Everyone loves LEGO. From the classic brick sets to the video game adaptations to the movies, the Danish company always seems to find new ways to capture the imaginations of audiences of all ages. One of the kids in my unit at summer camp this year picked LEGO as his camp name. Heck, I impulsively bought the LEGO Tranquil Garden set and have it in my car right now, waiting for me and my girlfriend to build it this weekend.
Pharrell Williams REALLY loves LEGO.
The singer, producer and musician loves LEGO so much that his new biopic is told entirely through bricks and minifigs. Combining an interview between Williams and director Morgan Neville with anecdotes from family members and artists who worked with him, Piece By Piece chronicles Williams’ life from his childhood in Virginia Beach to his meteoric rise through the music industry and up to his current success with dreamlike visits to space, and Atlantis sprinkled in between.
The main draw of Piece By Piece, I think, is that it is a LEGO movie and an unconventional one at that. Previous LEGO adaptations have been whimsical adventures in the worlds of Star Wars, Batman, Ninjago, and even the entertaining extended toy commercials that were The LEGO Movie and its sequel. I’ve seen animated biopics and autobiographies before, but I can’t recall one built upon such eccentric a premise as this. LEGO is usually the realm of make-believe, not reality, from escaping life rather than exploring it. And yet Williams chose this as the medium to explore his world.
For what it’s worth, Neville and his army of animators pull off the task with surprising efficacy, full of style and panache. Williams explains his desire to have his story told in LEGO as somewhat of a metaphor for “taking [his] story apart and putting it back together in a way that makes sense” and that all the stories and colors of the universe are just “borrowed” and put together again, like how I used to rip apart my Bionicles and fuse them together in monstrous amalgamations. But given how much Pharrell emphasizes the importance of his imagination and being lost in his dreams, the infinite possibility and childlike wonder embodied by the little plastic bricks make them a fitting medium.
Colorful effects and environments immediately draw you into the tale and hold you there with a hypnotic kaleidoscope of colors and shapes, imitating what it must be like to experience synesthesia as Williams does. Watching the wonderfully retro look of the stop-motion style combined with the wonder of seeing real locations and people like Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani, and Daft Punk turned into toys did bring a sense of magic and childlike joy. The LEGO films are known for their nods to iconic pop culture moments, and Piece By Piece continues that tradition wonderfully, throwing in nods to everything from Star Trek to Frankenstein. The recreations of iconic music videos were enjoyable. What was most unique to me was the representation of the beats he and co-producer Chad Hugo created as abstract geometric shapes that bounce and pulse with lively energy.
However, even more impressive than the animation and visual style may be the sound. The music rightly takes the forefront in Williams’ story, and it was a pure audio thrill to hear the simple beginnings of the beats and how they evolved into hits like No Doubt’s “Hella Good” or Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” The iconic hooks from tracks like “Hollaback Girl” are sprinkled throughout the film as background music, and it became almost like a treasure hunt to try to identify them.
Unfortunately, everything the visuals and sound build up all fall apart regarding the film’s story. Before watching Piece By Piece, I knew nothing about Williams besides that he produced “Hollaback Girl” and “Get Lucky” and that he sang the viral “Happy” song. As a fan of history, documentaries and biographies, I was excited to learn more about the hitmaker. After watching the film, I still feel I know nothing about Pharrell Williams.
Well, let me change that. After watching Piece By Piece, I know nothing about Pharrell Williams besides what he wants me to know about him. The only new information I got was that he grew up in Virginia Beach. Oh, and that he loves LEGO.
While Williams’ tale of rising from a life in the projects to the most in-demand music producer in the industry is undeniably uplifting, the whole film still left me wondering why it even exists in the first place. Every detail of his life that is discussed has been pre-screened, curated and sanitized. There isn’t any significant life event, anniversary, rhyme, or reason behind it. There’s no moral or philosophical takeaway besides the cliche “dream big, work hard and be yourself.” Yes, it’s fun, but I have never stopped asking, “Why does Pharrell need a film right now? Why does he need a film at all?”
Williams makes a point in the story to chastise himself for falling for vanity projects and cash-grab schemes. Piece By Piece is one giant vanity cash grab. I enjoyed hearing musicians like Jay-Z, Pusha T, and Missy Elliott share their stories of Pharrell and their admiration of his talent. Still, it also comes across as Williams and Neville trying to name-drop to justify not only the validity of the movie but also of Williams himself. Williams has made himself into the commodity and is desperately trying to get us to buy into how important he is.
All the pretty colors and zany brick creations help sell the premise, but they need to be more immersive to fully draw me into the image of himself and the world Williams is selling. I could never forget or forgive that what I was watching was a LEGO advertisement in the way that the company’s other films were earnest and silly enough to immerse me. The LEGO of it all is refreshing and creative, but in the end, it comes across as a way to get kids (and, by extension, their parents) to pay for a ticket to the ego parade.
Where other recent musician biopics like Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody contain explicit biases in favor of their subjects, they didn’t shy away from looking at some of the less favorable angles. Even among Neville’s other documentaries Piece By Piece falls woefully short, considering that his previous work, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? left me in a fit of ugly tears, along with the friend I saw it with who had never even heard of Fred Rogers. There isn’t the same depth, magic or legacy in Williams’ life to analyze, at least not yet.
As undeniable as his success is, hearing someone call Williams a misunderstood genius for the fiftieth time is the emotional equivalent of stepping on a pile of LEGO bricks. Aside from briefly glancing through a creative slump and selling out, the only times I felt the film addressed anything profound or thought-provoking were when Williams discussed the death of his grandmother and his thoughts on the Black Lives Matter protests. Overall, the project feels like a puff piece, an extended episode of a late-night special on the Biography Channel.
Pharrell Williams’ biopic Piece By Piece is initially intriguing and captivating due to its bright, blocky LEGO world and nostalgia-inducing soundtrack. It’s creative and unconventional, like its subject, but without a substantive story at its base, the movie quickly falls apart as easily as a child’s flimsy block tower. Rather than deeply exploring the musician’s personality, process, and journey, Williams and Neville are content to build up his (L)ego by using his famous friends as props. I did enjoy watching Piece By Piece because it is a fun movie with a lot of gorgeous artisanship dedicated to bringing Williams’ imagination to the world of LEGO. But in the end, I found myself asking, “Is the target audience of the Pharrell Williams movie just Pharrell Williams?”
Rating: 6/10