By John McDonald - November 13, 2024
Animation is such a malleable art form that has the power to change the mundane into the extravagant. Brickfilm is one you might primarily associate with comedy, as The Lego Movie showcased. Is it gimmicky? Sure, it is, but it still produces magic when pieced together brick by brick. Piece by Piece is the latest Brickfilm experiment; a musical number that revolves around the prolific music producer, Pharrell Williams, and his classic rags-to-riches story from the Virginia Beach projects, to his producing career as part of The Neptunes before N.E.R.D success took him to international stardom.
Williams is the eponymous man in the background, providing oodles of tracks for some of the biggest songs of the 21st century. He's a creative tour de force and although mainly operating from the shadows in his various collaborations, has never been shy of centre stage and often welcomes the spotlight from above. His outrageous and notorious fashion sense is another aspect of the man’s individuality, but Pharrell the creative is one you might misjudge. Piece by Piece, however, (a transparent metaphor about how several endeavours and countless paths travelled have laid the foundations for his career) tells you all you need to know about the life of the talented music producer.
The animation is about as slick as it gets in the Brickfilm world. The film now has many layers that help make an average story fantastic. William’s life turns into one that bends the very fabric of the world by embellishing the events and elaborating the truth. To put it plainly, if Lego didn’t exist, this would just be a run-of-the-mill documentary about a man who landed comfortably on his feet – those child-like bricks allow Piece by Piece to exceed all expectations.
This Brickfilm is aided by the assured hands of its director, Morgan Neville (who appears in Lego form interviewing the main attraction) whose expertise is with musical documentaries such as the acclaimed 20 Feet from Freedom. Neville has a fantastic skill for allowing the character to shine instead of the music, which is key for this film in particular. It’s also Neville’s most experimental film, with his previous works including Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain and Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Both are squeezed into specific storytelling guidelines in a more conventional way.
Although it may seem that William’s life just kind of… fell into place at the right moments, we do see many of his ups and downs. Whether it’s a personal struggle due to the death of a family member, or the corporate vultures that flew around and offered lucrative deals to be the face of fashion and makeup brands which derailed his creativity slightly. Like it always would do, the film paints these big heads as devils on his shoulder, but there's a bitter aftertaste that develops when you consider that one of William’s most successful songs (and the most irritating too), Happy, was just a massive marketing ploy that blew up with the general public at the right time. In turn, the song's narrative changed, and the creation process was forgotten about in an instant. It was not long before his next collaboration with Kendrick Lamar changed that narrative. The song Alright was released during the midst of frantic Black Lives Matter protests in 2015 and is powerful and poignantly narrated with exceptional emotion by these little Lego pieces, and it becomes some of the film's best and most well-rounded animation.
As expected, Piece by Piece portrays Williams in the brightest of lights. He’s the playful younger brother who’s just eaten a big bag of Skittles and been given a new remote-controlled car on his birthday. Is it egotistical that all the co-stars sing his praises or is it just a testament to the fact he might actually be one of the nice guys? Character endorsements from collaborators like Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani cement Williams as a soft little soul who craved creative greatness. One event sees Williams offer an opportunity to a childhood friend and rapper; the down-on-your-luck Pusha T becomes a wonderful example of the man’s personality.
Piece by Piece is the documentary you didn’t think you needed to see. The life of potentially the most important music producers of the 21st century is one you’d expect to be full of intrigue. It’s been revitalized into something completely different, extravagant, and magical because of a genius decision. William’s creative insistent to zig instead of zag in his career has resulted in one of the best documentaries of the year as well as establishing that Brickfilm can not only be used in its primary comedic form but that it can be ruggedly honest and meaningful too and a brilliant form of storytelling.
Piece By Piece is out now in cinemas
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