PIECE BY PIECE: 3 ½ STARS. “could easily have been called ‘The Tao of Pharrell.’”
SYNOPSIS: “Piece by Piece,” a new fanciful documentary about musician, rapper, producer, fashion designer and entrepreneur Pharrell Williams, told through animated Lego, is a brightly colored trip down memory lane for one of the most influential musicians of the 21st century.
CAST: Pharrell Williams, Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Chad Hugo, Daft Punk. Directed by Morgan Neville.
REVIEW: Content wise “Piece by Piece” is a rather straightforward music biography. The story of a young music obsessed outsider who, through tenacity, talent and luck finds his way to the inner circle of the music business isn’t new, but the telling of the tale is. Shot like a regular doc, with talking heads, recreations and “archival” footage, it is rendered completely in colorful Lego bricks. “What if life is like Lego,” Pharrell Williams says early on, “except you can put it together however you want?”
The imaginative visuals will make your eyeballs dance. Williams’s early life in Virginia Beach, Virginia is vividly portrayed as a time filled with diverse influences, like Stevie Wonder, Carl Sagan and his grandmother, who encouraged him to join his school’s band club, but it is music that sparked his imagination. Literally. In one eye popping sequence director Neville illustrates the future producer’s synesthesia, the ability to see colors in the mind’s eye when listening to music.
Later the Lego is used to maximum effect when recalling incidents in Williams’s career, like getting the contact high in Snoop Dogg’s studio that resulted in “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and in a splashy sequence that sees Williams return to the neighborhood where he grew up.
By the time the end credits roll, “Piece by Piece” touches on Black Lives Matter, his brand work with everyone from Chanel to McDonalds and the dry spell that saw him briefly lose his way in the business. The talking heads provide good information, but there are holes. We never learn why his original band the Neptunes split, and while there is a great of talk about his genius at coming up with beats, the actual creative process remains mysterious.
Still, as a fun night at the movies, the Lego look and good time tunes like “Hollaback Girl,” “Rockstar,” “Frontin’” and “Happy” are a blast but it is his philosophical vantage point—the movie could easily have been called “The Tao of Pharrell”—that provides the film’s uplift. It’s mostly Pop Psychology 101, and never really digs deep into Williams’s head, but it does serve as a testament to the power of music, positive thinking and being true to oneself as key components to personal and profession success.
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