“Better Man” (2024) is a biopic about Robert, stage name “Robbie” Williams. Who? Apparently, he is a big pop star in the United Kingdom. What makes it different from other biopics? A CGI chimpanzee plays Robbie Williams. What?!? That sounds more like a horror film, and he is going to rip off people’s faces. I could barely get behind Pharrell as a Lego in “Piece by Piece” (2024) before I saw it. At least they use Williams’ voice? Maybe he is really good, and I’ll recognize some of his songs or grow to like him? Actually, he is not the best singer, and he is the first to admit it. I recognized NOTHING! It is a rags-to-riches inspirational story where all his dreams come true, and he can lift his family out of poverty. Well, no, he suffers from depression, self-medicates and treats everyone like crap. So if you don’t know who he is, won’t leave liking his music, hate the idea of watching a chimp for over two hours and will find him downright unlikable, why should you watch this film? It is the exact question that I kept asking myself. I missed one screening, and I only went to the second screening because it was the first official screening of 2025, had an earlier start time, and everyone raves about Michael Gracey whose directorial debut, “The Greatest Showman” (2017), is beloved, but I cannot watch because circus animals.
The first forty-one minutes of “Better Man” are pretty standard fare for a pop star. Robert has daddy issues. Peter (Steve Pemberton) dreams of becoming a star and grooms Robert to crave the spotlight, but his nan, Betty (Alison Steadman), and mother, Janet (Kate Mulvany) try to keep his priorities straight. Robert is only good at one thing: getting attention and stealing the spotlight. So he follows his dad’s footsteps and joins an incredibly successful boy band called (checks Wikipedia because at least Robbie Williams is a name that sounds vaguely familiar) “Take That.” I guess that you had to be there because even with the much-raved Regent Street sequence of “Rock DJ,” Gracey did not make me buy it, and maybe that’s the point because by the movie’s finale and during the closing credits, the singing and music improve.
Robbie is playing to the audience, a dancing monkey, but he has no sense of self that is not self-condemning, which requires a lot of self-medicating (alcohol and drugs). After forty-one minutes, “Better Man” finds its emotional grounding and keeps its foot on your neck until you are weeping in the theater. Forget biopic. Forget rehab drama. It is a movie about how to stop hating yourself by becoming yourself. Pretend that you are just watching a movie about some random guy, which you are because no one knows of Robbie Williams in the US, and it is a much more textured, nuanced film even despite Gracey committing so many visual sins. The visual texture is deliberately grainy, and even when the colors are bright, they are overcast and somewhat faded, which is probably to anchor the film in realism. In some excellent romantic song and dance sequences between Robbie and Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), a singer from an all-female pop band “All Saints” (I know them), Gracey frames them disastrously so the lines of their bodies cannot be fully appreciated. Please directors of musicals and action films: MORE LONG SHOTS!!! Despite this cardinal sin, give me simian Robbie and Nicole over “La La Land” (2016).
Editors Martin Connor, Jeff Groth, Lee Smith and Spencer Susser and co-writers Gracey, Simon Gleeson and Oliver Cole have a deep understanding of the story and know their way around a montage. Normally I hate flashbacks of scenes that already appeared in the film, but in “Better Man,” the flashback contrasts the present, and the present is a more desolate and lonelier place. They function as an emotional truth of how even an imperfect past can be seen as preferable to the present. This film gets loss and self-loathing on a bone deep level that most films try to gloss over and get to the other side. Of course, Williams is still alive and thriving, so he obviously gets there, but it does not seem like a predestined given. It is hard earned. Also the more abstract the sequences become, it transcends the specifics of Robbie’s very particular story of luck and loss. The film becomes more emotionally resonant, relevant and universal.
What happened at the forty-one-minute mark of “Better Man” to win me over? Robbie fails, not from trying hard, but from screwing up. He is being sacked, and he treats the moment to seek revenge and takes the seat of punishment like one of his spotlights by treating it like a playground or whimsical stage performance. When he sees his inner demons, which resemble his past selves, he screams louder into the microphone so he cannot hear their threats. These responses suppress his real feelings, but they also help him survive and thrive. At some point, he must stop performing for himself and face the pain, but he was worthy of investment because he is “competitive…there’s an energy to revenge.” That kind of energy keeps people alive.
“Better Man” is ultimately a film about overcoming suicidal thoughts, which is subtle throughout the movie, but ramps up until it is obvious in the end or should be. If you are sick of trite, inspirational treacle and are concerned that the title signals the usual, “It gets better” crap, it does not, or at least it does not in a conventional way. It feels very solitary, and desolate, but still manages to convey a grim joy. When Robert comes to terms with his dad, it does not feel like some punk out, toxic positivity BS of forgiveness, but an act of undeserved generosity and loving kindness.
“Better Man” failed in one important way. Even if you like the musical and are rooting for Robbie, the end credits which finally show him as a human being are insufficient to help you recognize him if you pass him in the street. The bad news: Williams is no Pharrell so you will not be rushing to listen to his music after the credits roll. It should somewhat be a two-hour fourteen-minute infomercial that will leave us wanting more, but it is completely possible to separate the man from the story. One and done. I’m good. No more Robbie Williams for me.
The good news: Williams is no Pharrell. His collaboration with filmmakers spoken in his own words gives the impression of a raw portrait of an entertainer’s worst self, not a PR stunt to win over the public. In the end, the guy who flunked out of high school has a way with words and became an artist! He may have some talent after all. Also, kudos to Jonno Davies whose physical acting made the CGI possible as the chimp.
