Piece by Piece is a movie the place type 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 persona, which has doubtless influenced his musical abilities and result in the success he’s had. Becoming, then, that he and Morgan Neville come collectively to do a singular spin on the documentary by depicting his life fully via LEGO. Pushing the definition of documentary, Piece by Piece is a heartwarming story of 1 man’s dream to raise the world up via sound.
At the start, it is a documentary. It’s not 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 area by the music burning inside his soul. Can or not it’s referred to 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, nevertheless it lends itself to the life story of Pharrell. Not like most of the musical biopics we all know, Pharrell is just not somebody who fell laborious into dependancy and substance abuse. His life story is definitely completely different, and the Lego mode of storytelling helps deliver 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 persona, and the movie is infused together with his brightness.
That is a lot the case that when the movie does strive a second act downturn, it virtually feels contrived. The character of the downturn feels imprecise previous a common description that Pharrell was struggling to search out musical inspiration. And that’s maybe the place the documentary suffers essentially the most. As I’ve typically remarked, documentaries about topics nonetheless residing can typically really feel sanitized, as few wish to straight confront the darkest elements of themselves. Given Pharrell’s heavy involvement, it looks like areas of potential drama which can be there do get skipped previous.
However the movie is simple to forgive given how “glad” it might make you’re feeling. Pharrell has a deep love for music and the way it change individuals’s lives and hearts. The movie greater than something positions his life story as wanting to make use of music to maneuver individuals’s souls. And if you happen to didn’t know simply how concerned Pharrell has been with a number of the greatest hits for the previous roughly 30 years, the movie is eye-opening about his expertise at discovering sounds that join with individuals. 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 beautiful documentary. Neville demonstrates that when once more he’s an emphatic documentarian and understands learn how to faucet into the center 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 if you happen to don’t like Pharrell’s music, Piece by Piece is a movie value seeing for its distinctive strategy.
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