This biopic in theaters on January 22 makes a confusing artistic choice by presenting a singer well known to the public in the guise of a chimpanzee.
The biopic is a cinematographic genre which naturally arouses the curiosity of spectators: it often allows us to discover the life of an artist we admire, his demons, but also what could have made him successful. This Wednesday, January 22, a film of the genre pulls out all the stops with a surprising and risky artistic choice.
Telling the story of the life of a successful singer, so far, nothing unexpected. But in place of the musician in question, we do not find a human being played by an actor made up to closely resemble the one he is playing. Spectators who go to the theaters will discover… a monkey.
This is the astonishing ambition of Better Man : tell the story of Robbie Williams, ex-member of the group Take That and author of hits Rock DJ, Angels, Feel,… by making him take on the appearance of a chimpanzee. It’s the actor Jonno Davies who hides under the special effects. In an interview, Robbie Williams himself justifies this choice by the fact that he has always “seen himself as someone less evolved”. And to the director, Michael Gracey, to add: “That’s how he sees himself […] It’s a film from Rob’s point of view.”
But this surprising gamble paid off, since American critics were completely carried away by Better Man. On Rotten Tomatoes, the biopic garners 88% positive reviews from the press and 92% from the public. The Washington Post praises the way in which the director “reinvents the biopic”, while Empire sings the praises of “the biggest cinematic surprise of the year”. For Entertainment Weekly, it is even a “beautifully moving and engaging” film.
On the other hand, the public did not respond to the meeting in the United States, where the biopic did not attract crowds, with only $580,000 collected for its first day of operation. The Huffington Post explains it less by the quality of the film, or by the strange artistic bias, than by the popularity of Robbie Williams in the United States. Unlike in Europe, the singer has never made it across the Atlantic and the American public is not familiar with his work. But the French can satisfy their curiosity about the life of this artist on the occasion of the cinema release of Better ManJanuary 22, 2025.