---
title: "Better Man"
year: 2024
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/better-man"
fi1m_id: "better-man"
imdb_id: "tt14260836"
tmdb_id: 799766
wikidata_id: "Q106261265"
fi1m_score: 74
critics_score: 75
critics_reviews: 24
published: "2026-09-09"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:56.216580+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Better Man (2024)

Directed by Michael Gracey · 2h 15m · MPA R · Music, Drama

## Identity

Better Man

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/better-man
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** better-man
- **IMDb ID:** tt14260836
- **TMDB ID:** 799766
- **Wikidata ID:** Q106261265
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14260836/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/799766, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q106261265

**Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 75 from 24 reviews

*In a sentence:* A Take That story in which the only one who looks like a person is the chimp

> Michael Gracey’s Robbie Williams biopic casts a CGI chimpanzee as its star and stages its musical numbers with real nerve. The story around them is the one every pop biopic tells, and it is told at length.

## Synopsis

Robbie Williams tells his own story, and appears in it as a computer-generated chimpanzee, voiced by Williams and performed by Jonno Davies. Nobody on screen remarks on this. The film begins in Stoke-on-Trent, where the boy lives with his mother Janet (Kate Mulvany), his grandmother Betty (Alison Steadman) and a father, Peter (Steve Pemberton), who sings in working men’s clubs and wants bigger rooms. As a teenager Robbie auditions for a boy band being assembled by the manager Nigel Martin-Smith (Damon Herriman) and becomes the youngest member of Take That, alongside Gary Barlow (Jake Simmance). What follows is the life the tabloids covered: the band, the drink and the drugs, the solo years with the songwriter Guy Chambers (Tom Budge), and a romance with Nicole Appleton (Raechelle Banno).

## Review

The idea is on the poster. Robbie Williams, the Stoke boy who joined Take That at sixteen and spent the next decade being famous and unhappy in public, is played here by a chimpanzee. Williams narrates, Jonno Davies supplies the body and the face underneath the fur, and Michael Gracey, who made *The Greatest Showman*, directs as if this were the most natural thing in the world. It is a good film with a handful of sequences we would put against anything in the genre, and it is also a standard pop biopic that runs to 135 minutes and ends in a chair opposite a therapist.

The chimp works, and it works because nobody explains it. Janet, Betty and Peter talk to him as a son and grandson. Nigel Martin-Smith auditions him as a teenager. The girls at the stage door scream at him. Within ten minutes we had stopped seeing an effect and started seeing a face, and Davies’s performance is the reason: the shoulders go up when the boy is frightened, the chin goes out when the man is being cocky, and the eyes do most of the work in between. When the film wants us to notice the ape again, it can, and it saves that for the moments when Williams is behaving worst.

The musical numbers are the argument for seeing it. “Rock DJ” is staged as one continuous shot with the five members of Take That charging down Regent Street, in and out of shops and buses, growing from nobodies to stars as they go, and we laughed out loud with pleasure at the sheer cheek of it. Erik Wilson shoots it and everything else with a warm, grainy light that makes the nineties look like a photograph found in a drawer. Five editors are credited, Spencer Susser, Patrick Correll, Lee Smith, Martin Connor and Jeff Groth, and the numbers move as if one pair of hands had cut them. Batu Sener’s score threads the songs into the story rather than stopping the story for them, which is rarer than it sounds.

The Stoke scenes are the film’s other strength. Joel Chang’s production design gives the family a narrow terraced house with a telly in the corner and a father who wants to be on it, and Cappi Ireland’s costumes carry Robbie from school jumpers to the leather and eyeliner of the Take That years without a wink. Steve Pemberton plays Peter as a man who loves his son and loves an audience more, and Alison Steadman’s Betty moved us more than we expected. There is a scene of her and the boy in the front room, nothing happening, her hand on his head, that told us more about where his need to be looked at came from than the narration managed in two hours.

