There’s one thing about “Piece by Piece” that could be a bit off.
It’s not the truth that the brand new film on the life and profession of megaproducer Pharrell Williams is finished fully in Lego animation (that’s truly an intriguing idea in concept) or that Lego Pharrell usually goes on prolonged, Deepak Chopra-esque tangents.
It’s that “Piece by Piece” feels disingenuous and — prone to reigniting a decade-old backlash towards Williams calling himself “New Black” and saying he “doesn’t blame other races for our issues” throughout a 2014 Oprah Winfrey interview — has an air of exceptionalism and performativity. With confounding course from the normally terrific Morgan Neville (“20 Feet from Stardom,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”), the movie goes out of its method to painting Williams as above human.
In some sense, “Piece by Piece” fails in a approach current celeb documentaries have. It presents a hagiographical portrait of a largely beloved determine and doesn’t query any of it, letting the topic run together with his personal story to the movie’s detriment — no matter how a lot of it’s truly true.
Whereas “Piece by Piece” has been marketed as “an animated biopic” that defies style and format, it has a lot clearer documentary components. The movie options interviews with Williams’ dad and mom, spouse Helen Lasichanh, collaborators and pals, together with Missy Elliott, Gwen Stefani, Chad Hugo, Pusha T and Snoop Dogg, who all enlighten the viewers with anecdotes about, basically, Williams’ expertise and greatness.
That’s interesting sufficient for audiences concerned with studying extra about his music inspirations, in addition to his ascent from a humble Virginia childhood all the way in which to the Billboard charts. The movie peppers that timeline with quite a few needle drops from the hitmaker’s discography, together with No Doubt’s “Hella Good,” Britney Spears’ “I’m a Slave 4 U” and Snoop’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” that may possible have followers bopping their heads.
These moments in a film a few musician usually assist what is meant to already be an fascinating story about, partially, the place genius meets humanity. In “Piece by Piece,” which Williams co-produced, they carry the story however really feel frivolous, significantly with the in any other case efficient Lego animation.
Now, why is that this a Lego-animated film within the first place? In it, Williams doesn’t actually clarify the selection when Neville surprisingly informs him that the movie could possibly be accomplished in no matter approach that he’d like. It’s stunning contemplating the filmmaker needs to be guiding that call, however “Piece by Piece” is mainly that approach as a result of Williams might do this.
Nonetheless, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Williams mentioned it was as a result of he roughly needed to take away his picture from the movie so he might “objectively” respect himself in it.
Courtesy of Focus Options
“When I hear myself without any kind of other platform or anything connected to it, I’m like, ‘Shut the fuck up,’” he mentioned. “‘Literally, why are you saying that? Like, who cares? Who do you think you are — some philosopher?’”
However “Piece by Piece” appears fairly fascinated with how Williams sees himself, albeit in a superficial sense. The movie — from a screenplay by Neville, Oscar Vazquez, Aaron Wickenden and Jason Zeldes — dutifully follows alongside as he tells an oddly self-curated story about his life and the ideology of his personal success.
Williams advised THR that he evaded doing a film about himself for years as a result of “I am too much of a perfectionist and I’m too opinionated.”
“Piece by Piece” feels just like the detrimental results of that. As an illustration, throughout Snoop’s interview, the rapper calls Williams on the cellphone to ask him, “What do you want me to lie about?”
It’s a placing second within the film. Not as a result of it’s stunning to study that an interviewee in a star documentary could possibly be getting fed data on what to say from the topic to make him sound good. (That most likely occurs in different documentaries too, however we simply don’t learn about it.)
Quite, it contributes to an overarching feeling all through “Piece by Piece” that a lot of it’s for present. It’s a possible PR transfer (full with 5 new tracks from Williams) to remind each the followers who’ve held on and people who’ve dropped off of how nice he as soon as was — earlier than the “New Black” debacle, the “Blurred Lines” controversy, and easily not being scorching proper now.
