by Brian Susbielles

For many Americans, no one will have ever heard of the name Robbie Williams, a former member of the British boy band Take That who became a massively successful solo artist. The British response to New Kids On The Block, Take That’s run from 1990 to 1996 was equally successful to NKOTB, but Williams, the bad boy of the band who was run out due to his alcohol and drug use, grabbed the most attention for his colorful personality and showmanship that was obvious to many. The scrappy Williams from the northern town called Stoke-on-Trent has made a massive impact in the UK and has his fans here in the US, but is highly rated today mainly at home. Hence, Better Man is a nice introduction into Robbie’s life and career.

But it isn’t a traditional biopic that director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) puts out there. Williams, who plays himself, is portrayed as a chimpanzee with Jonno Davies portraying Williams when he was just a child as well as doing all the motion capture work. It’s truly putting the audience in a bit of disbelief, especially those who never heard of Williams, to see him as an animal. (He has said that at times he felt like a circus monkey performing.) Like in real life, Robbie grew up rough around the edges raised by his mother (Kate Mulvany) and grandmother (Alison Steadman), the latter he dearly is close with, while his father (Steve Pemberton) left the family as a child to make it big as a comic.   

He’s always seen himself as a star and goes at the chance when impresario Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Herriman) is looking for male teens to form a band. Robbie impresses and joins the quintuplet Take That led by lead singer and songwriter Gary Barlow (Jake Simmance), who he becomes close with. The massive success of fame and fortune – just part of a musical biopic troupe – comes with the excess of women, booze, and white powder that affects Robbie’s role with the band. Things change when he falls for Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), one-third of the all-girl group All Saints, and starts to inspire him to reform himself as a solo artist. Yet, her success is higher and Robbie really wants that and gets it at a heavy personal cost. 

The story progresses with unflinching shots of the dark side of fame which the real Robbie dealt with, especially with depression, mixed with incredible shots of how far he went in his performances. Better Man has musical performances that dazzle, namely the extensive choreography in one (manipulated) long take down a London street dancing to Williams’ song “Rock DJ.” It’s a full R-Rated musical swear fest that does not cover up the bad things and Williams does like to call himself, “a f**king twat.” It is Robbie at his highest and looking square at the demons that face him, and Robbie at his lowest when he is a true jerk and terrible to others who love him. 

Better Man invokes a lot of vibes from Rocketman as a musical biopic, but it’s a lot more wild and, to Gracey’s credit, works a lot better than he did with his previous film. Robbie Williams openly playing himself as a chimpanzee disarms viewers as to what they think they will see and will know that things happened as they did because photos of the real Williams accompany the end credits. The surrealism of it all seeing Robbie the chimp instead of Robbie the man is striking as it is accurately metaphorical his entire life and career. 

4 stars

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