Piece by Piece

Review: As I continue my catch up of films missed in 2024, I now turn to the animated Pharrell Williams biopics, ‘Piece by Piece.’ Now streaming on Peacock, the film has a modest runtime of 93 minutes and manages to fit in so much. My knowledge of Pharrell’s biopic was nearly nonexistent & this film really opened that up and it was honestly super interesting. It features so many appearances from well known artists who voice themselves including Pharrell (duh), Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Timbaland, Busta Rhymes, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Missy Elliott, and others. It does a great job of storytelling through voice over, visuals, & songs. If you enjoy animation, biopics, or music I would recommend this film to you.

High: The animation style is so fun. It obviously mimics movies in the realm of ‘The Lego Movie,’ but I honestly feel that is more creative with the LEGO style animation than those movies were. It’s hilarious to me that the films considered ‘brickfilm,’ or Lego movies, are ‘The Lego Movie,’ its sequel, ‘The Lego Ninjago Movie,’ ‘The Lego Batman Movie,’ and then a Pharrell biopic. Between this & ‘Better Man’ the creativity for musician biopics was really great last year & I really respect the choice here to do something a little different. It allowed the filmmakers to lean into some more visual storytelling.

Low: Though the voice cast was super stacked, most of the folks listed above were only in the film for a moment or two. It made it a little bit to keep up with, but the filmmakers helpfully put names on the screen which actually plays into another point I’d like to make (which isn’t a low so oh well). This film really plays out like a documentary. Just people ‘sitting down in front of a camera’ and delivering some information. Like imagine watching a documentary about a musician and the interview that would occur. Now turn it into Legos so some creative liberties can be taken and there you go.

Rating: 7/10