Piece by Piece is a movie the place kind and story collide collectively in a enjoyable and fantastical sense. A documentary about famed producer and musician Pharrell Williams would already be an intriguing premise. For any mildly acquainted with him, he’s identified for his eclectic model and character, which has possible influenced his musical abilities and result in the success he’s had. Becoming, then, that he and Morgan Neville come collectively to do a novel spin on the documentary by depicting his life completely via LEGO. Pushing the definition of documentary, Piece by Piece is a heartwarming story of 1 man’s dream to carry the world up via sound.
Firstly, it is a documentary. It isn’t a biopic instructed via LEGOs or any narrative kind function. The movie establishes out of the gate that it’s documentary by having the LEGO illustration of Pharrell sit down for an interview with Neville that’s “shot” similar to some other documentary. It’s a weird tactic, however when you get to know Pharrell all through the runtime, you perceive precisely why Pharrell would need such an unorthodox strategy to his life. It permits for fantastical representations of moments of his life, from assembly Snoop Dogg, seeing sounds as chaotic mashes of smaller LEGO bits, and being elevated to house by the music burning inside his soul. Can it’s known as a documentary when it’s all a LEGO recreation of issues that each did and didn’t actually occur? This movie appears to reply sure and push the boundaries of this type of filmmaking.
One might name this strategy a gimmick, but it surely lends itself to the life story of Pharrell. In contrast to most of the musical biopics we all know, Pharrell just isn’t somebody who fell exhausting into habit and substance abuse. His life story is definitely completely different, and the Lego mode of storytelling helps convey out the brightness of his life and the way he sees the world. That’s to not say his story is with out drama or battle. The sooner years of his life included years of grinding it out, looking for consideration and success. However Pharrell is a really optimistic character, and the movie is infused together with his brightness.
That is a lot the case that when the movie does attempt a second act downturn, it nearly feels contrived. The character of the downturn feels imprecise previous a basic description that Pharrell was struggling to seek out musical inspiration. And that’s maybe the place the documentary suffers probably the most. As I’ve usually remarked, documentaries about topics nonetheless residing can usually really feel sanitized, as few wish to straight confront the darkest elements of themselves. Given Pharrell’s heavy involvement, it appears like areas of potential drama which are there do get skipped previous.
However the movie is simple to forgive given how “blissful” it might make you’re feeling. Pharrell has a deep love for music and the way it change folks’s lives and hearts. The movie greater than something positions his life story as wanting to make use of music to maneuver folks’s souls. And should you didn’t know simply how concerned Pharrell has been with a few of the largest hits for the previous roughly 30 years, the movie is eye-opening about his expertise at discovering sounds that join with folks. From pop to rock and hip-hop, Pharrell has dabbled in all of it and introduced hits for artists as assorted as Snoop Dogg, Nelly, and Gwen Stefani.
One may need there was only a tad extra dramatic substance to Piece By Piece, however it is a minor criticism of an in any other case pretty documentary. Neville demonstrates that after once more he’s an emphatic documentarian and understands how you can faucet into the guts of his topics and present the world who they’re at their essence. He did so with Bourdain, Fred Rogers, and now with Pharrell. Even should you don’t like Pharrell’s music, Piece by Piece is a movie price seeing for its distinctive strategy.
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