They say madness and genius are close together. Then The Greatest Showman maker Michael Gracey must have had liters of genius stashed away at home when he came up with the idea for Better Man: A biopic about Robbie Williams as a chimpanzee, who curses around like a madman, takes drugs and turns the pop world upside down. But what sounds like a complete nonsense is actually one of the most entertaining and emotionally gripping films of recent years. It will be in cinemas from January 2025, I was able to see it in advance.
Robbie Williams as Primate: That’s what Better Man is about
Better Man begins, like so many biopics, at the very beginning: Robbie Williams (originally spoken by Williams himself and portrayed in motion capture by Jonno Davies) grows up modestly in Stoke-on-Trent, England. His father (Steve Pemberton) dreams of being a celebrated entertainer, but leaves the family early. The boy receives love primarily from his mother (Kate Mulvaney) and his grandmother (Alison Steadman).
Check out the trailer for Better Man here:
Better Man – Trailer (German subtitles) HD
His penchant for music and theater leads him to the boy band Take That, with which he celebrates tremendous success. Eventually the band throws him out because of his drug escapades and he begins a solo career. But with his success, his self-doubt, his arrogance and his tendency to excess grow.
Better Man is the answer to a question no one asked. In 2003, during Robbie Williams’ heyday, this film might have made a lot of sense. But now? Robbie Williams is not Taylor Swift. And even die-hard Swifties would frown at a movie that turns their star into a chimpanzee. Gracey’s biopic is (and remains) a curiosity.
Showing Robbie Williams as a monkey is a stroke of luck
But anyone who ventures past the bizarre premise will encounter something from minute 1 Film full of charm. Director and co-writer Michael Gracey portrays the main character as a kind of lovable simpleton who follows his passion to places where everyone seems to be smarter than himself. His cheerfulness, his energy, his love of the stage is laughed at or exploited until he himself sinks into arrogance and cynicism.
And in moments like this, the main character’s appearance turns out to be a stroke of luck: I forgive a wild chimpanzee many barbarities for which I would condemn people. When Robbie Williams explains his primate look in the trailer by saying that he has always seen himself as a little less developed, he is talking about exactly this strength: this pop star, whether innocent or condescending, whether tender or irresponsible, is a force of nature . He’s a tornado, who always looks around desperately at the damage he has caused.
Thanks to the animation, the main character is immediately likeable
The fact that the main character invites you to get excited is not least thanks to the visual effects. The protagonist’s face is a caricature, but only a slight one. The big eyes arouse compassion, the grin benevolence. The technology doesn’t reach the level of the Planet of the Apes reboot, but it’s precise enough to immediately classify even fleeting emotions. That’s why the mischievous humor or the fear of the animal hero works. I fell in love with this monkey in five minutes.
It is obvious that the film does not reinvent the wheel dramaturgically: the pattern of rise and fall takes place along predictable paths through initial successes, excess, healing and reconciliation. Merciless managers, sex escapades, drug crashes, relationship implosions – all of this has been seen enough in the biopic genre. But it’s beside the point: this cheerful, clumsy, naive main character is a pleasure to follow, even on well-trodden paths.
And unlike other genre representatives like Bohemian Rhapsody, who gloss over or otherwise distort the fate of their characters, Better Man is brutally honest at times: Robbie Williams treated old friends like dirt, swapped loved ones for cocaine excess and drove relationships into the wall with the utmost rock star arrogance, at least that’s what the scenes in the film suggest.
Better Man is a colorful fever dream that moves you to tears
But perhaps the film’s greatest strength is its visuals: Better Man is full of bright colors and rapid cuts that transform many scenes into a visual rush. In an accident scene, for example, the obstacle suddenly becomes the surface of water, which the car breaks through like a projectile and sets off a kind of dream sequence.
The dance performances in particular, for example to the song Rock DJ, unfold like elaborate gala numbers with countless participants and encourage you to sing and dance along. In general, Gracey knows how to use the work of his main character very effectively. He plays Angels to a funeral scene, and I would like to see those who are not fighting back tears here.
In the end, Better Man remains a unique biopic from start to finish a work for the heart. It seems more like a fantastic tragicomedy than a film biography. By literally making a monkey of its main character, it avoids many tedious discussions about factual fidelity.
Rather, it replaces the ponderous significance of some genre colleagues with a light-footed flood of colors that always captivates but never overwhelms. This may be why Better Man disappears from memory more quickly than tragic epics like Elvis or Walk the Line: Michael Gracey prefers humor and speed, tragic moments rarely last and are not repeated.
As a spectacle, Better Man makes no claim to biographical completeness. This raises the question of what this strange, bizarre film actually wants in the cinema. Apparently no one expected him or explicitly wanted him there.
It is precisely because the film seems so out of place that it is also so likeable: He doesn’t wag his historical finger around, he doesn’t explain the human condition using the example of a rock star, nor does he hide behind an ultra-precisely imitated era. It’s enough for Better Man to simply be entertaining, and that’s exactly why it nails its main character perfectly.
Better Man opens in German cinemas on January 2, 2025