Because the narration does manage a great deal. Williams’s voice-over is funny and candid about the envy that drove him, particularly of Jake Simmance’s Gary Barlow, and then it keeps going, telling us what a picture has just shown us. The shape of the story is the shape of *Bohemian Rhapsody* and *Rocketman*: the rise, the excess, the collapse, the recovery, in that order. Damon Herriman’s Martin-Smith is a villain from a pantomime. The other three members of Take That are so lightly drawn that we could not have told you which was Howard Donald. In the last half hour, when the film sets its demons up as literal figures to be confronted and talked at, we grew restless, and then we grew a little annoyed, because the man who had just given us Regent Street was now giving us a lecture.

There is one late set piece we will not describe, at the Knebworth shows, in which Gracey turns a concert into something closer to a battle. It is the moment the chimp idea pays off in full, and it is the most frightening thing in the film. It is also followed by twenty minutes that undo some of its effect.

Against Gracey’s own standard this is a clear step up. *The Greatest Showman* was all surface; this one has a person in it, even if the person is an ape. Most critics have been warmer than we are, and we understand why. The highs are high. Worth your evening if you know the words to “Angels”, and probably even if you do not.

*Fi1m score 74, published 9 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics like it, and many like it a good deal more than they expected to. The praise clusters on the conceit itself: rendering Robbie Williams as a CGI chimpanzee among human actors sounds like a stunt and is judged, by most, to work, because the film plays it straight and uses it to show how the man sees himself. Gracey’s musical numbers draw the warmest notices, the one-take ‘Rock DJ’ sequence in particular, alongside the motion-capture work and the film’s candour about envy, addiction and self-sabotage.

The reservations concern what sits underneath the ape: a rise, fall and redemption that several find as familiar as any pop biopic. The spread is wide, with eighteen positive reviews and one outright hostile. The Times calls the device a one-note joke enabling therapy-speak; The Guardian finds it distracts from the human story; The Playlist says it tires over the runtime. The Hollywood Reporter reports walkouts at Telluride. The sharper doubts come mostly from British papers.

## Straight answers

**Is Better Man worth watching?**

*Better Man* is worth watching for anyone with an interest in Robbie Williams or in pop biopics staged with some nerve, and we scored it 74. The CGI chimpanzee works, the musical numbers are the best reason to see it, and the Stoke family scenes are its heart. The story around them is the usual rise, excess and recovery, told at 135 minutes.

**How long is Better Man, and what is it rated?**

*Better Man* runs 2h 15m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a music and drama film.

**Where can I watch Better Man in the US?**

*Better Man* is streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+ and The Roku Channel in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Better Man, and is it suitable for children?**

*Better Man* is a 15 certificate in the UK and R in the US, and it earns that with drink, drugs and a candid account of a man behaving badly in public. The late Knebworth sequence, which we will not describe, is the most frightening thing in the film. It is not for children, and older teenagers should expect a hard look at addiction.

**How does Better Man compare to Rocketman?**

*Better Man* and [*Rocketman*](https://film.one/film/rocketman) are the same kind of film, a pop life told as a musical with the drugs and the fantasy left in, and the newer film is the bolder of the two. Casting a chimpanzee as its star and staging "Rock DJ" in one shot down Regent Street gives it highs *Rocketman* does not reach. Both are ordinary between the songs, and *Rocketman* is the shorter, steadier watch.

**What should I watch after Better Man?**

After *Better Man*, try [*Rocketman*](https://film.one/film/rocketman) (2019, Fi1m 78): Elton John’s life as a musical, with the drugs and the fantasy sequences left in. Then [*All That Jazz*](https://film.one/film/all-that-jazz) (1979, Fi1m 84): Bob Fosse puts himself on the table and does not spare the scalpel.

