Robbie Williams: First reviews of ‘Better Man’ confirm biopic stars CGI monkey
The film, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival yesterday, has been praised as “blazingly original”.
The first reviews of the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man have praised a “blazingly original” film and confirmed that the star will be played by a CGI monkey.
Better Man premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on Monday (2 September), and Williams had previously refused to deny reports of himself being portrayed by a primate.
Now, the first reviews of the film confirm the casting, and paint a similar picture to Williams’ description himself, telling Rolling Stone UK in 2022 that it would be “blood & guts and drugs and sex and drink and rock and roll and losing yourself and finding yourself”.
IndieWire‘s David Ehrlich wrote: “You will see a monkey bleach its hair. You will see a monkey party with Oasis. You will see a monkey do unreasonable amounts of cocaine, stick a heroin needle in between the fur of its arm, and drive headlong into opposing traffic while shouting a pop song at the top of its monkey lungs.”
A review from Deadline added: “The casting concept by Gracey, director of breakout musical hit The Greatest Showman, came from an off-hand remark by Williams that he felt like a “performing monkey.” Gracey took it literally, apparently, because in pure Planet of the Apes style Davies goes apeshit CGI, inhabiting the role of Williams as the star voices it and narrates his own story just to remind us there is actually a human being portrayed here in this most blazingly original idea.”
The Playlist‘s Gregory Ellwood, meanwhile, said: “Williams is portrayed as a monkey. Everyone else in the movie is, effectively real-life human beings, but, yes, Williams is portrayed as a monkey like an actor who just walked off the digital set of any recent Planet of the Apes movie.”
The unique casting of Williams was previously kept under wraps, with director Michael Gracey telling Deadline: “As for how we represent Robbie in the film, that bit is top secret. I want to do this in a really original way. I just want the audience to… think, ‘I’ve never seen this before’.”
The film is set to hit cinemas on Christmas Day.