Piece by Piece

We finally get to one of this year's most unusual biopics. 

Piece by Piece, which stars Pharell Williams as himself in CGI Lego form, isn't the year's most unusual biopic only because we have Better Man coming out in a few months. That one features Robbie Williams as the voice of himself, visualized by a motion-capture chimpanzee. I seriously wonder how that will do. But let's see how this one did.

Basically, Morgan Neville interviews Pharell, as well as several associates, about his life and career. We learn how Pharell grew up in Virginia Beach; how he formed The Neptunes with his High School friend, Chad Hugo, and Shay Haley; how he became famous and how success nearly spoiled him; and how he met his wife, Helen. We also see the impact of his music, as well as his activism against police brutality. I think that's mostly it.

This may not be the most unusual biopic, or even documentary, ever, but it's still one of the most dazzling. A few highlights include young Pharell swimming in Atlantis, and later seeing the colors in Stevie Wonder's I Wish. Although it has a smaller budget than the other Lego movies, going at $16 million rather than up to $99 million, the film's Lego animation is as remarkable as its predecessors. Its Lego-style gags are its best bits, whether it's the final fate of its evil executives, the Future Records headquarters literally landing in his neighborhood, or the "PG-Spray" to cover up Snoop Dogg's marijuana use. But not even the Lego aesthetics detract from the seriousness when it recreates real-life protests against police brutality.

It's quite interesting to see how Pharell met the likes of Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake & Jay-Z, and wrote some of their greatest hits. It even gets to how he wrote his own greatest hit, Happy from Despicable Me 2, though it glosses over his work on the first film. Those songs and a decent score by Mark Andrews compose much of the film's lively soundtrack. We also get some nifty recreations of the resulting music videos, especially the one for Happy and its many fan vids.

The interviews with Helen and his parents provide are amusing, especially when she tells how they met. It's also nice to see him in touch with Chad and Shay, long after The Neptunes disbanded. His relationship with his grandma is so compelling that you'll feel her eventual death with him. All in all, Pharell's story hits a few basic biopic beats, but the results are still captivating, even if the credits say that "not everything is 100% accurate."

Pharell justifies the aesthetics by comparing life to a Lego set, where everything is built from pre-existing bits. What these bits build up to are 93 minutes that will inform you, amuse you, and even move you. It's a surprising mix, I know, but I think I had fun with it. I'm sure you will too. To quote the film, "I think we're done."