### Reviews we read (32)

- **Time Out**, Kaleem Aftab (5/5): The reviewer hails the film as brilliant and bombastic, with the CGI monkey portrayal of Robbie Williams as one of the most inspired bits of casting of the year. It praises the director's handling of the musical numbers and emotional depth around fame and self-destruction. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/better-man-review-2024)
- **Empire**, Alex Godfrey (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's heartfelt and honest take on Robbie Williams' life through its unusual chimp conceit, which elevates the musical biopic and makes the emotional truths more relatable and protective of the character. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/better-man/)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Clint Worthington (85/100, inferred): Gracey turns the biopic formula on its head with a CGI chimpanzee stand-in for Robbie Williams that the film treats completely seriously. The director stages dazzling musical sequences, especially the one-shot 'Rock DJ' number, that elevate the familiar rise-and-fall story. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/better-man-robbie-williams-film-review)
- **Vulture** (85/100, inferred): Calls it the craziest musical of the year, praising the inventive, berserk musical numbers and how the film embodies the subject's anxious, showman persona through its audacious style. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/review-better-man-the-craziest-musical-of-the-year.html)
- **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (2/4/4): The reviewer calls the film ridiculously enjoyable and a stroke of genius for treating its monkey premise seriously without jokes or explanation. It singles out the bombastic musical set-pieces and Steven Pemberton's supporting turn as highlights of this knowing, satirical biopic. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/better-man)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Amy Nicholson (80/100, inferred): The wildly creative Gracey fills the screen with hilarious, no-holds-barred zeal as a CGI chimpanzee embodies Williams’s self-image. Erik Wilson’s warm, grainy cinematography and fluid scene transitions make the inventive biopic look astonishingly good. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-12-24/better-man-review-robbie-williams-take-that-biopic-profile)
- **Radio Times** (4/5): The reviewer deems it the best movie musical of the year, an honest and endlessly endearing spectacle that leans into its quirky monkey conceit. It highlights the film's empathy toward the pressures of early fame and its dynamic musical sequences. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/better-man-review-robbie-williams/)
- **Screen Daily** (80/100, inferred): The reviewer finds the inventive biopic treatment very entertaining and surprisingly moving, praising its refusal to harbour illusions about the subject's drive. It singles out the audacious monkey rendering and lively structure with energetic musical numbers. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/better-man-toronto-review/5197045.article)
- **The Independent** (80/100, inferred): The review finds that the CGI chimp portrayal works effectively as more than a gimmick, allowing an unvarnished yet entertaining look at Williams' addictions, self-sabotage and trauma through strong musical sequences. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/better-man-robbie-williams-review-b2666887.html)
- **The Telegraph**, Robbie Collin (4/5): Portraying Williams as a CGI chimpanzee is an inspired if initially silly gimmick that makes the biopic dazzling and emotionally engaging. The motion-capture performance and seamless integration deliver a pleasurable ride through the singer's life story. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/better-man-review-robbie-williams-biopic/)
- **Sight and Sound** (70/100, inferred): The reviewer finds the chimpanzee conceit for Robbie Williams bizarre yet effective in enlivening a conventional music biopic. The device captures the singer's alienation and self-loathing particularly well in sequences like the Knebworth battle royale. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/better-man-chimpanzee-robbie-williams-brings-excitement-otherwise-conventional-biopic)
- **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (3/5): The film is a fairly conventional music biopic given a surreal twist by portraying Robbie Williams as a CGI chimpanzee amid human characters. It is candid about the envy driving his career but the chimp device ultimately distracts from his human struggles and talent. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/25/better-man-review-robbie-williams-becomes-cgi-chimp-in-surreal-biopic)
- **The i Paper**, Emily Bootle (60/100, inferred): The piece views the film as Williams' personal exorcism of demons via the chimp metaphor and inner-world focus, but criticises its tidy redemption arc and lack of true vulnerability or freedom from past patterns. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/better-man-not-biopic-robbie-williams-exorcism-3452628)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher (1/5): The biopic descends into navel-gazing and narcissistic victimhood despite the CGI chimp twist, which feels like a one-note joke enabling tedious therapy-speak. It is self-serving propaganda that makes other biopics look nuanced by comparison. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/music/article/better-man-review-robbie-williams-as-a-chimp-in-a-dire-biopic-xhbjzgg8g)
- **Financial Times**, Danny Leigh (★★★★☆): The decision to render Williams as a chimpanzee among humans is a masterstroke that gives a surreal, sad twist to an otherwise grim story and elevates the film to unlikely excellence. It captures a strange truth about the subject while delivering a crowd-pleasing psychiatric report in musical form. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/e9df78eb-a841-4885-b706-490d7fefefc0)
- **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich: Praises it as a wonderfully bananas musical biopic that feels like a cure for the common musical, with the monkey conceit working well in a wild, inventive way. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/better-man-movie-review-robbie-williams-1235042892/)
