The first reactions are out for Melbourne-shot Robbie Williams film Better Man, which looks to be a crowd pleaser – even if it is very unusual for a musician biopic.
The film’s most unusual bent comes from Australian director Michael Gracey’s (The Greatest Showman) decision to depict Williams as a CGI chimpanzee for the majority of the story, which was achieved by using actor Jonno Davies performing in a mo-cap suit.
The film, which was shot at Victoria’s Docklands Studio in 2022, recently premiered at both Telluride Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). There were rumours about it including a ‘computer-generated monkey’ way back in December of 2021, which we covered in this story.
ScreenHub: Robbie Williams biopic ‘Better Man’ to shoot in Victoria
What do the critics think?
Pete Hammond of Deadline said of the film that it was ‘a recognizable [sic] cradle-to-comeback story so familiar to those who rise to the top, only to fall and rise again.’ But with the addition of the chimp? ‘This is the equivalent to casting Lassie to play Frank Sinatra.’
Peter Debruge of Variety wrote that among the film’s highlights are ‘the jaw-dropping Rock DJ number staged on London’s busy Regent Street, shot over four days and stitched together to look like a single unbroken take,’ and ‘the ‘Come Undone’ sequence where he speeds away from the boy-band breakup, nearly crashes into an oncoming bus, and plunges into a sea of paparazzi.’
In sum, it sounds bizarre – but in a way that works. We’ll have to wait until it hits Australian cinemas to be the judge of that.
What does Robbie Williams think about being a chimp?
Robbie Williams himself made a surprise appearance at TIFF this week to accompany screenings of the film, with a performance featuring his greatest hits.
‘Okay. The monkey, right?’ he asked his audience at TIFF, in between songs. ‘You can be honest with me, this is my focus group right now … [in the] first ten minutes, hands up if it was weird’.
A number of hands went up in the audience, which he confirmed was ‘good’.
‘[the director] Michael Gracey came to see me and said “what spirit animal do you see yourself as?” and I was trying to find some self worth for myself, and because I’d watched fucking Tony Robbins or whatever that day, I was like, “I’m a lion”. And he was like “mmm, are you though?”
‘and then I was like “oh … am I a monkey?” and he went, “yeah, that’s right”.
the equivalent to casting Lassie to play Frank Sinatra.
Pete Hammond, Deadline.
‘He said “everyone in the film is gonna be human apart from you, and you’re gonna be a CGI monkey”, and before he’d finished the sentence I was on board … Yes was the answer.’
Williams performed at a post-screening party at the Shangri-La Hotel in Toronto, where he debuted ‘Forbidden Road,’ an original song from the film that will be submitted for the Oscars. You can watch the video of his mid-set chat below, from Deadline.
‘I never though anything about it until the first focus group,’ Williams continued. ‘ We got the question “why the monkey?”, and I said “I dunno!”‘
‘I think it works [though] … not everything has to make sense. In fact, why did they consider Elton John to be human in his [film]?’ He joked, before clarifying quickly: ‘That’s not an Elton John diss.’
Williams initially found fame as a member of boy band Take That (1990–1995). He went solo in 1996, gaining massive radio-play success with hit songs such as Angels, Rock DJ, Let Me Entertain You and Better Man.
Better Man is expected to hit cinemas on 26 December 2024, with distribution in Australia being handled by Village Roadshow.
