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Well, that’s one way to kick off your Wednesday morning. If you came away assuming Coralie Fargeat’s goopy body horror flick “The Substance” would end up being the strangest film of 2024 … you’re probably right. But 2025 already has a strong contender in that arena in the form of “Better Man,” a musical biopic about the life and times of English pop music superstar Robbie Williams. As Paramount’s official synopsis explains, the movie follows Williams as he goes from “being the youngest member of chart-topping boyband Take That, through to his unparalleled achievements as a record-breaking solo artist — all the while confronting the challenges that stratospheric fame and success can bring.” Sounds like your average, cookie-cutter musician biopic right?
Before you start pulling out your box of old “Walk Hard” references, though, here’s the big thing this summary conveniently leaves out: Williams is depicted as a CGI chimpanzee in the film. That barely even scratches the surface of the bizarreness that apparently transpires in this movie, which is undeniably faithful to the real-life Williams’ creative ethos. For all my fellow Yanks who know little to nothing about this guy, he once made a music video for his song “Rock DJ” in which he strips off his clothes for onlookers before proceeding to remove his skin and muscles like he’s one of the Cenobites from the “Hellraiser” franchise. Things don’t get anywhere near that twisted in the newly-unveiled “Better Man” teaser trailer, but it’s still a sight to behold. Check it out, above!
Better Man is The Greatest Showman on drugs
Okay, so technically “Better Man” is a 2024 movie, with Paramount intending to slide it in just under the wire to qualify for next year’s Oscars ceremony. In fact, according to /Film’s Jacob Hall, who caught the film at this year’s Fantastic Fest, it’s probably a lock for, at the very least, a visual effects nod for its digital ape (which looks like it could go all 12 rounds with the simians in the modern “Planet of the Apes” movies based on the teaser). Be that as it may, the vast majority of viewers aren’t going to lay their eyes on this one until the new year rolls around … and boy, are they in for a ride when they do.
“Better Man” was directed by Michael Gracey (who also penned the script with Simon Gleeson and Oliver Cole), himself no stranger to helming larger-than-life musical spectacles after making his feature directing debut on “The Greatest Showman.” However, as you no doubt gathered from Williams’ CGI counterpart dropping an f-bomb at the end of the trailer, Gracey’s latest isn’t courting the same family audience as the con artist’s bauble of a movie that was his P.T. Barnum musical biopic. Nor is “Better Man” anywhere near as palatable for those who’re already iffy on musicals in general; if anything, it will probably make them actively angry. (You’ll just have to ask /Film’s Ryan Scott for more on that.) As Jacob puts it eloquently in his review of the film, “Not since the Wachowskis swung for the fences with ‘Cloud Atlas’ has so much money been spent on a motion picture with such a strong flavor of potential fiasco. To describe ‘Better Man’ to someone who has not seen it is to watch their face scrunch into disbelief, because surely you’re pulling their leg.”
You can behold “Better Man” for yourself when it opens in select theaters on December 25, 2024, before debuting in wide release on January 17, 2025.
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