If you’re sick of formulaic musical biopics — which is to say, almost all musical biopics — Morgan Neville’s “Piece by Piece” is a breath of fresh air. Pharrell Williams, an artist with more #1 hits than Will Riker and Jack Ransom in a bar fight, has a story to tell about his childhood, his career, and his creative process, and it’s not your typical rags to riches tale. (Also he’s a “Star Trek” fan so if no one else gets that joke, at least he will.)
“Piece by Piece” is an animated documentary, which is not a brand-new concept but it hasn’t been done to death either. Morgan Neville, who won an Oscar for the music documentary “20 Feet from Stardom,” sat Pharrell Williams and his friends, family and artistic collaborators down for extended interviews, and then animated their story using the same style as the various “LEGO Movies” everyone loves so much. It’s a charming approach, even if it’s also a huge commercial for toys.
But to hear Pharrell tell it, the LEGO aesthetic connects with him on a personal level. From his perspective there is nothing new in this universe so everything we create is made out of pre-existing pieces. His music stems from his life experiences, big and small, and when he compiles a beat together it takes physical form, a collection of LEGO pieces that pulsate with rhythm.
When it’s not trying to be profound about LEGO, “Piece by Piece” is being funny about it. Anecdotes about working at McDonalds and getting addicted to Chicken McNuggets are amusing in their own right, but completely absurdist when there’s no LEGO brick small enough to pull off the illusion. So Pharrell just horks down beige 1×1 bricks that are practically the size of his head.
Pharrell also explains that he experiences synesthesia, which means he processes music visually, and that gives “Piece by Piece” an excuse to get trippy. Lots of colors, lots of weird images. It’s not too trippy though. Neville’s animated doc takes place in the music industry but it’s a family-friendly film, and thus so are the edgiest song lyrics. And the scenes with Snoop Dogg reveal that the mysterious cloud of white smoke that follows him around is just “PG Spray,” which the characters aerosol around themselves in the hopes grown-ups will laugh and kids won’t think about it too hard.
“Piece by Piece” is designed with children in mind. It’s a laid back storybook, with inspirational moments and surprisingly muted drama. Pharrell’s life seems to have somehow averted many of the music industry’s most pernicious clichés, so the film doesn’t have subplots of substance abuse or even melodramatic shouting matches with his friends, family and fellow musicians. His biggest struggles, to hear “Piece by Piece” tell it, was overextending himself with side projects and a period of creative burnout.
This lack of intensity isn’t a drawback in Neville’s film, it’s a selling point. “Piece by Piece” isn’t about building up Pharrell’s legend, it’s about the value of hard work and personal growth. These are some of life’s most important lessons but movies frequently make them seem like they always emerge from outer conflict, when a lot of the time it’s just buckling down, perfecting your craft, paying your dues, making time for your friends and family, and not losing sight of your core values. “Piece by Piece” uses whimsy to make these experiences entertaining, whereas many biopics fall into the trap of converting reality into dramatic contrivance.
So it goes that “Piece by Piece” is slight, ever so slight, yet rather impressive. Pharrell is a likable fellow, and the rest of the interviewees are kind and self-effacing. It amuses them that a man with such childlike exuberance and eccentric fashion choices has conquered the music world, but they’re all very glad he did, either because he’s a nice guy or because he made them a lot of money. Usually both. It’s reassuring to think that at least once in a while the music industry doesn’t chew you up and spit you out. It seems like Pharrell just got gnawed on a little.
And of course there are the songs. There are so many songs. “Piece by Piece” doesn’t stop to play them all in their entirety because it’s not Bernardo Bertolucci’s director’s cut of “1900” and we don’t have all the time in the world. If you only know Pharrell Williams from his hit single “Happy” you will have your mind completely blown by how many classic songs he and his producing partner Chad Hugo have been directly responsible for, or at least guided to fruition. It’s such an incredible, high volume, high quality artistic output that it’s legitimately hard to process, but to hear Pharrell tell it, it was his day job.
“Piece by Piece” doesn’t hit you like a ton of bricks. It’s mild-mannered with good intentions and amusing sight gags. But it’s that fact — its very existence as a musical biography that just wants the audience to be comforted and inspired — which makes it special. Morgan Neville may have made the latest in a long line of giant LEGO commercials, but he’s made one with real human decency and soul.
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