In the end, the movie turns into a frivolous train in celeb folklore. Even particulars within the film that could possibly be considerably fascinating, like a flashback of fellow producer Timbaland, Missy and Williams making music throughout lunchtime at their Virginia highschool, are simply added for enjoyable and never truly true. (Missy didn’t go to highschool with Williams and Timbaland, with Williams telling THR the scene “was cinematic liberty.”)
Courtesy of Focus Options
However for what cause? Why conform to a film about your self once you’re unwilling — or not prepared — to inform the true story? (It’s price noting that Williams has one other film popping out about himself that will probably be a musical set in 1977. Contemplating that Neville advised THR that “Pharrell’s private,” this doesn’t look like the kind of transfer a personal individual would make, except he has another motivation for doing so.)
After which there’s Williams musing over his accomplishments, which he makes an attempt to elucidate as presents from mythological gods. He additionally describes the concept of Lego blocks as items that join to 1 one other to give you an awesome hook, beat or different lyric. There may be actually no telling if the viewers will rock together with these moments within the film.
However they paint a extremely summary thought of who Williams truly is. He appears to have a whole lot of ideas about his place on the planet, how he views himself, and challenges he may face (racially, professionally or in any other case) that might make him one of the misunderstood figures in Hollywood at this time. However “Piece by Piece” doesn’t examine that.
As an illustration, a widely known report from earlier this yr that Hugo and Williams are embroiled in a authorized dispute over their group The Neptunes’ title will get barely a point out within the movie. As an alternative, “Piece by Piece” imagines a cordial reunion.
The second is with out a lot dialogue, so the viewers doesn’t know what that dialog was — solely Williams’ voiceover narration folded into reflections on his personal selections. That leaves a whole lot of unanswered questions.
When THR requested Williams whether or not he and Hugo at the moment are on talking phrases, the producer replied, “No. But I love him, and I always wish him the absolute best, and I’m very grateful for our time together.”
Why not painting that within the film as an alternative of an imagined reconciliation?
The place “Piece by Piece” will get most fascinating is the place it spends the least period of time: inspecting Williams’ vulnerabilities, significantly why so a lot of his collaborators and pals, together with Hugo, distanced themselves from him across the time he turned a supernova.
Courtesy of Focus Options
It’s onerous to imagine that it was simply because he began shopping for into his personal celeb, attaching his title to crazy merchandise manufacturers and, as he places it within the film, shedding his approach a bit.
Nestled deep inside Neville’s movie is a possible story about promoting out, which possibly Williams did, and the way white bigwig traders used a preferred Black face and expertise for his or her revenue — solely to show their backs on him as soon as they invariably sucked away at his soul.
However Williams doesn’t blame different races for his personal selections, so the movie would have possible by no means acknowledged being became a commodity for largely white consumption. Nonetheless, that doesn’t make it any much less true.
Williams broadly alludes to errors he’s made and vaguely acknowledges that he was lower than a very good individual at instances, however he by no means reveals greater than that. Might it partly have one thing to do together with his and Hugo’s relationship? Who is aware of.
Help Free Journalism
Already contributed? Log in to cover these messages.
It’s solely when Mimi Valdés, former editor-in-chief at Vibe and a producer on “Piece by Piece,” steps in to interview Williams that the movie begins to truly appear concerned with its topic in any possible way.
She asks him why he didn’t instantly comply with up his 2003 hit, “Frontin’,” with one other solo music, which inspires him to reveal discomfort round his personal large celeb. Williams is definitely visibly — properly, in Lego kind — susceptible whereas speaking about this.
Nevertheless it takes a protracted whereas within the 93-minute “Piece by Piece” to get so far, and you may sense the haste for Williams to pivot to a extra comfy second for him to revisit, like when he regained his inspiration and got here up with the 2013 smash hit “Happy” that sparked a motion and led to his emotional interview with Winfrey.
The entire “New Black” portion of that teary dialog is conveniently neglected of “Piece by Piece.” Like so many different particulars within the film, maybe it simply doesn’t match into the managed picture the movie so clearly needs to mirror.
“Piece by Piece” is in theaters Friday.
