Episode 53: Better Man, the Biopic Where Britpop Star Robbie Williams is Played by a CGI Chimp

Biopic: A Podcast Story

Rena’s on vacation so Sara is joined by her dear friend and 1990s/early 2000s britpop expert Alex to attempt to unpack the Robbie Williams “biopic” that, instead of starring a man who looks like Robbie Williams, features a CGI Chimp with Robbie Williams’s voice standing in for him in an otherwise typical musical biopic that features disappointed parents, drugs and alcohol, dysfunctional relationships, and splashy dance montages.

The central conceit of the movie is pretty impressed with itself, but who is this for? We don’t really know, nor do we know why the Australian Film Commission was so impressed by the whole chimp thing that it gave producers millions of dollars to make it. Also discussed: Was Charles Manson actually the original boy band manager? How does one decide to start a boy band? How traumatizing is it to see a chimp do cocaine or get a blow job from a groupie? Can Robbie Williams ever be a big star in America? Was Robbie Williams’ Knebworth appearance actually felled by a massive, bloody imbroglio between him and his chimp inner children? Is there anyone more misunderstood or tortured than an insanely successful pop star? How many times can “My Way” be performed to completion in this film?

And again: Who is this for?

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

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