Man! I feel like a Better Man (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)

Starring: Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Steve Pemberton, Kate Mulvany, Alison Steadman, Damon Herriman, Raechelle Banno, Jake Simmance, Liam Head, Jesse Hyde, Chase Hollenweider, Tom Budge, Leo Harvey-Elledge

Director: Michael Gracey

Running Time: 135 Minutes

Rating: R for Sex, Drugs, and Pop Rock ‘n’ Roll

Release Date: December 25, 2024 (Limited Theaters)/January 10, 2025 (Wide Theaters)

What’s It About?: Based on my understanding, Robbie Williams is one of those fellows who’s a whole heck of a lot more popular on the other side of the pond than he ever was in the US of A. I know him best for his pre-Y2K hit “Millennium,” which I have plenty of fond memories of, but he never seemed like the kind of superstar who would get swarmed by rabid fans. But apparently he is in his native land of Merry Ol’ England! His career kicked off in the early 90s as a member of the boy band quintet Take That, and then he eventually broke off for a solo career. In the process, he endured all those vices endemic to the rock star lifestyle: addiction, rocky home life, rollercoaster romances. And eventually, he lived a life worthy of a biopic in which he’s portrayed as a chimp-human hybrid.

What Made an Impression?: Going Ape: Better Man is one of those biopics where the subject plays himself, which you might be surprised about considering what I just said in the last paragraph. To be thorough, though, he didn’t do it on his own! He mostly narrates as his future wiser self, while Jonno Davies provides the bulk of the visual performance with a motion capture routine to set up the CG chimpanzee animation. (Carter J. Murphy contributed child Robbie’s vocals, while Adam Tucker is credited with “additional vocals.”) If you enjoyed the recent LEGO-animated Pharrell documentary Piece by Piece, chances are you’ll also find something to appreciate about Better Man. The narrative is undeniably straightforward and maybe even a little bit cliché, but committing to the chimp gimmick the whole way through is nevertheless a simple and effective trick to increase the freshness a thousandfold.
Single Male Chimp Seeking…: While I was grateful to see Chimpanzee Robbie, I guess it also made me a little greedy, because I couldn’t help but wonder: why wasn’t everyone else a primate? While that may have made for a more visually diverse experience, I must accept that that wasn’t the movie that this creative team wanted to make. Instead, we got what we got because Robbie felt adrift as an ape-man in a sea of ostensibly more normal humans. Still, there was plenty of room for even more flights of fancy. One climactic highlight consists of a concert turning into a chimpanzee battle royale in which Robbie vanquishes various parts of his psyche, and there could have been more of that. The overall gimmick didn’t disappoint, but it did get subsumed into a fairly traditional story. It may have been an honest telling of Robbie’s experience (and perhaps even effective therapy for him), but you kind of get the feeling that Better Man wanted to burst through with even more unbound creativity.

Better Man is Recommended If You Like: Behind the Music, Animal Planet, non-London English accents

Grade: 3 out of 5 Chimpanzees