Better Man (15)
Directed by Michael Gracey
★★★★★
 

FROM the visionary director of The Greatest Showman comes a unique and visceral musical biopic which chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of working-class lad turned British pop superstar Robbie Williams.
 
He appears as a monkey in Michael Gracey’s captivating film because — as Gracey has explained in interviews — Robbie constantly refers to himself as a performing monkey.

You soon forget you are watching a primate due to Jonno Davies’s immersive and powerhouse performance as Robbie. Williams provides the narration and sings all the songs.
 
The film skilfully interweaves his greatest hits into the narrative lifting and intensifying its emotional resonance. While the scene where they belt out Rock DJ is  bold, imaginative and simply a showstopper.
 
This warts-and-all depiction of Williams’s life takes us from his childhood in Stoke-on-Trent to Take That to launching his solo career and captures his raw honesty but also his unpredictability.

It also examines his darker side and his battle with his inner demons and depression. Williams joined Take That at 16 and by 21 he was an alcoholic and a drug addict.
 
No-one in management provided him or his bandmates with the support needed to deal with the horrendous pressures of overnight fame and safeguard their mental health, which speaks volumes of the music industry’s pervasive attitudes.
 
It also examines his troubled relationship with his father (Steve Pemberton), who left him and his mother (Kate Mulvany) to pursue his own singing career and Williams’s romance with Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno) from All Saints.