Ridiculous Opinions #271
Last week, we went to see Robbie Williams play a show here in the city. For most readers of this newsletter, the name “Robbie Williams” will mean absolutely nothing. Let it simply be known that he is a British pop star that was HUGE in every place but the United States. If you want a bit of the “full” Robbie Williams experience, have a look at this video (Please note that I should probably put a NSFW tag on it):
The video is actually spectacular. He’s brilliant in it, but conceptually, it is an amazing time capsule of what it meant to be a British pop star at the turn of the century, both literally and symbolically. And one should probably also make a very valid assumption that Robbie Williams was whacked out of his brain on drugs when he made it. But the video itself is brilliant, even if you don’t like the song.
So, Williams is fifty-years old right now, just a couple of years younger than me, and fifty-year old pop stars spend a great deal of their time nowadays trying to relive the glories of the past. Seeing him perform last week here in the city was something we did on a whim, Tracey, Harper, Abbey, and myself. He put on a good show, but his show was to promote something. He has a BIOPIC coming out (of course).
Now, before you make too many assumptions about this biopic, you should first have a good, long look at the video above. There’s a certain sense of humor in the video; a certain sense of self-deprecation that makes Robbie Williams unique. And to understand that will help you understand the concept behind the trailer you’re about to watch for his movie:
Yes, that’s right. Robbie Williams is played by a CGI chimpanzee throughout the film. No one else is a chimpanzee in the movie. Just him. Why? Lord only knows.
When I first heard of this film, I was wondering if someone was playing a joke on the whole of the internet. Did they really make a biopic about Robbie Williams where he is played by a CGI monkey? Even after I saw the trailer, I thought someone was just screwing around. Nope! That’s the movie.
So knowing all of this and being a general fan of Mr. Williams, I dragged the family to the theater to watch the movie.
I have a problem with biopics. It’s the same problem that I have with prequels to movies. They just don’t work. The reason is simple: There are no stakes. We already know the ends of these films. We know how these people turn out in the end. There is nothing to be revealed. Someone ends up dead or they conquer their demons or whatever.
Biopics are actually worse than prequels for me, because you can’t tell the entirety of someone’s life throughout the course of a movie. It just ends up being a “greatest hits” compilation of major moments from the subject’s life without any depth. (The ONE exception to this is Malcolm X, which may very well be a perfect film with the greatest acting performance in the history of cinema…but I digress). The best biopics out there focus on particular times in people’s lives. JFK is another great biopic, but it focuses on something very specific and takes its time to deal with thoughtful issues.
But music biopics? No thanks. They’re just not interesting because there is simply TOO MUCH ground to cover. No one believes in the artist. They work hard to get to the top. They stay at the top. They conquer familytrauma/drugaddiction/noonebelievinginthem and then they end up living lives that you just can’t relate to…so much so that they get a movie made about them.
Whenever I watch music biopics, I end up being completely distracted by WIGS. They’re working hard to make us feel that this is authentic, so they slap a terrible wig on the main character (or even worse, the side characters, which they did not have the budget for) and I spend the whole time going, That’s a terrible wig! Thus, I am distracted by the film as a whole.
Or even worse, when the lead actor insists on singing the songs that the subject of the movie sang. I get instantly distracted by the notion that the lead actor occasionally sounds like the subject, but may or may not adopt some vocal affectation that rears its ugly head every few verses, which makes me think, Welp, they’re using their own voice and it sucks.
And then there’s the notion of a music biopic having the lead actor not look anything like the subject at all. I will think, Elton John wasn’t nearly as good looking at Taron Egerton! This film has it all wrong! Or the film will need someone to play the lead character from a young age to an old age. I get distracted by the teenage version of the subject, who eventually morphs into the lead actor and they look nothing alike.
But with Better Man, Robbie Williams is played by…Robbie Williams. What better person to play themselves? But how do you make a fifty-year old Robbie Williams play a seventeen-year old Robbie Williams? Their answer? Make him a friggin’ CGI chimpanzee!
How did they get away with this?
Even more important, How did they make it work?
I’m not going to sit here and say to you all that Better Man is a great work of cinema. It’s not. But it’s really good. So much so that I was genuinely shocked.
The film is riddled with cliches. Drug addiction? Check. Family problems? Check. Bad manager? Check. Terrible, excessive behavior? Check. Redemption story? Check.
But it’s all done by a CGI chimpanzee!
And that CGI chimpanzee is surprisingly moving! Did I tell you it was a musical? It’s not just a music biopic. It’s a musical biopic.
There are some show-stopping numbers in here as well. There is a dance number to Rock DJ that takes place, I believe, on Oxford Street in London that is simply a tour de force of great filmmaking and the scene is exhilarating to watch. There’s some very striking imagery in the film, too (the underwater paparazzi part is stellar).
And it stars a CGI chimpanzee!
But are those cliches there? Yep. Does it meander at times? Sure. And the end of the film very nearly ruined the entire thing for me, it was so bad. (I won’t talk about it here for fear of spoilers, but I will simply say that there were questionable choices that, I suppose, happened in real life that I didn’t like).
So a few weeks ago, I spoke about being bored with movies. But when I see things like this, where people are at least experimenting with cinema, then it makes me happy. Many of you have heard my cupcake movie comparison, but I’ll say it again…certain movies are like cupcakes: beautiful to look at, taste great, zero nutritional value.
But it’s certainly fun to eat a cupcake every once in a while.
