00:00Hot take, Better Man was the best movie musical of 2024.
00:03It was also the best biopic.
00:05So the Oscars were last night, big showing for Enora, well-deserved,
00:08but there were also lots of other nominations for movie musicals like Wicked and Emilia Perez
00:12and biopics like A Complete Unknown.
00:15But my beloved Better Man only received one nomination for visual effects,
00:18and I'm here to tell you why Better Man deserved, well, better.
00:22For those of you who don't know, Better Man is a musical biopic following the life and career
00:27of Robbie Williams, the British bad boy pop star who was also one of the founding members
00:31of the band Take That.
00:33On the surface, Better Man is a fairly traditional narrative about a pop star's rise to stardom,
00:37but in this film, Williams' character is portrayed by a CGI monkey.
00:42Yes, it's gimmicky, it's ridiculous, it's a bold choice, it's heavy-handed,
00:46but I think it actually signals a genuine cinematic interpretation and point of view
00:51about the nature of fame, celebrity, and addiction.
00:54And it's far more cohesive and clear than what A Complete Unknown ultimately had to say
00:59about Bob Dylan.
01:01I'm not being cheeky when I say that the musical numbers were so well done.
01:05There's like a propulsive energy to the camera that really aligns itself well with the choreography.
01:10The rock DJ sequence alone is an almost four-minute unbroken take that really uses all the elements
01:16that cinema can offer a musical number, from interesting compositions to sound design to VFX.
01:21And not to take anything away from how great Cynthia Erivo is in, say, the Defying Gravity
01:26number of Wicked, but I do find that some of the cinematic choices for how that scene
01:31was shot, from, yes, the color grading to some of the pacing issues, it just distracted
01:36from the power of the vocal and acting performance in the center of the frame.
01:41So, Justice for Better Man, a lot of people didn't see this movie because they didn't
01:45know who Robbie Williams was, and honestly, neither did I before I heard about the movie,
01:48but do give it a watch.
01:50It's bold.
01:50It's interesting.
01:51You won't be bored.
01:53I think it has a lot of energy and perspective that a lot of those movie musicals and biopics
01:59that got more attention could have used.
02:01You won't be bored.
02:01You won't be bored.
02:02You won't be bored.
02:03You won't be bored.
02:04You won't be bored.
02:05You won't be bored.
02:06You won't be bored.
02:07You won't be bored.
02:08You won't be bored.
02:09You won't be bored.
02:10You won't be bored.
02:11You won't be bored.
02:12You won't be bored.
02:13You won't be bored.
02:14You won't be bored.
02:15You won't be bored.
02:16You won't be bored.
02:17You won't be bored.
02:18You won't be bored.
02:19You won't be bored.
02:20You won't be bored.
02:21You won't be bored.
02:22You won't be bored.
02:23You won't be bored.
02:24You won't be bored.
02:25You won't be bored.
02:26You won't be bored.
Comments