Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Better Man’ on VOD, the Goofy Robbie Williams Biopic That May Drive You Ape

Well, at least Better Man (now streaming on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video) isn’t the same old musician biopic. Although honestly, if it was, it might’ve been better for the movie’s bottom line, considering the live-action drama in which British pop star Robbie Williams is rendered as a CGI chimpanzee was quite the flop, grossing $19 million worldwide after spending $110 million to make it. Although Williams’ relative anonymity outside his native England is a factor, perhaps the chimp thing was an artistic gamble that didn’t pay off – it’s a rather bananas decision that ended up being a nit too big to pick for potential moviegoers, and I’ll stop there with the simian references, and also apologize. Now why Williams, who produced the film and provides voiceover narration, chose to ape-ify himself is the question; there’s a line in the movie where he narrates about feeling “unevolved” that sort of explains the thematic choice. On the more practical side of things, it makes the movie stand out amongst the chaff, and prompts us to scratch our heads and come to the conclusion that Williams might not take himself as seriously as other superstar biopic subjects.

BETTER MAN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: In voiceover, Williams describes himself as “cheeky,” as in, of course, “cheeky monkey.” But don’t read into that too heavily, because chimpanzees are apes, not monkeys. (I guess “cheeky ape” doesn’t have the same ring to it.) Anyway, we meet Robert when he’s a young chimp (voiced by Carter J. Murphy) singing along to Frank Sinatra on TV with his dad, Peter (Steve Pemberton), a cop who dreams of being famous. And so Robert insists, “My DNA is cabaret,” having inherited his need for attention and adulation from his ol’ man – who not only skips Robert’s big stage debut in the school play to do corny lounge-act shtick, but up and leaves the family so he can chase his dream. Enraged, Robert’s mother Janet (Kate Mulvany) throws her ex’s ugly velvet jacket in the dumpster, and Robert digs it out. He loves his father, and will spend decades wrestling with the pain and confusion of his departure. 

Now it’s worth noting that Better Man frequently features its characters bursting out into song. The movie adheres to the traditional musical style more than most biopics, with Ape Robbie breaking into Williams hits like “Rock DJ” in the middle of the street, while also including the usual reenactments of big-stage career highlights, e.g., “Let Me Entertain You,” performed for 125,000 people at Knebworth. Now, back to your scheduled program: Fifteen-year-old Robert – he hasn’t become Robbie yet – hones his edge on the cruel and dismissive tones of a school guidance counselor and tries out for a boy band. He gets the gig, and the world erupts with the glittering lights of a giant unseen disco ball. That band becomes Take That, and that’s when he becomes Robbie. He doesn’t like the name, but, the real Williams narrates, it was “something I could hide behind.”

Fame slams into Robbie as fame is wont to do, prompting him to booze it up and honk a whole lotta cocaine. He often sees younger ape versions of his ape self taunting him when he performs – dude’s pretty insecure, it seems. He’s nearly too wasted to make it through a big Take That show, during which one of his bandmates, wearing assless pants, chides him with big gleaming gobs of irony: “Don’t make us look stupid.” Next thing you know, the other four Take Thaters are suggesting that Robbie should pursue a solo career. Which he does, but it’s not like he’s cleaned up his act. He meets and falls for All Saints girl band singer Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno), who’ll eventually move on to – ulp – Liam Gallagher. 

Robbie connects with producer and songwriting partner Guy Chambers (Tom Budge), who helps him go from performing for a handful of radio-station contest winners to achieving the big dream of playing Knebworth. But as Robbie reaches his career pinnacle, he’s reached a personal low: Drugs drugs drugs, the alienation of all his friends, the death of his beloved grandmother, the ever-complicated relationship with his dad. This seems like the kind of movie that’ll feature a tearful confession in group therapy and perhaps a big triumphant climactic musical performance, but I can neither confirm nor deny that. However, I will say he’s a chimp through the entire film, a chimp among humans, and he never sees another chimp-person at all, and nobody ever comments on or seems to notice the chimp thing. Curious!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Better Man’s left-of-center ebullience seems inspired by vibrant Elton John bio Rocketman. And for some reason, the recent Planet of the Apes films come to mind.

Performance Worth Watching: I’m intrigued by the conglomerative work that went into portraying Robbie Williams in this film: The man himself narrates and does some singing. Jonno Davies plays Ape Robbie via motion-capture and his voice. Adam Tucker does some additional singing for Ape Robbie-as-played-by-Davies. And again, Murphy voices him as a youngster. Part of me wonders if this is why the film struggles a bit to piece together who Ape Robbie The Movie Character into a fully-formed protagonist.

Memorable Dialogue: Robbie meets Nicole, and he briefs her on the current state of his career:

Robbie: I have some lyrics. I mean, they’re basically different takes on how I hate myself.

Nicole: Oh, a Christmas album, then!

Sex and Skin: A brief shot of Robbie in bed with a trio of nuded-up ladies.

Our Take: Better Man is a conceptual muddle that’s a big swing and a whiff, but you kind of admire it anyway because it stands out among a field of dozens of relatively recent music biopics content to take four balls and a free base. The chimp idea ultimately is little more than a veneer that pushes the film toward satire – not that this is anywhere near the witheringly funny commentary of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story – but leaves one uncertain of what to do with the earnestness that frequently emerges in the narrative, and gets quite heavy during the third act. Williams’ very real abandonment and addiction issues clash mightily with the chimp ridiculousness, and the end result is more baffling than it is insightful or empathetic. 

I do, however, love how Chimp Robbie is a constant reminder that biopics, or any BOATS (Based On A True Story) movies for that matter, are acts of creative license, and not intended to be an encyclopedia entry. Anyone beefing that a movie is “inaccurate” in its portrayal of a real-life subject seeming cannot grasp the idea of fictionalization via fake lighting, the use of written dialogue and other things that make movies what they are, up to and including sequences in which people suddenly erupt into song. It is not true. Chimp Robbie asserts that by merely existing. But in this case the rampant untrueness, paired with a Behind the Music boilerplate narrative arc, kept me at arm’s length from emotional involvement.

I digress, slightly. The film’s general visual aesthetic further stands up as a function of artifice. Director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) seamlessly blends the CG ape with his surroundings, which frequently look fuzzy and unconvincingly flat. Sure, Gracey’s traditional musical sequences show considerable dynamic verve, the camera weaving in and out and here and there as people, some of whom are probably animated as well, dance and sing. But it looks like a strange blend of cartoon and live action that tumbles into the uncanny valley and can’t climb back out. Maybe Williams feels like a circus ape when he performs – he can be quite the ham – but that doesn’t mean a literal depiction of such is a viable concept for a movie. 

Our Call: I didn’t hate Better Man from chimpan-A to chimpan-Z, but ultimately, making a monkey out of Robbie Williams is an idea too difficult for Gracey to pull off. SKIP IT. 

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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