The Life and Career of Pharrell Williams, in Lego
DIRECTED BY MORGAN NEVILLE/2024
Hitmaking musician Pharrell Williams wants to build outward. Or so he says. That’s the justification- ajustification- for why he wanted the new documentary film on his talent-filled life and remarkable music career to be rendered “in Lego.” (Yes, the venerable building brick and brand is now also a verb). Somehow, the ubiquitous hit maker convinced the acclaimed documentarian Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?) that this was a good idea. And then even more impressively, the pair apparently sold the Lego company on the idea. And y’know… they’re not wrong.
The prominent conflation in recent years between animation and the documentary form is one of those ubiquitous things that has fallen into expected normalcy. It’s quite something that when a film ostensibly aimed at depicting unblemished reality adopts the most artifice-driven tool in a filmmaker’s toolbox and it no longer strikes viewers as incongruous. This onetime headscratcher has revealed itself not as a crumbling of the documentary but as an unexpected validation of the sheer versatility of animation. (See the fully animated Flee, Tower, Waltz with Bashir, and the partially animated Beware of Mr. Baker, just to name a few). When implemented properly, gaps are filled not with dull live action talking heads but graphic representations that are inspired and engaging.
So that’s sorted out. But analyzing Neville’s resulting fully Lego-animated film, Piece by Piece, evokes another presumed incongruity: the “Lego sets for grown-ups” phenomenon. The other night before a different movie at the theater, a commercial ran for high-end prestigious Lego sets aimed solely at middle-agers who had Legos as kids, and never stopped loving them. But even before there were the Lego DaVinci’s Mona Lisas and Lego Van Gogh’s The Starry Nights, there were impressively massive Lego Death Stars and Millenium Falcons. (As an appreciator of fine art but before that, a generation one Star Wars fan, I know which of those sets I’d rather have). If there’s a commonality within the brand, it’s that all of it is expensive. Much of Lego’s output hasn’t been “for kids” in quite some time.
Therefore, any perceived conundrum regarding how a PG-rated Lego movie can also be an accurate representation of an often-R-rated life in rap and hip hop ought to be perceived less so. Any tension inherent in this pairing is nullified with occasional meta humor (bleeps, obvious edits, and creative gags) and/or careful framing and/or implications. With, say, Snoop Dogg in the mix, grownups and teens will know what all that smoke is. And when everyone is a minifig, sexualized attire and music video gyrations can’t help but be very minimalized. Many familiar videos that Pharrell was involved with are reinterpreted as Lego animation, which drew the most amusement of anything in Piece by Piece with the audience I saw it with. That said, no such attempt is made with the notorious “Blurred Lines” video. The song is used to propel a montage, but the lack of Lego Emily Ratajkowski and company signals the kind of selective sanitation that is in fact going on here.
This stylistically unlikeliest of biopics turns out to be a zippy, high flying, entertaining if also overconfident and dizzyingly colorful version of itself. And course, it’s happy. Pharrell’s synesthesia justifies plenty of fantastical visions of throbbing, pulsating physical vibrancy. Ditto for his lifelong aquatic obsession, which generates some of the coolest Lego animation seen to date. In this world, Pharrell’s “beats” are iridescent handheld (clampheld?) blocks that can be stored for later and bestowed upon other artists. It’s a real Inside Out way of realizing and demonstrating Pharrell’s core talent of coming up with infectious beats and knowing exactly who to farm them out to… but it works.
The biggest quibble with Piece by Piece is strictly with the screenplay: for the first half-hour (give or take), we hear a lot about how even at a young age, Pharrell was special, had unique talent, saw things differently, et cetera et cetera. Unless one is already up on the career and accomplishments of this savant, this level of praise may have one thinking, “Great… now prove it!” (Admittedly, while I knew of Pharrell as a guy who’s worn many hats, I’ve mainly known him for wearing that silly big one and singing about Minions a lot). Is this movie building itself up in the wrong ways? Thankfully, the rest of the movie gets itself together. Once the many hits start playing and the beats start dropping, Piece by Piece becomes a good time.
It’s incredibly rare for a Lego set to not contain the exact number of pieces required to build the thing on the box. The effort in translating the life story of Pharrell Williams into Legos does not and cannot exude such an exacting count. As is most often the case with real life, it doesn’t translate smoothly into a fully satisfying tale. The Pharrell story is one of sustained recognized greatness, and the impact that that’s had on those in his sphere. It’s bumpy and messy and switches focus haphazardly.
But on the plus side, it comes with a ton of great minifigures! Few could resist the inclusion of Jay-Z, Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Daft Punk, and Pharrell’s mom? (All voicing themselves). Even Morgan Neville himself is represented in the hallowed plastic, though a certain apprehension comes through. (Rarely if ever has Neville inserted himself into one of his films. This instance is at least a step or two removed from literally having done so). How long before a $400 playset of Death Row Records drops?
It’s not always inspiring to be in the presence of greatness, particularly when it’s ever apparent that you can’t afford all the Lego bling that they can. Piece by Piece wants to immerse us in creative possibilities, but one would be challenged to deviate from its step-by-step building of a singular superstar. Your piece count may, however, vary.