Making Robbie Williams a CGI monkey is a masterstroke in one of the best biopics of late

Turning global pop star Robbie Williams into a CGI monkey could have backfired spectacularly but it actually turns Better Man into a musical biopic that’s a cut about the rest, writes Leigh Paatsch.

With a bonkers biopic that’s a cut above, a comedy-drama that’s one of the year’s best and a video game franchise that keeps giving, Boxing Day really delivers at the movies this year.

Jonno Davies as Robbie Williams and Aussie Damon Herriman in Better Man.

BETTER MAN (MA15+)

Director: Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman)

Starring: Jonno Davies, Steve Pemberton, Alison Steadman, Raechelle Banno

Celebrating a chimp off the old block

As utterly remarkable as it is sincerely irresistible, this unorthodox biopic of British singer Robbie Williams makes what should have been a major miscalculation, and audaciously multiplies it into a minor movie miracle.

That seeming miscalculation? Williams is played throughout the picture by a monkey. Yes. You read that correctly. A monkey.

That undeniable miracle? You forget all about the simian gimmick within mere minutes.

By that time, Better Man has already forged a connection to the Williams life story that, for a vast proportion of the audience – including those who don’t particularly care for the subject – will not be broken.

Sure, the movie does tick the same storytelling boxes as so many music biopics before it. All of the many highs, lows, hits, misses, triumphs and heartbreaks encountered by Williams are located exactly where they should be.

However, the magic of that radically rendered depiction of Williams as (in his own words) “the ultimate performing monkey” delivers an experience that is compelling, comforting and confronting in equal measure.

And entertaining, too. For it is as a traditional entertainer of the old school that Robbie Williams has come to mean so much to his unwaveringly loyal following.

Those who have never really been drawn to Williams’ showboating persona won’t be walking away from the movie as new members of his fan club. However, they will leave with a lasting respect for all he has achieved and overcome.

Jonno Davies’ motion capture work as Robbie Williams in Better Man is sublime.

The roots of both Williams’ self-learned brilliance on stage and self-destructive tendencies away from the spotlight are masterfully laid down by the movie’s Australian director and co-writer, Michael Gracey.

By the time young Robbie has escaped a problematic upbringing in suburban England to aim his first shot at fame with the boy band Take That, a never-ending rollercoaster ride up and down the showbiz league ladder is assured.

While the movie makes some valid links of Williams’ wildly fluctuating fortunes to the selective support shown by his (mostly) absent father Peter (Steve Pemberton) – a not-so-successful entertainer in his own right – it is Robbie himself who remains his own worst enemy.

The honesty Better Man displays in keeping its subject’s flaws to the fore lends the movie an emotional weight few would have expected. However, the load is lightened in a winning manner by the recurring arrival of imaginatively nimble sequences propelled by William’s best-known songs.

Special mention must be made of the sublime work of actor Johnno Davies, who supplied the vast array of expressions used for the motion-capture monkey business all are destined to remember fondly.

Better Man is in cinemas now

Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg in A Real Pain.

A REAL PAIN (MA15+)

General release

Without a doubt this is the chattiest movie of 2024. However, none of the talk is cheap in this impeccably written and flawlessly scripted comedy-drama. As a major bonus, viewers get to witness Succession star Kieran Culkin scaling a new career peak in ultra-impressive, give-the-guy-an-Oscar-now fashion.

He plays Benji, a thirty-something stoner with no conversational filter and no idea as to how to process the sorrow he is feeling over the recent passing of his grandmother. In tribute to her – the only person he believes ever understood him – Benji and his cousin David (Jesse Eisenberg, who also writes and directs here) embark on a pilgrimage to Poland to visit their revered relative’s childhood home. The only way to get there is to join an educational package tour of Polish Holocaust sites, and it is safe to say that no-one else in this tourist group is ready to hear all the highly opinionated Benji has to say.

Clocking in at a short, sharp and deceptively sweet 85 minutes, A Real Pain finds subtle power, true poignancy and all-embracing humour in Benji and David’s hastily improvised journey. Highly recommended.

Jim Carrey as Ivo Robotnik and Sonic (Ben Schwartz) in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 (PG)

General release

We might as well get used to it. For every second summer or so for the rest of the decade, it looks as if there will be yet another Sonic the Hedgehog movie coming our way. And if the overall quality of each remains as consistently entertaining as this third instalment, there are far worse things that could happen at your local cinema.

This time around, the irrepressible video game legend Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) goes up against a new nemesis who shares the same dashing-dynamo DNA: the infamous Shadow (Keanu Reeves). Having escaped from captivity to exact some generic form of revenge, Shadow proves to be just the kind of unpredictable adversary that brings the very best out of Sonic.

To be honest, no-one attends a Sonic movie to celebrate the title character’s heroics. The best reason remains the chance to see Jim Carrey let off the leash to run wild and get funny as only he can. Carrey’s amusingly anarchic contribution to the franchise is his finest yet, if only because he shows up in two terrifically unhinged guises (the crazed madman Dr Robotnik and his cranky grandpa Gerald).

Originally published as Making Robbie Williams a CGI monkey is a masterstroke in one of the best biopics of late