Better Man

The only music biopic this awards season worth mentioning, Better Man puts a creative spin on Robbie Williams’ life, depicting the British pop star as — what else? — a monkey.

Seemingly a nod to his song “Me and My Monkey” and the film’s early confession that he always felt "less evolved than other people,” the imaginative choice works surprisingly well on a metaphorical level and provides a visually engaging edge as Williams navigates such familiar genre tropes as fame, drug addiction, parental neglect, and immature behavior.

Director Michael Gracey (significantly upgrading from The Greatest Showman) further capitalizes on the gag’s wacky potential with an energetic music-video-style performance of “Rock DJ” set on London’s Regent Street. Borrowing heavily from fellow outside the box biopic Rocket Man while adding its own flourishes, this sequence and others teem with electricity and make the more rote twists and turns easier to stomach.

Within those traditional moments, the writing team refreshingly weaves in honest depictions of songwriting, including *gasp* failure and the need for revisions. Part of an overall well-rounded portrait of a talented but troubled artist, these insights dovetail nicely with multiple gripping human relationships, including Robbie’s ties with his loving grandmother Betty (Alison Steadman, Topsy-Turvy), cabaret “star” father Peter (Steve Pemberton, Killing Eve), loyal friend Nate (Frazer Hadfield), and All Saints singer Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno).

This combination results in a generally potent genre-bucking exercise that uninformed viewers would be wise to follow-up (or, better yet, precede) with the Netflix docuseries, Robbie Williams. Perhaps this one-two cinematic punch will help one of Britain's biggest stars finally break through in the U.S.

Grade: B. Rated R. Now playing at Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Paramount Pictures)