Robbie Williams’ Biopic “Better Man” is a Queer Film Without Being a Queer Film
Ah, the joys of having AMC A-List. It’s because of it that I saw a film this past week that I’d otherwise may not have have seen. That film? The Robbie Williams biopic "Better Man".
I’m here to state that I am an American who knew about Robbie Williams prior to Better Man coming out. I knew of him because as a Directioner (since 2012) his name and Take That were brought up frequently. The question of “Who's gonna be the Robbie” was frequently seen on 1D Twitter and Tumblr. Later on in 2018, post-1D Louis Tomlinson would be a judge on The X Factor UK alongside Williams. So once again I entered Robbie’s sphere of influence.
A month or so ago I saw the trailer to Better Man and I remember after thinking that having Robbie be a CGI monkey was incredibly unique and a spin on the musician biopic that we get every single year. It wasn’t until this past weekend though that I became really interested to see it after I saw a couple people on social media talk about how good it was. After watching it I’m here to say that it may be up there with Rocketman when it comes to my favorite musician biopics. As a former English major and someone who digs way too deep into things, one theme in Better Man that I found fascinating was the display of queerness in the film. The queerness of the music and the queerness of the monkey that is Robbie Williams.
“Wow, this is hella gay” (me to myself halfway into the film)
One of the things that makes Better Man incredibly unique (and the thing that in my opinion makes it so good) is Robbie being portrayed as a monkey. The monkey has Robbie’s eyes but at the same time still looks like an overgrown monkey. I remember before watching the film hearing from people that you forget that Robbie even is a monkey. After watching it I’m being serious when I say that this is 100% the truth and it wasn’t until near the end of the film that I realized that monkey Robbie wasn’t a living and breathing creature. This is even crazier when you consider that Robbie is the only monkey in the entire film. He stands out upon first appearance but you quickly grew so used to him that he blended in with everyone else in the film.
In having him be the only monkey in the entire film I do see this as a Robbie exploring a form of self-othering. An out loud statement of “I feel and look different than everyone else around me.” No one else in the film sees him in that light though and him being a monkey in a sea of humans isn’t even mentioned once. This further proves that it’s Robbie himself doing the othering and not necessarily the wider public placing this “other” label on him. Even when we’re first introduced to queer characters in the film during Robbie’s audition process for Take That the moment isn’t played up as this huge groundbreaking moment despite this being one of his first introductions to queer people. It’s played off as completely normal and if anything shows how quick Robbie grew comfortable around queer people. Later on when Take That are performing in gay clubs at the start of the band this scene is inarguably one of the most joyous in the entire film. The boy’s don’t show disgust or uncomfortability being in this queer space and further proves how tolerant Robbie and the other members of the group were to the idea of public displays of queerness.
Before I go further I know Robbie doesn’t identify as queer. This though in my opinion doesn’t exclude it from being a “queer film”. I see a “queer film” as a film in which queerness or identity is an underlying theme throughout. I’ve mentioned how Robbie being portrayed as a monkey, an other, is an exploration on identity and self-othering but throughout the film there are moments where Robbie is on stage and sees his past selves looking at him in disgust. During these specific moments I saw this as a look at the identity issues Robbie faced during his career. In having his past selves, his past personas, be the ones intimidating him this points to how for a lot of queer people the scariest person to be truthful and authentic to is ourselves. We are often one of the only people who knows when we’re lying or being fake so when we act in this manner whilst everyone else thinks we’re fine we know internally we’re a fraud. It’s not until we can face our past and face that inner child that we can even start to be an honest and authentic form of ourselves. For some that may be coming out of the closet but for others like Robbie Williams it’s standing in the same room and embracing your past selves and mistakes. It’s necessary to come to the consensus that despite changing your ways these parts of yourself are still there and still active. All we must do is learn how to bridge the gap between our past and present. That fucked up form of our past self is still there and still active within us but how can we come to peace with it and grow? The question is brought up again and again in “Better Man” and I urge anyone reading to go see the film immediately.
Since seeing the film I’ve watched the Robbie Williams docu-series on Netflix, listened to his Live at Knebworth, and listened to a couple of his solo albums. One of my favorite things about Robbie and something that I hope anyone who watches it takes away from the film is how honest Robbie is with himself. He’s able to look at his past mistakes in a way that many people, including myself, are to scared to even think about. I respect him so much and I’ll be streaming one of his gayest music video’s “Rock DJ" for the rest of 2025.
Cheers,
Dev