I underestimated how important Pharrell Williams was to my cultural upbringing. Piece By Piece follows its title by going through all the hits the mega producer has generated in his impressive career. Throw in one of the best documentarians working today and a LEGO filter, and you have the building blocks of what should be a fantastic, fresh, exciting doc. Should being the operative word.
Pharrell Williams is not just happy. He’s an artist through and through. Director Morgan Neville starts us on the boardwalks of Virginia Beach, where Pharrell grew up. From there, we journey to present day, and all the music biopic ups and downs that got Williams here, demanding his music biopic be done with Legos to the bewildered surprise of Neville and the producers…and basically the audience in general.
So why Legos is the big question. The point is made clear from line 1, where Pharrell basically wants this animation because he always feels like he’s building something new from something that existed. The animation is useful tactically, allowing really famous people like Jay-Z or Gwen Stefani to show up for Piece By Piece and never have to technically be on camera, allowing for more talking heads of most of the best musicians of the last 30 years. As for Legos as a metaphor for Pharrell’s life, the Legoification of beats is the coolest part, as each beat looks different in size, shape, and color. Some of the space stuff is made easier to create scenes for with animation as well. But these are mostly smaller details in Pharrell’s story, and if anything the animation creates a veneer of something new when in fact it’s more of a barrier for allowing the audience to connect with this incredible music maker.
Because Piece By Piece’s story suffers more than most from star compromising. By forcing the doc into Lego form, Pharrell effectively can keep this story as breezy and surface level as possible. Instead of having to reveal interesting/darker parts of his upbringing like how his grandmother’s death really affected him, or how the Blurred Lines video really affected his standing in the industry, we get an impressive, but ultimately hollow, animation montage. And without any conflict or character development? Pharrell basically keeps his real thoughts to himself, going for broad music biopic notes of a glorious rise, a dark creative period, and then a rebirth that aren’t specific enough to leave any real impression. The most interesting things about Piece by Piece don’t even really have to do with Pharrell at all: 1 is a McDonalds fact that’s crazy, and 1 is about what a music enclave Virginia Beach was: can you imagine Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Pusha T, and Pharrell all probably going to the same parties together? That’s some insane sh*t!
But why go personally deep when you can just list your incredible Hella Good music credits like Piece By Piece does for the Happy Pharrell? Hollaback at your Senorita while you Shake Ya Ass with the Rump Shakers, you might Get Lucky while it’s Hot in Herre. And who calls themselves The Neptunes? God Pharrell and Chad are N.E.R.D.s.