The film ‘Piece by Piece’ has been described as a hybrid musical docu biopic Lego movie which is a rich concept. One can even assume that Pharrell Williams’ life would fit perfectly in animation with the bright jubilation that his song ‘Happy’ received as it was produced by him. After all, Williams’ morphed but light hearted post soul cool meets skating’ music which: is probably too much for a one dimensional film. But according to Morgan Neville the director of the biopic, his life lacked any depth individuality.
Throughout “Piece by Piece,” Neville displays the abilities of storytelling that are present in his documentary style filmmaking. Consider the opening, which is shot as if the viewer is privy to the contained scenes of a film making the fictionalia. Posh walked into his home and Lived walked in before the Lego figure, which had its own voice, went inside. The singer requests for his wife, Helen, to disperse the kids as he is about to be interviewed. The interviewer takes him to a different place. There are two chairs; one of them is for him, while the other one is for a Lego figure that is a blatant copy of the director. The director of the film asks him ‘tell me your life. ’ That was what dreamt of, the life of a baby dolphin swimming toward Neptune. That dream origin takes us to the Virginia Batho, Pharrell’s city, where he lives in a housing project called atlantis with his father and mother.
After this last scene, we begin to follow the career timeline of the main character, which exemplifies the format of a standard biography film about a musician. It was during the timeframe of Pharrell’s grammar school that he was able to meet other hip hop artists such T, Missy Elliott, and Timbaland, as well as members of the Neptunes group, namely Chad Hugo and Shay Haley. The band gained the attention of the prominent producer Teddy Riley, and Williams and Hugo made every effort to become the strongest.
It causes collaborations with Gwen Stefani, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg Justin Timberlake among other artists. With so many hits, it is natural that the film has a jukebox quality about it. But visually, Neville, repurposes ‘Hollaback Girl’ and ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ music videos using Legos, which is dull. Winning such letdowns for Pharrell tune in to triumph’s conception but due there make him stretch himself as a hit maker and head of fashion and product lines.
It’s a bit dull, really. Biopics, especially ones with the subject heavily involved, are usually very tedious. Though you wouldn’t know this from the film’s apparent fascination with bleeped out swearing, “Piece by Piece” is much too squeaky-clean. Pharrell’s main character flaws in this film include “I’m too trusting” and “I’m scared of commitment.” The former gets him into trouble as A&R men tend to have a tendency of dumbing him down musically. The latter exists in his work, where he is erratic, and in his personal life, where he has a girlfriend who later became his wife. These are not trivial and indeed, such hurdles are worth considering in understanding a character. However, these cannot be the only strands of a person’s intricate construction. Rather, as interviewee Pharrell’s brother Sandy claims, the soul of the drama revolves around doubts about God, FOCUS, old days Pusha T and friends, all partners in brain wind, as well as his tortoo’s zealous muloctos, who says never ends.
Those goals leave a number of other narrative issues hanging. Why Did Pharrell Quit Teddy Riley-NEPTUNES. But this is never clarified when the team was signed onto a management team how they got out of that deal. Pharrell’s parents are nothing but pawns in the comedy show, and there is nothing else about them besides that.
Pharrell’s songwriting is described as an attempt to assemble Lego blocks until everything fits and makes that lightbulb sound. Little else is expounded concerning his actual processes.
Most importantly, the movie at times has less than creative approaches of showcasing Pharrell’s psychobiography. Such sequences in which the artist’s synesthesia can be seen are an exception, coming in as bright and blossoming hypnotic colors. Other funny situations occur, like Neptune, a statue, coming to life, or Pharrell fantasizing about A&R guys who dump him in the open sea. But this kind of a movie would like to promote itself to have more playfulness than it actually possesses.
Rather, the generic, weak and pretentious cut “Piece by Piece” is always overwhelmed and never fails to follow the basic formula of its sub genre. The musical interludes are toothless, the Lego films are crass, the biographical features strictly supervised and are clumsily scattered and the comic relief is sparing. Also: Who exactly is this movie for? Certainly not children: it’s full of cursing. And it’s animated: will many adults bother with this film that seems to have no idea how far over the top it can be?
Take into consideration that “Piece by Piece” has few bite sized images in order for it to approach any level of the thematic meaning possessed by its topic.
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