Why Lego is the perfect way to tell the life story of musical genius Pharrell Williams

Never mind the regular documentary, the Lego-inspired “blockumentary” Piece By Piece is the perfect way to capture the essence of hit-maker Pharrell Williams, writes Leigh Paatsch.

From a uniquely inspired “blockumentary” to the return of a much loved actor, there’s plenty to like on the big screen this week.

PIECE BY PIECE (PG)

Jay-Z and Pharrell Williams in Lego form in Piece By Piece.

Director: Morgan Neville (30 Feet from Stardom)

Starring: the voices of Pharrell Williams, Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Missy Elliott

Rating: ★★★½

Building up to a perfect sound

The documentary? Been there, seen that.

A blockumentary? Nope. Never seen one of those before.

Remarkably, that’s exactly what’s coming your way with Piece By Piece, a production primarily designed to chronicle the colourful life, times and music of singer-songwriter-producer Pharrell Williams.

However, in a radical departure from the familiar format underpinning virtually every other music doco, the Williams story is told using the same striking animation style that has powered The LEGO Movie and its various spin-offs.

Remarkably, all those interlocking bricks serve as the perfect metaphor for all those interlocking beats that have made Pharrell Williams one of the most significant (and prolific) musical talents of the past few decades.

Even if you walk away from Piece by Piece thinking the LEGO factor is a gimmick, you will definitely concede it is a wildly successful one.

Particularly in the early stretches of the movie, which focus exclusively on Williams’ formative years as a kid growing up inside a vibrant music scene that miraculously changed the face, sound and feel of hip-hop.

Lego Justin Timberlake in Pharrell Williams documentary Piece By Piece.

It was here, in an obscure town named Virginia Beach, that Williams attended school with the likes of other future geniuses such as Timbaland and Missy Elliott.

The intensity of the collaboration and innovation literally pulsing through this bunch of young amateurs resulted in the formation of The Neptunes, a band and production collective that eventually propelled Williams to the big time.

Sure, this all might read like a standard rags-to-riches tale, and in many ways it is.

However, where Piece by Piece builds up to something truly different is how it uses its LEGO visuals to depict Williams compositionally connecting with a state of synaesthesia (where individual notes and complete melodies appear to him as colours).

The most telling use of this device occurs whenever Williams discusses how ‘beats’ (looped clips of rhythm and melody) form inside his mind.

On screen, these beats appear as floating, pulsating spheres that can attach themselves to everything from a rapped lyric to a complex keyboard line. The end result almost always strikes pure sonic gold, and sometimes even something the whole world can’t stop hearing (such as the Williams mega-hit Happy).

Piece By Piece is in cinemas now

THE DEAD DON’T HURT (M)

Viggo Mortensen makes a welcome return in the Western, The Dead Don't Hurt.

THE DEAD DON’T HURT (M)

Rating: ★★★

Selected cinemas

We don’t see much of Viggo Mortensen in movies anymore, and movies are all the poorer for it. Come to think of it, we don’t see many Westerns at the movies these days, either. So if you miss the damaged dignity that only Mortensen can bring to his best roles as an actor, or have been pining for a cinematic trip deep into a dusty, dirty old west, this heartfelt drama will tick both boxes.

Mortensen (who also writes and directs here) stars as Holger Olsen, a Danish immigrant who made it through the Civil War in one piece, and is now looking to do the same as sheriff of a no-good town in rural Nebraska. While the movie is destined to pit its good-hearted hero up against a black-hatted villain or two, its story won’t be taking the most direct route to get there. Instead, a bare-bones script moves back and forth through time to chart Olsen’s close relationship with his French-Canadian wife Vivienne (Vicky Krieps), a woman who understands the complexities of life on the frontier in ways her husband cannot.

In some ways a love story, and others a tale of revenge, the meandering structure of The Dead Don’t Hurt perhaps confines its overall appeal to true believers in the enduring mystique of movie westerns. Nevertheless, Mortensen is great as always in front of the camera, and the ever-underrated Krieps (remember her in Phantom Thread?) matches him in each of their shared scenes.

RUMOURS (M)

Cate Blanchett in a scene from Rumours.

Rating: ★★½

General releases

You can safely file this one away as a distinctly acquired taste. And depending on your mood at the time of viewing, an honourable failure as well.

Much of the plot defies easy description, but is clearly centred on an urgent G7 summit in the German countryside. It is here, the leaders of the free world (including Cate Blanchett as Germany’s Chancellor, Charles Dance as an elderly US President and Alicia Vikander as the head of the European Union) have hastily convened to respond to a looming global crisis. In actual fact, it might already be too late for these politicians to do anything that might change the situation.

As the movie unfolds, they’re all too busy navigating a surreal series of crises happening all around them (some of which involve the reactivated remains of some long-deceased woodsmen, and, umm, a giant glowing brain). Though intended to be some kind of sophisticated satire, too many in-jokes fail to connect with their out-there punchlines.

Originally published as Why Lego is the perfect way to tell the life story of musical genius Pharrell Williams