Better Man

Just when I assumed no one could make a more off-putting combination of my least favorite contemporary movie tropes than a cliché riddled musical biopic with wall-to-wall voice-over narration by the subject, his own self-hate demons visualized (and audioized) during his performances, and an unearned-redemption character arc, all shot in digital-hand-held widescreen with no shot lasting more than 2.4 seconds unless it's big artificial oner created inside a computer, that all builds up to schmaltzy parent-child feel-good hug moment ending; someone done gone made one of these with a CGI monkey as the protagonist. Telling the story of Robbie Williams with the English singer portrayed, not by a look-a-like actor but as a motion-capture chimpanzee is certainly one way to make your generic rock 'n' roll biopic distinctive, but once you've seen the monkey bust a few moves and snort a few lines, the novelty wear thin real fuckin fast. Still, I was impressed by how Williams' songs were repurposed and reimagined for the narrative musical form. These catchy tunes are infinitely better than anything found in this year's multi-Oscar nominated original musical Emilia Pérez.