Film Review: Better Man

I was reluctant to see this biopic of the singer Robbie Williams, but since it’s had good reviews, and there is not much else out, I gave it a go.

I was a teenager in the late 90s and early 2000s in the UK, and Robbie Williams was everywhere. My overriding memory is when I had a summer job in a factory counting screws and putting them into plastic bags. The song Rock DJ by williams played once an hour on the radio in the background.

His music never moved me much but no one could deny his popularity at the time and since.

The film’s conceit is that Williams is portrayed as CGI monkey. This is mostly a gimmick but it is referenced obliquely, and it does make the film visually more interesting. It also avoids the biggest problem with biopics of musicians, that of casting an actor to play a character that is actually a real person and not a character. In most biopics there’s always an uncanny valley type of issue, particularly if you are familiar with the real person.

Apart from the gimmick, this is actually a pretty standard biopic and follows a well trodden path. Williams has always had a cheeky denouement and this comes through in the depiction.

There are dark times, and it’s impressive how the film manages to play these simultaneously for laughs but with the grimness not toned down.

The last biopic I can remember watching was Bohemian Rhapsody. Better Man is less sentimental and formulaic in comparison. There’s still some of that though.

For me this was a bit of a nostalgia trip, I enjoyed it despite not particularly being a fan of music.