Directed By Morgan Neville

Starring – Pharrell Williams, Morgan Neville, Kendrick Lamar

The Plot – An unparalleled motion picture experience that captures the magic and brilliance of Pharrell Williams’ creative genius, one LEGO® brick at a time. Uninterested in making a traditional film about his life, Pharrell set out to tell his story in a way that would set audience’s imaginations free. Developed from his singular vision, the film defies genres and expectations to transport audiences into a LEGO world where anything is possible.

Rated PG for adult language, some suggestive material and thematic elements.

PIECE BY PIECE – Official Trailer [HD] – Only In Theaters October 11 (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Whether you choose to appreciate ‘Piece By Piece’ as a Pharrell Williams documentary by way of a Lego stylized encompassing, or the single riskiest venture creatively to Lego’s time as a feature length storyteller, it’s never the less an imaginatively creative and highly expressive adventure that will infectiously charm the passionate fanbase of Williams’, whose legacy as an influential filmmaker now spans remarkably over thirty years. While I do consider myself an avid Pharrell fan, whose knowledge of the musician I thought was firmly indented in the memory of my adolescence and early-adulthood, the film still manages to conjure quite a few surprises in the history of his tremendously overwhelming influence to songs that I honestly had no idea that he was a part of, all the while articulating how there was such a unique time period for music where you couldn’t turn the dial of your radio without hearing one of his many versatile creations. It also sets out to show the roots of Williams that grew such an ambitious dreamer, with time during the opening act devoted to his background as a kid from Virginia Beach, who grew into a mesmerized appreciator of all things music, primarily on the producing front. Through Pharrell’s growing influence among the pop charts narratively, we’re simultaneously introduced to some icons of the music community that lend their vocals to interviewing sections of the growing narrative, and while most of them serve to reaffirm the freshly unique and innovative ways that he continuously changed the game, Snoop Dogg is a welcome addition to the forefront, bringing with him not only a noticeable degree of comedic influence that unfortunately goes missing to much of the proceedings, but also clever uses of withstanding the PG encompassing of its capture, which serve as the biggest wink and nod to the adult demographic, who will undoubtedly make up an overwhelming majority of the audience who take the most from the engagement. I’ve also read from some critics about how the film contains no kind of stakes or conflict once Pharrell is signed to Future Records, and that simply couldn’t be further from the truth, as the film’s climactic third act takes a sharp turn into dramatic territory, feeling like the most revealing opportunities into the person behind the superstar. This section explains the sudden disappearance of Pharrell for nearly a decade, with first-time doubts about his capabilities as an artist that clashed alongside an untimely and personally grueling loss to his life, all the while taking him towards a direction that has produced his two biggest chart-dominating hits to date, while inside of a comeback story that feels anything but. It proves a lot of narrative substance for a film so overwhelming in stylized captivity, particularly in orchestrating the creative process that plays so vital to the way Pharrell tapped into instrumentals so diverse and alien, which everyone wanted to be a part of. In terms of the production, much credit goes to Neville and his team, who have clearly done their homework on every aspect of story-driven documentaries, like editing and framing, to give it that look of authenticity to make us feel like we’re watching a documentary, just in animated form. This is where the film takes its biggest risks with catering to a child audience, as most of them are unfamiliar with documentaries as a whole, but between the appeal of one of the year’s best soundtracks that actually conjure meaning in the way they call upon these decorated favorites, and lusciously luminating animated renderings, the film offers very little chances to get bored, made all the more urgent with a tight-and-trimmed 90-minute run time that has no option of overstaying its welcome. On the subject of the aforementioned animation, the film has no problems utilizing a blooming of color that entrances in every jaw-dropping visual, but like most Lego films, it’s the dynamic detail that is most amazing, recreating fabric trends and music videos seamlessly with pixelized articulation that you wish would go on for a little longer. Even beyond this, however, there’s a unique method of surmising memories in the depths of overhead narration that I felt was the film’s truest touch to channeling the look and feel of documentaries, where scratchy and fuzzy visuals of the VHS variety flash back to a particular moment in the productive collaborations with these artists, appearing intentionally weathered to the rest of the movie’s animated renderings, all in the essence of attaining stock footage for a fictionally animated documentary.

NEGATIVES

Previously, I mentioned how kid audiences will be the biggest uphill hurdle for this movie, and aside from their inability of not knowing Pharrell and his colorful cast of characters, a surprising lack of comedic chemistry feels most compromising, especially with aforementioned animated capabilities that are so expressively fantastical. The script totally lets down the personalities of these characters in ways that often make them rub together towards feeling one-dimensional (With Snoop being the obvious difference), and though the intention is to make this a Pharrell Williams helmed documentary turned animated, I feel the lack of effort that confounds the script towards churning out even clever visual cues are most troubling, earning it authenticity as a documentary, but never the kind that channels the energy that a youthful audience craves. On top of limited comedy, I found the storytelling to be abruptly rushed in containing thirty years of artistic work to an hour-and-a-half engagement, leaving the pacing continuously pushing along while offering us very few moments to properly engage with overwhelming feelings of adversity that Pharrell periodically faces. This can be most felt during the film’s second act, particularly during a period when Pharrell is churning out what feels like a hit a day, and in condensing so many of these moments towards feeling neighboring, really undercuts the magnitude of the long-term success that he garnered during such an age, all the while sweeping through these noteworthy instances with the velocity of a full-steam locomotive that leaves little in its devastating wake. Finally, I truly wish the script took more chances with the outline and consistency of its structure, as the predictable beats of the narrative often deduce this story towards feeling conventional, despite animated enveloping that would say otherwise. I’m not exactly sure what the answer is for storytelling that feels so familiar, despite Pharrell never having a biography of his own, but every conflict feels perfectly resolved, while relationships feel conveniently staged, and I just wish that the script wouldn’t of unloaded them in ways that felt so obvious, especially since the film and essentially Pharrell value seemingly everyone who he has ever come across.

OVERALL
‘Piece By Piece’ is among the most boldly expressive and creative biographical documentaries that has ever hit the silver screen, even if it’s occasionally weighed down by a stage-heavy script that screams conventionalism. Through the eyes and origin story of one of music’s most original and experimental pioneers, the film matches his creativity with a colorful canvas that simultaneously balances detail with decoration, surprisingly steering towards adult audiences in ways that, like Williams’ music, occasionally pushes the envelope with underlined ironies.

My Grade: 7/10 or B-