fbpx

BETTER MAN

What You Need To Know:

BETTER MAN is a biopic of popular British singer Robbie Williams. As a young boy, Robbie loves singing Sinatra with his father, who dreams of being a musical comedy star. When Robbie’s father abandons the family to pursue his show business career, Robbie feels unloved, unworthy and depressed. He gets a huge break, though, when he becomes part of one of the first boy bands, Take That, in the early 1990s. Eventually, Robbie launches an extremely successful solo career. However, his struggles with depression, identity and substance abuse, rooted in his troubled relationship with his father, threaten to derail everything.

BETTER MAN is an unconventional biopic in that Robbie is portrayed as a humanoid chimpanzee throughout the story. Robbie once said that sometimes he felt like a performing monkey. Sadly, the movie doesn’t always work and is rather depressing and off-putting because Robbie has psychological and substance abuse problems. BETTER MAN also has lots of strong, gratuitous foul language, some nudity and homosexual references. However, some of the musical numbers are terrific. Also, Robbie eventually repents, goes into rehab and reconciles with his father.

Content:

(C, PaPa, HoHo, B, LLL, VV, SS, NN, AA, DD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
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 ;

Foul Language:
At least 170 obscenities (including at least 110 “f” words), five strong profanities mentioning Jesus, one GD, several light profanities, and some obscene gestures;

Violence:
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;

Sex:
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;

Nudity:
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:
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;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
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; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:
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.

More Detail:

BETTER MAN is a biopic of popular British singer Robbie Williams, who’s had more Number One albums in Britain than anyone, including Elvis. Robbie goes from being in one of the early boy bands, Take That, of the 1990s, then launches an extremely successful solo career. However, his struggles with depression, identity and substance abuse, rooted partly in his troubled relationship with his father, who abandoned the family, threaten to derail his life.

As a young boy, Robbie loves singing Sinatra with his father, who dreams of being a musical comedy star. Robbie’s father abandons the family to pursue his show business career. So, Robbie feels unloved, unworthy and depressed. He gets a huge break, though, when he becomes part of one of the first boy bands, Take That, in the early 1990s. The band starts out appealing to homosexuals but quickly finds a more mainstream audience. Eventually, Robbie launches an extremely successful solo career. However, his struggles with depression, identity and substance abuse, rooted in his troubled relationship with his father, threaten to derail everything. They hurt many of his personal relationships and even lead him to contemplate suicide.

BETTER MAN is an unconventional biopic in that Robbie is portrayed as a humanoid chimpanzee throughout the story. Robbie once said that sometimes he felt like a performing monkey. Sadly, the movie doesn’t always work and is rather depressing and off-putting because Robbie has psychological and substance abuse problems. BETTER MAN also has lots of strong, gratuitous foul language, some nudity and homosexual references. However, some of the music, singing and dance numbers are terrific. For example, a raucous dance number of Williams’ hit “Rock DJ” is lots of fun, and a romantic dance number to the song “She’s the One” is beautifully done. Also, Robbie eventually repents, goes into rehab and reconciles with his father. Finally, BETTER MAN also shows that pursuing fame to satisfy a damaged and warped ego is a bad thing. Thus, fame is often not very satisfying.


Watch RUN THE RACE
Quality: - Content: +1
Watch THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER (2024)
Quality: - Content: +1