Over the last few years, there's been no shortage of music biopics hitting the multiplexes. From Bohemian Rhapsody to Bob Marley: One Love, and from Rocketman to Back To Black, the market for musicians having their life story told on screen has grown increasingly crowded. But just when it seemed maybe the genre was running out of steam, along comes Robbie Williams biopic Better Man — hot on the heels of brick-based Pharrell Williams doc Piece By Piece — to rip up the rulebook and try something brilliantly, bizarrely new. Directed by The Greatest Showman's Michael Gracey, on paper this new movie sounds like a conventional soup-to-nuts, rags-to-riches tale of how a troublemaker from Stoke-on-Trent helped form the biggest boyband of the 90s and went on to become a global music icon in his own right. But then you see the trailer, and you see that Robbie Williams is played by a CGI ape (aka performance capture artist and actor Jonno Davies), and you realise this is anything but conventional. Check out the madness for yourself below:
"I'm Robbie Williams. I'm one of the biggest pop stars in the world. This is my story, but I'm not going to tell it in an ordinary way, because I don't see myself how others see me." As opening gambits go, Williams' voice-over at the start of this trailer is quite the mission statement. Everything that follows — an apeified take on *that* iconic Knebworth 2003 gig, Steve Pemberton coaching a chimp Williams in the art of performance, dazzling musical numbers both on and off stage — certainly promises we're in for a cinematic experience we'll Never Forget. And if the monkey business of it all seems a little gimmicky on the surface, then this new trailer, set to Williams' anthemic 'Angels' and peppered with moments of poignance as the 'Rock DJ' singer navigates the peaks and pitfalls of fame, allays those concerns. This one looks to be more at the Rocketman end of the biopic spectrum than Bohemian Rhapsody in terms of offering an unflinching portrayal of its subject.
And here's the official synopsis: "Better Man is based on the true story of the meteoric rise, dramatic fall, and remarkable resurgence of British pop superstar Robbie Williams, one of the greatest entertainers of all time [...] The film is uniquely told from Robbie’s perspective, capturing his signature wit and indomitable spirit. It follows Robbie’s journey from childhood, to being the youngest member of chart-topping boyband Take That, through to his unparalleled achievements as a record-breaking solo artist – all the while confronting the challenges that stratospheric fame and success can bring."
Armed with a killer conceptual hook, one of the most charismatic figures in British music history, and the director of the phenomenon that is The Greatest Showman, the stage is set for Better Man to make us all go bananas when it hits UK cinemas on 26 December.