Better man on Canal Plus: 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.

Released in cinemas at the start of the year, the astonishing Better Man is broadcast this Friday evening on Canal Plus, and can be seen in streaming on MyCanal. Our review:

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 Better Man poses: 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 taken between the film and its subject – and, basically, the passion of its director Michael Gracey, who made 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 hyper cut sequence montage between cocaine and concerts, that kind of thing) to the point of exhaustion. But it works, in the same way that Rocketman worked, especially thanks to the star’s working class sympathy 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.