Better man: inside the head of Robbie Williams (review)

The British singer plays the monkey in an authorized autobiopic that is sometimes a little exhausting but very funny.

Is a filmed hagiography less painful when the hero is played by a monkey? This is the question, a little absurd, a little funny, that poses Better Man : the biopic of Robbie Williams, produced, written and supervised by the person concerned. The story has already been seen a thousand times: a working-class kid who dreams of being Sinatra to please his absent dad, early glory in a boy band, drugs and ambition, glory and downfall, rehab…

The thing about the film is that the star has the face of a very humanized monkey, designed in performance capture, who has the voice of Robbie but the body of Jonno Davies (a young actor seen in Kingsman). A nice thing, basically, which indicates the distance between the film and its subject – and, basically, the passion of its director Michael Gracey, who directed The Greatest Showman with Hugh Jackman as Barnum, for show business hustlers (what Luhrmann’s Elvis aptly called “snowmen” as opposed to “showmen”).

No discourse on true and false, on legend and reality, but just an authorized autobiography, staged like a first film from the 2000s with the tics that go with it (with a montage sequence hyper cut between cocaine and concerts, that kind of thing) until exhaustion. But it works, the same way as Rocketman worked, especially thanks to sympathy capital working class of the star and his hits sung with enthusiasm. Come on, we’re sure you know them by heart.

By Michael Gracey. With Jonno Davies, Robbie Williams, Raechelle Banno… Duration 2h14. Released January 22, 2025