{"id":29740,"date":"2024-10-10T14:53:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T21:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=29740"},"modified":"2024-10-10T14:53:13","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T21:53:13","slug":"piece-by-piece-is-a-unique-biopic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=29740","title":{"rendered":"PIECE BY PIECE is a Unique Biopic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This animated film from Focus Features will open at\ncinemas on October 11th, 2024.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most will know of musical artist Pharrell Williams from his\nmany hits, like the smash single \u201cHappy\u201d, that literally seemed to be\neverywhere in 2013. But of course, he\u2019s done so much over the past 25 years\nthat he has been asked to share his life story. These types of biographical\ndocumentaries can be overly familiar and the basic story arc here doesn\u2019 t\noffer any shocking revelations. Yet Piece by Piece<\/em> does manage to do something\nunique in relating Williams\u2019 storied career. It tells the entire tale in animated\nform using Lego figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Indeed, after brief intros of Williams as a Lego figure\nbeing interviewed by a Lego version of director Morgan Neville (who also made\nthe non-narrative titles Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal<\/em> and Won\u2019t\nYou Be My Neighbor?<\/em>), we jump into his story. He describes his childhood in\nVirginia Beach, Virginia and discusses his synesthesia, a condition in which\none experiences colors and shapes while listening to music. Despite feeling\nlike an outcast, Williams does find friends at school (many of whom would become\nfamous in their own right), including a particularly tight bond with classmate\nChad Hugo. After forming a band with Hugo called The Neptunes for a high school\ntalent show, the pair encounter famous record producer Teddy Riley. After a few\nsetbacks, they become highly-regarded producers working with major acts. But of\ncourse, Williams still wants to create material for himself and release it to\nthe world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admittedly, the movie doesn\u2019t delve too deeply into the figure\u2019s life. Other than showing his humble beginnings and, later in the picture, a very quick description of how he first met his wife, the focus here is on his music, fun stories involving collaborations with famous artists and his production work on so many hit songs. It seems that Williams and Hugo were responsible for the unique beats that made these tunes stand out in the public consciousness and become instant successes. Many artists, including Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg and others are happy to share their experiences working with The Neptunes, as well as telling stories about their amusing eccentricities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is a brief period in which Willliams\u2019 career seems to\nbe faltering, with the artist suggesting that, after a string of hits, fame\nresulted in various distractions and second-guessing what audiences wanted to\nhear. It results in a series of commercial misfires and a period of self-doubt,\nbut that\u2019s as dark as the movie becomes. The artist soon rebounds and credits\nhis family and belief system for setting him back on the right path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Those hoping for information about personal conflicts that\nmay have arisen along the way or detailed explorations into his creative\nprocess won\u2019t find too many answers, but the film makes up for its lack of\ntension with visual style. The Lego figure animation actually serves the story\nwell and is cleverly used. The representation of synesthesia is nicely handled\nwith bright, multi-colored bricks moving around the character as he listens to\nmusic. It truly helps relay a sense of what one might experience. Additionally,\nthe film is extremely entertaining when hip-hop videos and parties are\nrecreated using the blocky Lego characters. This adds a layer of humor to\nmaterial that, on its own, might not seem family-friendly. And as one might\nexpect, tales of Interactions with artists like Snoop Dogg result in some great\ngags.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The film ends on a simple, sweet note as well, trying to\ndeliver even more reasoning for using Lego blocks as a storytelling device.\nPharrell Williams is an enormously talented man and it’s truly amazing to see\njust how many famous songs he is responsible for. Piece by Piece <\/em>may not\ngive viewers the entire story of the individual, but it presents his life in an\noriginal way and offers some insightful and humorous stories about his exploits\nin the music business that are remarkably fun to watch. If you\u2019re curious about\nPharrell Williams, this is an entertaining starting point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This animated film from Focus Features will open at cinemas on October 11th, 2024. Most will know of musical artist Pharrell Williams from his many hits, like the smash single \u201cHappy\u201d, that literally seemed to be everywhere in 2013. But of course, he\u2019s done so much over the past 25 years that he has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":29741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[215,7700,12229,14428,14429,16031,16081,16082,16083,16084,16256,16657,23562],"class_list":["post-29740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-215","tag-focus-features","tag-lego","tag-music-biopic","tag-musical","tag-pharrell-williams","tag-piece-by-piece","tag-piece-by-piece-film-review","tag-piece-by-piece-movie-review","tag-piece-by-piece-review","tag-pop","tag-rap","tag-universal"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}