Piece By Piece (PG)

Musician and record producer Pharrell Williams has always danced to the beat of his own drum and assumed everyone else will eventually dance along too. A feature-length documentary about Williams' life also thinks outside of the toy box, choosing colourful bricks as a charming medium to chart his rise to fame from humble beginnings in Virginia Beach.

LondonNet Film Review

Piece By Piece (PG) Film Review from LondonNet

Musician and record producer Pharrell Williams has always danced to the beat of his own drum and assumed everyone else will eventually dance along too. As one half of The Neptunes with friend Chad Hugo, who he met at summer camp, Williams has produced killer tracks with a dizzying array of talent including I’m A Slave 4 U by Britney Spears, Hot In Herre by Nelly, Work It Out by Beyonce, Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake, Milkshake by Kelis, Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani and Give It 2 Me by Madonna…

Under his own name, he produced and featured on Robin Thicke’s chart-topping hit Blurred Lines, shared a Grammy Award for his contributions to Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, garnered numerous plaudits for the exuberant dancefloor filler Happy, and was one of the producers of Oscar-nominated drama Hidden Figures. It’s fitting that a documentary about Williams’ life should also think outside of the toy box, choosing colourful bricks as a charming medium to chart his rise to fame from humble beginnings in Virginia Beach. “What if life was like a LEGO set and you could put it together however you want?” muses the musician in Morgan Neville’s picture.

The Oscar-winning director usually sculpts in live action such as 20 Feet From Stardom, which celebrated the contributions of backing singers to the music industry, and Won’t You Be My Neighbor? honouring children’s TV host Fred Rogers. Animation allows Neville to indulge exuberant visual flourishes, conjuring a shimmering seascape as Williams fancifully links the Atlantis Apartments complex where he grew up to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis ruled by Neptune, god of the sea.

Neville appears fleetingly on screen as a lustrous figurine, gamely asking Williams questions to tease out nuggets about his synesthesia, the neurological condition which can stimulate multiple senses, and an extraordinary trajectory including schooldays friendships with Missy Elliott, Pusha T and Timbaland. His first pay cheque was 10,000 US dollars. “I blew it in two weeks,” chuckles Williams, “I was 19 years old.” Collaborators, family and friends voice themselves in charmingly brickified forms and are effusive in their praise. “He was like the young brother we all wanted to protect,” notes Jay-Z.

Piece By Piece is a conventional documentary portrait elevated by colourful visuals, which bolts together animated behinds-the-scenes footage with reconstructions of key memories. Williams is an engaging subject but there is considerably more triumph than adversity and the introspection rarely ventures beneath surface level. “Relevance is a drug,” warns the musician towards the end of the film. Thanks to the enduringly popular construction blocks, he will remain relevant to modern cinemagoers but is still an enigma.

– Kim Hu