BETTER MAN
A wildly inventive pop biopic drowning in its own excess.
Should You See It?
Here is the decision, and it isn't close. BETTER MAN is a genuinely inventive movie — Robbie Williams is played, from beginning to end, as a humanoid chimpanzee, a nod to his own remark that he sometimes felt like a performing monkey. A few of the musical numbers are terrific, and there is real redemption in the final act. But the film buries all of it.
The content is overwhelming. At least 170 obscenities, including more than 110 "f" words and profanities mentioning Jesus. Cocaine, heroin, marijuana, drunkenness. Topless women, a fan exposing herself, homosexual references. And the whole thing is, by the source's own account, depressing and off-putting — a portrait of psychological collapse and addiction that jumps around and often doesn't work.
So, whatever the film gets right about the emptiness of fame, we can't send you to it. This one is a skip.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESAs a boy, Robbie loves singing Sinatra with his father, a man who dreams of being a musical comedy star. Then the father walks out to chase that dream — and leaves a son feeling unloved, unworthy, and depressed.
Years later, Robbie gets his break as part of one of Britain's first boy bands, Take That, in the early 1990s, before launching a wildly successful solo career. But the wound his father left never healed. Depression, a search for identity, and substance abuse — all rooted in that broken relationship — begin to threaten everything he's built.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars, and they're real. Director Michael Gracey's central gamble — rendering Williams as a chimpanzee for the entire film — is the kind of swing most biopics never attempt, and when the movie sings, it soars. A raucous dance number to Williams' hit "Rock DJ" is a blast, and a romantic sequence set to "She's the One" is beautifully done.
But the film doesn't hold together. It's rather depressing and off-putting, weighed down by its subject's psychological and substance-abuse problems, and it jumps around too much to build momentum. The result is a movie with flashes of brilliance that never becomes the whole its best moments promise. Craft this bold deserves better material and a steadier hand.
The Worldview
BETTER MAN carries a faint redemptive thread. Its subject is a rebellious, damaged man, and the film is honest about where that damage leads: depression, low self-esteem, drunkenness, cocaine, heroin, and suicidal thoughts. Yet the story doesn't end there. Robbie eventually goes into rehab, recovers, and — in a montage that gives the film its heart — seeks out the people he wronged to make amends. There's even a reference to God in the title song about trying to become a better man.
The film's clearest truth is one Scripture affirms plainly: pursuing fame to gratify a damaged and warped ego is a dead end. Robbie stands before adoring crowds and still sees scowling versions of himself staring back. Fame does not satisfy the ache underneath it.
But the movie also lives in a world it never questions morally. The boy band gets its start appealing to homosexual bars before going mainstream, and homosexual references run through the film. Sexual content, nudity, and infidelity are shown as part of the life. A number features the band wearing devil horns onstage. The redemption is real but thin, and it arrives only after the film has swum a long way through the muck.
The longing driving Robbie is the one every abandoned child knows — to be wanted by a father. Scripture answers it: "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God" (1 John 3:1).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Light redemptive worldview and premise in biopic about a famous British pop star with a rebellious nature, whose career started in 1989, the man suffers from depression and feelings of inadequacy, rooted in his troubled relationship with his father, who abandoned the family to pursue his own small-time musical comedy career, all of which leads to substance abuse and suicidal thoughts, plus the boy band in the movie starts out as a musical group appealing to homosexuals in bars until they go more mainstream, and title character is often rude to other people, but the pop star eventually goes into rehab/recovery and there’s a montage of him going to other people he wronged earlier in the story to make amends, plus there’s a reference to God in the title song about trying to be a better man, and the movie shows that pursuing fame, especially to gratify a damaged and warped ego, is a bad thing
At least 170 obscenities (including at least 110 “f” words), five strong profanities mentioning Jesus, one GD, several light profanities, and some obscene gestures
Strong violence when man imagines himself fighting other versions of himself, plus a woman is accidentally hit when a door opens, a man is accidentally hit with a soccer ball in one musical number, and bullies kick soccer balls at other boy, hitting him in the head at least once
Man is seen in bed in one scene with several topless women, man cheats on his girlfriend with another woman, boy band starts off by appealing to people in homosexual bars, and there are other sexual references
Upper female nudity when a female fan exposes her breasts to pop singer in one scene and during one scene where man is seen in bed with several topless women, and many images of upper make nudity
Alcohol use and drunkenness in party scenes and as title character has a substance abuse problem until he goes into rehab and recovery in the movie’s third act
People smoke cigarettes, people smoke marijuana, title character snorts cocaine, and his addiction takes him to injecting heroin and becoming suicidal until he finally goes into rehab and recovers from his addictions and scenes follow that up with him going to people he wronged earlier in the movie and show him;
Title character suffers from depression and low self-esteem (numerous scenes show him singing in front of adoring crowds but he’s always seeing versions of himself scowling at him from the crowd), and boy band wears devil horns in one number onstage.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Robbie chases fame to fill a hole his father left, but the crowds never satisfy him. Where do we look to fill that same hole, and what does it actually take to be filled?
Ecclesiastes 2:10–11 · John 4:13–14The film's most moving stretch is Robbie seeking out people he wronged to make amends. What does true repentance look like, and how is it different from simply feeling bad?
2 Corinthians 7:10 · Luke 19:8–9Robbie's whole wound traces back to an absent father. How does the love of God the Father answer the ache of being abandoned by an earthly one?
Psalm 27:10 · 1 John 3:1This movie shows a man who has everything the world calls success and still contemplates suicide. What does that reveal about where real hope and worth come from?
Psalm 139:13–14 · Jeremiah 29:11The Final Word
There's a bold, occasionally brilliant movie buried inside BETTER MAN, and a real story of redemption at the bottom of it. But the profanity, the drugs, the nudity, and the sheer weight of despair bury both. So our answer stands: skip it. Looking for something to watch together instead? Try our latest family-friendly picks.