- **Slant Magazine**, Rocco T. Thompson: Finds the exuberant biopic hard to resist and unique, praising the inventive musical passages and how the monkey conceit forces fresh eyes on biopic tropes, though it lacks a perfect final grace note. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/better-man-review-robbie-williams/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Stephen Farber: The critic finds the film a risky, energetic head-scratcher with some effective emotional scenes and exhilarating musical sequences, but notes issues with the screenplay and audience walkouts at Telluride. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/better-man-review-robbie-williams-biopic-monkey-1235989812/)
- **The New York Times**, Jeannette Catsoulis (NYT Critic’s Pick): Williams’s caustic, vulnerable narration and the motion-capture performance refresh the familiar beats of a pop-star biopic. Gracey’s exuberant filmmaking and tender empathy produce a fabulously entertaining picture of an insecure man overcoming his demons. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/25/movies/better-man-review.html)
- **Variety**, Peter Debruge: The chimp gimmick distinguishes the project from cookie-cutter biopics and proves far more expressive than most human actors. Sophisticated set pieces deliver emotional information in dynamic ways, though the cradle-to-grave structure falls back on familiar redemptive arcs. [Read](https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/better-man-review-robbie-williams-biopic-1236127062/)
- **Digital Spy**, Ian Sandwell (5/5): The review calls Better Man one of the best films of the year, praising its bold, fantastical take on the biopic genre and the way the chimpanzee portrayal feels natural rather than gimmicky. It singles out the inventive, story-driven musical sequences and the raw honesty about fame and personal struggles for particular praise. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a63198764/better-man-review-robbie-williams/)
- **Consequence** (A-): The critic finds that the bold choice of depicting Williams as a CGI monkey revitalizes the stale music biopic genre, making it transcendent through innovative storytelling and visual effects. [Read](https://consequence.net/2024/12/better-man-review-robbie-williams-biopic/)
- **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the inventive choice of casting a CGI monkey as Robbie Williams in this musical biopic, noting it works surprisingly well and elevates the familiar story with dazzling musical numbers and strong performances. [Read](https://deadline.com/2024/09/better-man-review-robbie-williams-musical-movie-biopic-monkey-star-telluride-film-festival-1236075743/)
- **The Ringer**, Adam Nayman (80/100, inferred): The critic appreciates the film's wild, maximalist approach and the clever monkey conceit that literalizes Williams' self-perception, blending satire and sentiment effectively in a unique biopic. [Read](https://theringer.com/2025/01/07/movies/better-man-robbie-williams-monkey-movie)
- **The Wrap** (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the eccentric biopic formulaic yet elevated by the CGI chimpanzee lead and Gracey's musical direction, making it rapturous with standout choreographed numbers. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/better-man-review-robbie-williams-chimpanzee-biopic/)
- **/Film**, Jacob Hall (7.5/10): Admires the ambitious, deranged swing of the biopic starring a CGI ape, its sincere emotional core, and visually mind-shattering musical sequences, calling it unclassifiable but memorable. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1672974/better-man-review-robbie-williams-cgi-ape-biopic/)
- **Collider**, Matthew Donato (7/10): The critic praises the innovative CGI monkey portrayal of Robbie Williams as a fresh take on the biopic genre that works surprisingly well, highlighting the musical numbers and motion capture, while noting some predictable biopic elements. [Read](https://collider.com/better-man-review-robbie-williams/)
- **The Playlist**, Gregory Ellwood (C+): Praises the surprising and euphoric musical numbers but criticizes the monkey conceit as tiring over the film's length, leaving the viewer wanting a more human portrayal despite the creative choice. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/better-man-review-monkey-business-is-tiring-for-this-robbie-williams-musical-telluride-20240902/)
- **Den of Geek**, David Crow (3/5): The review finds the film an ambitious and often effective musical biopic that stands out thanks to its central gimmick of portraying Robbie Williams as a CGI chimpanzee. It singles out the seamless Wētā effects and the way the monkey conceit underscores the star’s self-loathing for praise, while noting the story still follows familiar biopic beats with mixed success. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/better-man-review-musical-biopic-monkey/)
- **NME**, Jordan Bassett (50/100, inferred): The review describes the film as one of the strangest music biopics ever made, an overstuffed mix of jukebox musical, conventional biopic and darker character study that only partially succeeds. It singles out the unmotivated monkey conceit and tonal clashes for criticism while acknowledging the chutzpah of the big swing. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/better-man-review-robbie-williams-strangest-music-biopic-3807590)
- **Eye for Film**, Andrew Robertson: The review highlights the film's confessional nature and use of scale to make the biopic personal yet stylized, noting its metatextuality, strong performances, and how it blurs lines between literal and figurative in depicting the subject's demons. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/better-man-2024-film-review-by-andrew-robertson)
- **Film Stories**, Maria Lattila: The critic praises the film's inventive biopic approach with a CGI monkey protagonist, its honest portrayal of Williams' troubles, impressive musical sequences, and emotional depth that connects personally. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/better-man-review-a-very-different-biopic/)

