Better Man (2024) | Hollywood Movie

Better Man (2024), directed by Michael Gracey, is a wildly ambitious biopic that turns Robbie Williams’ life into a CGI-charged fever dream, with the pop star portrayed as an anthropomorphic chimpanzee (Jonno Davies in motion capture, voiced by Williams). Chronicling his journey from Take That heartthrob to solo superstardom, the film swings between dazzling musical highs—like the electrifying “Rock DJ” Regent Street sequence—and raw, emotional lows, exposing Williams’ battles with addiction, depression, and fame’s toll.

Gracey, fresh off The Greatest Showman, infuses it with kinetic energy and surreal flair, making it a visual spectacle that dares to defy biopic norms. Davies’ mo-cap performance is a technical marvel, and Williams’ candid narration adds vulnerability, though the script (co-written by Gracey, Simon Gleeson, and Oliver Cole) occasionally stumbles with heavy-handed therapy-speak and an overstretched 134-minute runtime.

The monkey gimmick—tied to Williams’ self-image as a “performing monkey”—mostly works, sidestepping cliché, but its novelty can’t fully mask a predictable rise-fall-rise arc. A box-office flop at $20.3 million against a $110 million budget, it’s a cult classic in the making—batshit, brilliant, and unapologetically weird, earning nine AACTA Awards and a Best Visual Effects Oscar nod.