for the role, was a bold choice that defies what we know about music biopics. Where it could have easily been a gimmick for the film, the CGI nature of Williams begins to fade away early on because of how natural it feels to the story and his personality. It is so seamlessly ingrained in the story that the effects begin to become just a fitting part in the film that never distracts the audience from the magical aspects of Better Man.
Not only was it a fantastic stylistic choice for the film but it allows it to reach into darker territories that become more palatable for the audience. With the amount of drug use and aspects of self harm in the film, Better Man is not afraid to get extremely dark for a musical, because at the end of the day Robbie is at the center of this story and Gracey knew that it needed to ring true to the man behind the mask. Films are such powerful tools for entertainment but also for emotion, information, and even change. Better Man is a perfect example of a film that will not only entertain but remind audiences that the joy of cinema is discovering new stories and viewpoints that reach beyond the world we know.
‘Better Man’ Rating – 5/5
Follow Steph (the Author) on IG – @cinemasteph_7
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