Movie Review: Piece By Piece

The film Piece By Piece relates the life story of musician Pharrell Williams through the use of LEGO animation. This unique presentation results in making the story more engaging and, perhaps, a bit more whimsical than it would have been if attempted with a more straight-forward approach.

The film moves quickly across the seminal moments in Williams’s life and career, simultaneously buoyed by a jubilant soundtrack that makes everything that much more entertaining. Along the way, the LEGO depiction of Williams, interacts with similar depictions of stars like Kendrick Lamar, Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake, and Busta Rhymes to name just a few. The story is guided by an interview with Williams conducted by the film’s director and co-writer Morgan Neville. This allows the film to adhere to a documentary-like structure at times before reverting to a more narrative brand of storytelling.

Director Neville does a masterful job of keeping things entertaining and the script – which he co-wrote along with Oscar Vazquez, Aaron Wickenden, and Jason Zeldes – moves along as easily as one of Williams’s beats.

The decision to tell the story through the lens of LEGO heightens not only the presentation of the film, but the effect of the story as well as it is unlikely that the same tale told as a straight-up biography would have the same zest or endearing entertainment value.

However, because of its chosen milieu and the manner in which it is conveyed, combined with the work of the players within makes Piece By Piece a fun and entertaining cinematic biographical experience that pretty much anyone will enjoy.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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