Better Man

I bet Robbie Williams is pissed that the title The Greatest Showman was already taken. It's exactly the kind of self-aggrandizing monicker he would have loved to use for this vanity project.

Because that's precisely what this is: an ugly and cynical vanity film produced and starring the subject himself. What's worse is that Better Man pretends to not be what it is, but it puts on a smarmy self-pitying show in an attempt to dispel any criticism of shallowness in the process.

Better Man frames itself as a singular vision of how Williams sees himself. In this case, it's as a CGI monkey uncomfortable in its own skin, performing for the masses because it's the only way to cope with the incredible pressure of being such a singular talent. The real Williams has openly spoken of his battles with depression, anxiety, and self-loathing, all things that are a horrific weight to put on anyone. As a survivor of severe clinical depression, I recognize the cognitive dissonance in putting on a show for others while you just want to bash your head on the nearest mirror.

But Better Man is so intoxicated by its own hubris that it deprives the narrative from any real weight. Depression, anxiety, all those things are easily overcome with a good song and dance number, especially when "you're among the gods" in terms of talent, as the film sickeningly tells Williams over and over again.

Better Man is also a musical, sort of, but it refuses to decide what kind of musical it is. Instead, it comes off as a literal jukebox sing-a-long, where Williams and co. perform karaoke renditions of famous songs from both him and his beloved influences. It's never made clear just what is a Williams original and what isn't, and I'm sure the filmmakers and star would love it if people assumed everything was from him alone. Especially as it presents as fact the birth of multiple songs written or co-written by others as having come from Williams alone, penned down in a notebook he happily carries at every turning point of his life.

Every music biopic is reductive by nature. That's the only way to cram in decades of varied careers and personal relationships into an entertaining film. Yet Better Man makes reductiveness a mission statement. Something that it aspires to at every turn. Everyone else is fodder for the ego that is Robbie Williams, no matter the cost. This is particularly egregious in the scenes where a forced abortion becomes entirely about how it made Williams feel.

When Better Man came out in the US, there was a lot of talk about how nobody knew who Robbie Williams is, and how making a movie with him as a monkey wouldn't help with that. Some argue the choice should get audiences curious about the person behind the facade, and that's a valid argument. But Better Man is such a shallow film that even looking past the monkey business, it doesn't tell us anything about who or why Robbie Williams is. Instead, it assumes that we will accept the provocation as fact: Williams is a hit in the UK and Europe because the universe couldn't exist without his presence.

Well, I for one could live without a film about him. Even if I enjoy his music. I don't think you'll miss a thing by not seeing Better Man, and that probably would drive its subject up the wall.