Talk About Movies: Part 4

It's comedy gold imo. Will Patton playing a post apocalyptic war general who talks about how in the old world he sold copy machines, that kid naming himself Ford Lincoln Mercury after the auto sign, Costner's endless BSing and saying the President's name is Richard Starkey, Tom Petty playing himself, etc. The budget for this movie must have been huge, and while it probably could have been done "better," I wouldn't change a thing.

Better Man, Michael Gracy, 2024

Yes, the bio-pic fantasy-musical - and box-office bomb - about the life and career of British boy-band superstar, Robbie Williams.

With a CGI chimpanzee playing Robbie Williams. No, really. A chimp plays him.
Through the whole movie.

Huge joke of a film, right? Gotta be.

...but I swear to god, Better Man might be my favorite movie of 2024 (after Dune 2).

What an absolutely unique, fun, splendidly entertaining movie. Directed by The Greatest Showman's Michael Gracy, who brilliantly and confidently navigates such a ridiculous premise. The editing, choreography, and music are all so well done, that it makes the movie fly by. In the big musical numbers, the camera swoops and flies and spins but we never lose our sense of where we are in the scene or song.

And the songs! The only thing I knew about Robbie Williams was "Angel" and how damn funny, charming and crazy he is on talk shows, as he's never really made it big in America. But holy cow, the man can write a song. Even the boy-band Take That songs were pretty freakin' great.

A word about the CGI chimp. We first see him as a little boy being picked last for a street soccer game. And within 5 seconds, I bought into the conceit, no problem. He's a chimp. Fine. And all through the movie, with Williams' voice of course, we see teenage chimp, adult chimp, performing chimp, drug-taking, suicidal, mansion-destroying, threesomes with naked girls chimp...and it all works. The CGI is incredible. The chimp moves and talks and sings and emotes just like a human would. And I swear, I never once had to stop and go, "wait a sec, a CGI monkey is playing Robbie Williams." Brilliant - and nominated for Best Visual Effects at the Oscar.

The movie is also narrated by Williams, in his standard, fuc*k-em-if-they-can't-take-a-joke manner.

This is a damn funny movie. An intensely personal and moving movie. And in a year with Wicked and Emelia Perez garnering all of the acclaim, Better Man is the best musical of the year. Hell, it may be a top 5 movie of the year. Go see it.

I know 5 people who have seen Better Man and not one of them has said it was anything less than absolutely amazing! Same with all of the online folks I trust reviews from.

Can’t wait to see it!

wait what, it's about robbie williams and the chimp is a metaphor?

i totally thought they were like, hey let's pretend a chimp became a pop star

Nice to see Dom come around on CGI apes

They couldn't find any real ape actors to play those parts?

Watched To Leslie yesterday, enjoyed it thoroughly. Hell, I lived about 75% of it.

I think I saw a previous review of this praising Marc Maron's performance, I'll second that. Obviously the lead lady was great but the kid playing the son mighta been even better.

Lol so much better than the Planet of the Apes CGI

It's literally the same visual effects company (Weta FX).

I said what I said.

Lol yeah, it's a metaphor. And you get versions of his chimp-self are constantly beating him while he performs, telling him he's worthless, etc.

It's surprising how well it works. There is no winking at the camera, or the other actors reacting to him as anything other than human Robbie Williams.

so i bothered to watch the "official trailer" which does make the premise quite clear

but what i'd seen previously was this which tells us about a very different kind of movie, a musical about a chimp becoming a pop star

there's another ad i've seen which i can't find which is in the same vein and even shows him doing a crazy jump and landing onto the stage that of course only a chimp could do

just terrible marketing, i don't think anyone i know knows its a metaphor and biopic about robbie williams but instead appears to be some hamfisted premise nobody asked for

Interesting. Yeah, the marketing must've failed...they had a great film and screwed the pooch...er, monkey.

The movie is NOT about a chimp becoming a popstar. In fact, I don't think the word chimp is ever even uttered. Everyone else just treats him like a human.

This reminds me that the 5 people I trust who saw Megalopolis raved about it. Did anyone here see it?

Which 75%?

i have not

I tried but didn't make it very far. I knew ahead of time that I wouldn't like it, but I do know that I can appreciate that Coppola got to make exactly what he wanted to make. I just don't want to sit through it. At least right now. Maybe after he passes and I do a marathon of all of his films. There a handful of directors that I will do that for once they retire or pass. They've had quite a few films that I loved but they released a lot of stuff that slipped by me. Wes Anderson is probably the main one in that category.

lol, have to buy the book.

Ha!

there is NOT ONE THING in this trailer that would make me want to spend $5 on 'senior day at the theater' to see this.
Not a single curiosity

anthropomorphic metaphor is such lazy film making...
:p

but hey, I hope it makes a hundred million dollars at the box office... so I can be proven right.

it came out in theaters in december, one of the biggest flops in recent memory

110 mill to make, 18.9 mill in revenue

since the marketing budget is usually about the same as the production budget it easily lost over 150 million if not more than 200 mill

lol a reminder that trailers are not made by the filmmakers or even the same studio, usually...trailer makers are separate production companies. If I had seen that trailer first, I would never have watched the movie, either!

Don’t worry, it’ll release on Criterion and MSchu will be jizzing all over it and buy multiple copies.