## Details

- **Director:** Michael Gracey
- **Director:** Michael Gracey
- **Writer:** Michael Gracey, Simon Gleeson, Oliver Cole
- **Cinematography:** Erik Wilson
- **Editor:** Lee Smith, Jeff Groth, Spencer Susser, Martin Connor, Patrick Correll
- **Music:** Batu Sener
- **Production design:** Joel Chang
- **Costume design:** Cappi Ireland
- **Producer:** Coco Xiaolu Ma, Michael Gracey, Paul Currie
- **Cast:** Robbie Williams as Robbie Williams (voice); Jonno Davies as Robbie Williams; Steve Pemberton as Peter; Alison Steadman as Betty; Kate Mulvany as Janet; Frazer Hadfield as Nate; Damon Herriman as Nigel Martin-Smith; Raechelle Banno as Nicole Appleton
- **Runtime:** 2h 15m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 10 January 2025
- **Genres:** Music, Drama
- **Budget:** $110 million
- **Box office:** $23 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVeH5T4wxkE

## Where to watch in the US

- Amazon Prime Video: streaming, uhd
- Paramount+: streaming
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, uhd

*Checked 2026-09-10.*

Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, DK, ES, FI, FR, IN, IT, JP, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PL, PT, SE, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2025: Best Visual Effects (nominated)
- BAFTA Film Awards 2025: Best Special Visual Effects (nominated)
- Golden Globes 2025: Best Original Song (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Rocketman* (2019), Fi1m 78: Elton John’s life as a musical, with the drugs and the fantasy sequences left in. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/rocketman.md)
- *All That Jazz* (1979), Fi1m 84: Bob Fosse puts himself on the table and does not spare the scalpel. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/all-that-jazz.md)
- *Aline* (2020): A Céline Dion biopic that is not quite one, with its own strange casting decision.
- *24 Hour Party People* (2002): Manchester music told by an unreliable narrator who keeps interrupting himself.
- *Frank* (2014): A frontman who never takes the papier-mâché head off; the joke turns sad.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/better-man