134 min | R | January 10, 2025 | Paramount Pictures
Michael Gracey depicts Robbie Williams as a CGI chimpanzee and makes it work. The boldness of that choice elevates what could have been another paint-by-numbers music biopic.
Music biopics follow a formula. Troubled childhood. Early success. Addiction and downfall. Redemption through art. Walk Hard parodied the genre so effectively that every film since has had to wrestle with its own clichés. Better Man wrestles by making Robbie Williams a motion-captured monkey. That decision is so audacious it forces you to engage with the material on different terms.
Jonno Davies performs Williams using motion capture technology, co-voiced by Williams himself. The effect is unsettling at first and then strangely moving. The monkey becomes a visual metaphor for how Williams saw himself. Not quite human. Performing for audiences who wanted the spectacle but not the person. The supporting cast, Steve Pemberton and Alison Steadman as Williams’ father and grandmother, ground the story in recognizable human dynamics even as the lead character swings from chandeliers.
Gracey directed The Greatest Showman, which was all spectacle and no substance. This film has both. The musical numbers are staged with energy and invention. The dramatic scenes earn their emotional beats without begging. The script does not shy away from Williams’ self-destruction or the industry that enabled it.