Better Man
Better Man
This is an amazing story about one of the most famous pop artists of the nineties and 2000s. Robbie Williams is not just a talented singer, he is a charismatic and scandalous star who, in his youth, set himself the goal of breaking through and becoming famous throughout the world. The film tells how Robbie felt wild as a child, and to prove to everyone that he was capable of achieving a lot, he immersed himself in music.
Scott reviewedJanuary 12, 2025
It runs into the familiar problem with biopics where a person's life doesn't sit cleanly in a single arc for a short-form medium like film. So while it meanders a bit in the back half of the movie it also treats you to some of the visually wild musical numbers you'll see all year.
As I understand it, this isn't a 100% accurate retelling of Williams' story. But with the (better) man himself as narrator it becomes an earnest conversation with himself and his past. And while my major complaint with biopics as a genre is that they're often more obsessed with the mythology of their subject, in this case his self-esteem and mental health issues are placed upfront in such a way that I think there was a treatment of this movie that could have been straight horror.
Robbie Williams was more than willing to make himself raw and vulnerable and the result shines just as bright as the spotlight he threw himself into all those years ago.