Previous to watching the film Higher Man, my expectations had been low: For one factor, CGI simians don’t curiosity me that a lot, as a rule. (I’ve seen only a few of the flicks the place they rule the planet.) Additionally, like lots of people exterior the British Commonwealth, the total affect of Robbie Williams’ movie star hasn’t penetrated my consciousness — the variety of Williams songs I might identify was one, and that was primarily because of the notorious music video for “Rock DJ.”
Most significantly of all: It was a music biopic, two phrases used to sum up a subgenre of flicks that has continued regardless of elevated criticism. Actually, for lots of people, December twenty first, 2007 is the day that the music biopic died — for on that day, a little bit movie referred to as Stroll Onerous: The Dewey Cox Story was launched in theaters. The parody movie directed by Jake Kasdan was not a monetary success (grossing $20 million worldwide on a $35 million manufacturing finances), however its pitch-perfect skewering of the tropes that make up so many of those tales successfully neutered lots of their energy from that time on.
As a result of actually, what number of occasions can we see the identical cycle on display? An individual from humble roots makes use of their items to achieve fame and fortune, till the perils of fame and fortune (medication, dangerous intercourse selections, deeply felt private insecurities) threaten to price them all the pieces. The tragedies are those the place the artist misplaced themselves to the monster, however it doesn’t matter what, the completely happy ending is discovered within the reminiscence of the music they gave us whereas they had been nonetheless right here. (Even when they’re nonetheless alive on the time of the film’s making.)
Why do these motion pictures persevere in being made? There’s no scarcity of causes. We’re fascinated, in any case, by the lives of musical artists (websites like sondramedia owe their existence in no small half to this truth). There’s at all times a thrill in seeing an actor we like try to channel a star we additionally like (see, simply as the latest instance, Timothée Chalamet tackle the position of Bob Dylan). And we love origin tales, and the joys of seeing a music come to life for the primary time.
Nonetheless, there’s no denying that the style has gotten stale, in a manner that calls for innovation. That’s a problem Higher Man is nicely conscious it faces from the leap, and so from the leap it makes daring decisions that finally flip the feature-length examination of a well-known performer’s life into one thing transcendent.
It actually does begin with the selection to depict Williams within the type of a CGI monkey, too. In a video featurette posted two months in the past, Gracey defined in a sitdown with Williams that “in your individual phrases, you’d discuss with being dragged up on stage to carry out like a monkey. I instantly thought of portraying you not as we see you, however as the way you see your self. It instantly clicked in a manner that I used to be like, along with your voice and that monkey, I’m going to see you and relate to you in a manner that’s going to be extra partaking than one more musical biopic.”
Using the monkey provides this film so many items. Due to his expertise with digital characters, Gracey employed Paddington cinematographer Erik Wilson to movie the film, and introduced in Weta FX (which is aware of one thing about digital monkeys, having labored on King Kong and the Planet of the Apes franchise) to deal with the creation of “Robbie.”
The efficiency finally ends up being basically a collaboration between the visible results artists, Williams because the vocal performer, and Jonno Davies because the man bodily on set every single day, enjoying Robbie Williams earlier than his CGI makeover. (Paramount is in reality campaigning for Davies to get a Lead Actor nomination on the Oscars this yr. Funnily sufficient, Davies truly does look a good bit like a younger Williams in actual life — even when he weren’t in monkey type for the ultimate movie, it might nonetheless be good casting.)
