You might think rock stars are little more than monkeys. Robbie Williams confirms it.
In his screen biography, 鈥淏etter Man,鈥 he uses a CGI version to demonstrate he was 鈥渓ess evolved鈥 than other singers and didn鈥檛 fit it. Thus, the conceit.
Watching a monkey (a CGI monkey) go through the stages of stardom is awfully fun, but the idea doesn鈥檛 always hold up. At some point, Williams should have felt accepted and in the same arena as other music stars. He could regress, for example, but we should have gotten something other than a haircut to make this concept seem like more than a gimmick.
Thankfully, Williams鈥 narration is spiked with snark. He isn鈥檛 afraid to call out those who were less than generous to him and, in the film鈥檚 over-arching theme, tries to make sense of a father who left the family to pursue his own degree of stardom.
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鈥淏etter Man鈥 bursts with music and helps audiences understand Williams in a way that a straight biography couldn鈥檛.
Director Michael Gracey approaches this with Williams鈥 irreverence and gets more connection between reality and celebrity than you might imagine.
Getting a monkey (played in a motion-capture suit by Jonno Davies) to go through the stages of pop stardom is just as fun as tweaking Al Yankovic鈥檚 life in 鈥淲eird: The Al Yankovic Story.鈥 The film isn鈥檛 afraid to thump his life as a teen idol in Take That. But it also doesn鈥檛 hesitate to talk about drugs and alcohol in a way that Amy Winehouse鈥檚 biography never could.
The film moves much faster than Williams鈥 career ever did. It propels him from one situation to another in record time and retains a love for family and pop idols (he was enamored with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.) that makes this supremely honest.
Without the monkey gimmick, 鈥淏etter Man鈥 probably wouldn鈥檛 have sold. There isn鈥檛 enough surprise in Williams鈥 story to merit the full-Elton. But giving it a goose, as Williams did with many talk show appearances, makes it highly interesting and less dependent on the actual story.
While someone could have said something about the way he looks, the situation suggests acceptance in a way that Williams never embraced.
Laughs聽鈥 some raunchy 鈥 abound in the film and, if you listen closely, some of the longings edge particularly close to the heart.
鈥淏etter Man鈥 is a fun film 鈥 one that doesn鈥檛 rely on particulars but insists you care about the one who did it his way. The biggest surprise is what kind of impact something like this will have on Williams' career.
