Better Man
Robbie Williams brings us a musical memoir and character assassination with energy and invention to spare.
Hoping to be… a better man
Image courtesy of Entertainment Film Dists Ltd.
The question is not whether we need yet another musical biopic, but whether we need another film about Robbie Williams. There have been several feature-length documentaries about the singer-songwriter, but this is something else entirely. Executive produced and narrated by Robbie Williams himself, this is a musical memoir that bares its teeth, brandishing its subject’s failings and vices with self-flagellating verve. Were it not for the film’s energy, invention and fabulous musical numbers, the self-confessed narcissist would make for hard company to spend 135 minutes with. But the bullet points of Robbie’s hard-knock life and premature stardom are gripping stuff, from the muddy backyards of the arse-end of England (Stoke-on-Trent) to the star-studded galaxy of Brit-pop and ‘Cool Britannia’.
Bullied and belittled as a boy, Robert Peter Williams was kept emotionally afloat by the devotion of his beloved Nan (Alison Steadman) who tells him that there’s no such thing as a nobody. Robbie had always feared that label, which explained the title Nobody Someday of Brian Hill’s 2002 documentary. Repeatedly told he was ugly, stupid and untalented, Robert wanted nothing more than to be famous – like his idol Frank Sinatra. He tells us that, “my DNA is cabaret. I came out of the womb with jazz hands – which was very painful for my mother.” In spite of his misgivings and the demons of self-doubt that haunted him throughout his career, Robbie knew that he had it in him to be a great showman. Good news, then, that this Australian co-production is brought to us by the Melbourne-born Michael Gracey, whose last feature – sniffed at by the critics but embraced by the public – was none other than the P.T. Barnum musical The Greatest Showman (2017). Gracey is a terrific storyteller and choreographer and there are several stand-out production numbers here, including Williams’ ‘Rock DJ’ strutted out on London’s Regent Street with five hundred extras (which feels like a homage to the title track of Alan Parker’s Fame: “I'm gonna live forever…”) and the meet-cute ‘She’s the One’ with fellow pop star Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno) which neatly propels the narrative forward by several months.
It is perhaps inevitable that Robbie’s early success is followed by the consumption of industrial quantities of vodka, ecstasy and cocaine and, rightly so, these scenes are hard to stomach. For much of the time, Robbie makes for unbearable company, what with his arrogance, casual cruelty, self-pity and destructive nature – but there’s always a musical number around the corner to whisk us away to a moment of redemption. There are also excellent performances from Alison Steadman as Nan, Raechelle Banno as Nicole Appleton and Steve Pemberton as Robbie’s frequently absent dad. As for finding an actor to resemble the younger Robbie on screen, the singer is represented as a photorealistic chimpanzee. As Robbie Williams always felt “less evolved than other people,” it seemed a masterstroke, both sidestepping the distraction of a poor lookalike and making the protagonist stand out from the crowd, which is, after all, the whole objective of Robbie Williams.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Steve Pemberton, Damon Herriman, Raechelle Banno, Alison Steadman, Kate Mulvany, Frazer Hadfiel, Tom Budge, Anthony Hayes, Jake Simmance, Leo Harvey-Elledge, Mark Lee.
Dir Michael Gracey, Pro Paul Currie, Michael Gracey, Coco Xiaolu Ma, Craig McMahon and Jules Daly, Ex Pro Robbie Williams, Screenplay Simon Gleeson, Oliver Cole and Michael Gracey, Ph Erik A. Wilson, Pro Des Joel Chang, Ed Jeff Groth, Spencer Susser, Martin Connor, Lee Smith and Patrick Correll, Music Batu Sener, songs by Robbie Williams, Costumes Cappi Ireland, Sound Paul Pirola, Choreography Ashley Wallen, Dialect coach Jenny Kent.
Sina Studios/Facing East Entertainment/Rocket Science/Lost Bandits/Footloose Productions/Azure Centrum/Partizan Films/VicScreen/Screen Australia-Entertainment Film Dists Ltd.
135 mins. Australia/UK/USA/China/Canada/France. 2024. UK Rel: 26 December 2024. US Rel: 17 January 2025. Cert. 15.
