Theaters have been no stranger to documentary/drama films of famous artists in recent years, with some of the most notable including “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018), “Rocketman” (2019) and “Elvis” (2022).
The newest to join this genre is Pharrell Williams’ story in “Piece by Piece” (2024), a story that begins with Williams’ early days formulating his career in Virginia Beach, where he grew up, before making friends and music with Chad Hugo.
The pair would eventually become the record producers known as The Neptunes thanks to the opportunity given to them by Future Records that moved into Williams’ neighborhood.
Through Future Records, the duo was able to produce hundreds, if not thousands, of beats for popular artists at the time including Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Daft Punk, Pusha-T, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake and many more.
Following some internal and external struggles ranging from corporate manipulation to the Black Lives Matter movement, Williams learned to be himself regardless of others’ opinions, leading to the unique style of “Piece by Piece.”
However, the film is not your typical documentary/drama, as the entire piece is recreated using Lego.
Yep, you read that right. The entire piece is recreated using Lego animation and stop-motion in the same style as “The Lego Movie” franchise to build a unique storytelling medium unseen before within the genre.
The choice to use Lego to tell Williams’ story also allows for his synesthesia, a cognitive condition that allows people to perceive multiple senses at once, to manifest in a material way for the audience to understand.
This is shown in the film as each beat is delivered to artists with glowing Lego pieces combined in unique ways reflecting Williams’ synesthesia; he sees colors in his mind when listening to or creating music.
The film’s primary positive for me is the use of Lego animation, seeing as how I love animation as a storytelling medium, but the other standout positive for me was the humor.
Lego is primarily marketed as a children’s toy, so incorporating that into the real world with adult themes being present lead to humorous results.
For example, during the creation of Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” Williams, Hugo and Snoop Dogg got high together. To keep things family-friendly, characters will spray a can labeled “PG spray” instead of smoking.
This subtle humor provides a light tone to the film that made me smile a lot, but that wasn’t the only emotion I felt while watching.
During one of the interview segments with Williams, he begins to cry for a moment as he reflects on the family and friends who always stuck by his side through tough times. Watching that scene moved me to tear up a bit, as I too am grateful for those who have stuck with me through tough times myself.
Thinking I was silly for getting teared up at a Lego movie, the rest of the scene showed the interviewer and crew also getting teared up. Even the audience in my theater got emotional with multiple sniffles and quiet sobs being heard throughout.
While I am a fan of “Piece by Piece,” it does fall victim to what I like to call the documentary trope.
The documentary trope is where the main character in a documentary will be on the rise with all the events in their historically correct order before a roadblock causes them to fail, leading to their comeback streak with events not being historically correct or clear.
“Piece by Piece” is brought down by having Williams become a corporate pawn for a time which leads to a lot of his friends and coworkers leaving him behind. During the comeback arc, most of the events are historically accurate with only one being notably vague.
When Williams is discussing his struggle to create a song for a new movie, minions appear on the screen to signify to the audience that he’s referring to “Despicable Me” (2010). However, the song he’s struggling to create is “Happy,” not the song also titled “Despicable Me” he created for the first film. The lack of clarification on which film he’s talking about makes things confusing for the audience.
Speaking of songs, the film is filled to the brim with past hits and original songs Williams created for the film. All songs fit perfectly into the scenes they appear in and form a great soundtrack album that I listened to all the way home from the theater.
While I have minor complaints about the film falling victim to the documentary trope, “Piece by Piece” is a great watch for all audiences with creative animation, music, storytelling and advice from Williams to take each day piece by piece.
Rating: 4/5
Luke Brewer can be reached at 581-2812 or at lsbrewer@eiu.edu.
