2024 was not a bad year for movies, but there were more than a few things I felt deeply disappointed by. One of those was the musicals. The musicals 2024 had to offer weren’t just bad, many of them simply failed to function as musicals. Both Emelia Perez as well as Moana 2 sadly fall into this category. Heck, as anybody who’s talked to me at all in the last four months knows, I’m loath to shout the praises of Wicked, but at least that film has musical numbers that don’t feel wildly out of place (even if I do feel the majority of them are quite lifeless). Considering all of that, it was a welcome surprise for me to find that Michael Gracey’s latest musical biopic about the life of Robbie Williams, Better Man, is nothing short of spectacular. Despite the film having a massive budget, its theatrical distribution was deeply flawed across the US, and that also meant it wasn’t playing anywhere in Iowa City. So, to watch it I had to either drive to Des Moines or wait for the film’s digital release. I, unfortunately, chose the latter. I say “unfortunately” because after finally buying it on Prime (worth every penny), I can say with some conviction: Folks–this thing is electric. Watch it with the biggest crowd on the biggest screen possible.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” you might be saying right now. “Ben. Hold your horses.
Who even is this Robbie Williams fella you claim this movie is about?”
This may be hard for Americans to grasp, but he’s one of the biggest pop stars in the world. In fact, the soundtrack for this film has become his fifteenth #1 album in the UK. Making him tied with The Beatles for most #1 albums in that category. Heard of them? “Whoa, whoa whoa,” you might be saying right now. “Ben. Hold your horses. If this movie is about this huge pop star then why is he a monkey on the poster?” Well, as he explains in the trailer for the film, he’s always seen himself as “a little less evolved.” So…this is a long way of saying that Robbie Williams is played by a monkey for the entire film. Obviously not a real monkey (although you know that’s something Williams probably pitched to the filmmakers at one point), 32-year-old Jonno Davies plays monkey-Robbie in a mocap suit, and Williams himself narrates it (and sings most of the songs). While this may sound like a bit that the movie would be better off not committing to, it flippin’ works. In this cinephile’s opinion, no other film has ever managed to have a full CGI lead this successful. After a while, you completely forget about it, partly because of the stunning visual effects work, but also because it feels weirdly fitting for Robbie. The monkey may not look like Robbie Williams more than any other actor they might’ve gotten to play him, but he certainly has the essence of Robbie more than any other actor they might’ve gotten to play him.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” you might be saying right now. “Ben. Hold your horses. I may not know much about movies, but I do know that a musical is only as good as its plot.”
Incorrect. In truth, a musical is only as good as its musical numbers. For instance, Grease’s plot is a bunch of convoluted, outdated nonsense, but man, when Travolta is singing and dancing in front of (and about) a car in a not-quite t-shirt-not-quite-tank-top, you don’t really care. In the greatest musical ever, Singin’ in the Rain, there’s a part where Don Lockwood is pitching a scene that will close the picture they’re working on. What follows is an entire dream ballet that seemingly takes place in Don’s mind. It has almost nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Nothing that happens in that scene involves any of the other characters besides Don. It feels like it’s from a different movie. And yet–it’s the best. It’s all vibes and incredible dancing. That’s what matters. Aside from just rocking, it also tells you something about Don Lockwood by showing you what’s going on inside his head at any given moment. It’s a funny realization. The plot of Better Man may not be anything revolutionary–in fact, it follows many of the tropes that people often bemoan in reference to music biopics–but with everything else going on in the film, it’s hard to think about that. I don’t care about how quick Robbie’s third act realization and redemption is, because it’s shown over the course of an incredible and emotional ballad. This is the case when talking about the rest of the musical numbers as well. Better Man takes all of those lessons about its musical numbers to heart by prioritizing glorious imagery and emotion rather than prioritizing the plot.
In an early scene, after Robbie’s boyband signs a record deal, they burst out of the executive’s office (hitting a stranger’s face with the doors as they do) and break out into the best musical number I’ve seen in years: ‘Rock DJ’. The entire sequence plays out in a “oner” (one shot), showing Robbie, his boyband, and hundreds of extras dancing about Regent Street. Shot on location in England, even though the sequence is digitally aided (it’s not really a oner), there’s always a practical element going on. When Robbie and his boyband hop onto pogo sticks and bounce down the street on them in synchronization with the music–that’s real. It took months of training. Just before the final act of the song, all the music cuts out except for the percussion and vocals, and you wonder if this is the most exhilarating the film will get before it immediately proves you wrong in the final 40 seconds, in which Robbie jumps on top of a bus before dancing in front of hundreds of extras on the street. It’s more energetic and electric than pretty much any action scene from 2024, let alone a musical sequence (I’m listening to it as I write this right now and I’m getting excited).
“Whoa, whoa whoa,” you might be saying right now. “Ben. Hold your horses. A big exciting dance number is all fun and good, but what of the slower songs?”
Never fear. The ballads are done with incredible confidence and energy as well. In a scene soon after, in which Robbie is kicked out of the boyband, he drives away in the pouring rain and belts ‘Come Undone’. As stated above, Better Man’s plot is hardly reinventing the wheel, but the film gets around this by focusing more on raw emotions and Robbie’s character. As Robbie speeds down the highway in the rain, you feel him coming undone and reckoning with himself. There have been plenty of music biopics over the last two decades, but few seem to have a take on the artist as a character. Unlike some other big-budget, new release films whose only given reason for why you should care about the characters is that “Hey–you saw Bucky Barnes in another movie, so you should care about him here”, Better Man has a real take on the character that might seem over the top and goofy at first, but it takes less than five minutes to empathize and feel with Robbie as a protagonist. Not many Americans know who Robbie Williams is, which makes it all the more impressive when the movie convinces you that you should care.
So folks, please experience this thing for yourself. The film is currently streaming on Paramount+ and rentable anywhere you rent movies.
