Piece by Piece Review: Pharrell Williams' Lego Documentary Is Put Together

A film documentary using only Lego bricks seems like an unconventional choice. If this documentary is about a renowned musician-producer Pharrell Williams, It's actually a kind of trademark.

“Piece by piece” is a bright, smart, song-filled biopic that pretends to be a behind-the-scenes documentary, using small plastic bricks, angles and curves to celebrate an artist known for his quirky soul. It's deep and surreal and often enchanting. Is it a high concept or a low concept? Like Williams, it's a little bit of both.

Director Morgan Neville – who became increasingly experimental and delved into the lives of other celebrities such as Fred Rogers “Don’t you want to be my neighbor?”“Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain” And “Steve! (Martin): A documentary in two parts” – This time real interviews are used, but masked under small Lego figures with animated faces. Let's call it a documentary in a million pieces.

The filmmakers try to explain their approach: “What if nothing was real? What if life was like a Lego set?” Williams says at the beginning – but it's very tenuous. Just give in and enjoy the ride of a poor boy from Virginia Beach, Virginia who rose to and became the dominant musical talent a creative director at Louis Vuitton.

Williams is, by his own admission, a little distant, a little strange. Music triggers colors in his brain – he has synesthesia, beautifully portrayed here – and it is his forward-thinking musical brain that will make him a star, first as part of producing team The Neptunes and then as a sought-after solo producer and songwriter.

There are ups and downs and then ups again. A verse Williams wrote for Wreckx-N-Effect's “Rump Shaker” while he was making a living selling beats led to superstars demanding to collaborate with him and his partner Chad Hugo – Kendrick Lamar, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Gwen Stefani, Missy Elliott And Jay Z. All of these superstars take part in interviews and have been hysterically portrayed as Lego minifigures, right down to No Doubt's Adrian Young's mohawk. (Take my money, Lego.)

We also learn about his wife Helen and his fear of being a solo artist, an opportunity he spurned when he wanted to take advantage of it. Ultimately, we come to understand his futuristic approach to fashion and music. “What I am is an outsider,” he says. Nobody will question him about it.

The 3D world the filmmakers have created is amazing, with waves of clear Lego bricks washing up on a beach made of Lego baseplates and Williams' collection of cool beats depicted as bouncing bricks with lights in them. There are Lego McDonald's nuggets, Lego pretzels, singing Lego fish and a Lego Anna Wintour, Even in plastic, cool and haughty.

Although Lego is seemingly a restrictive medium – the hands are clamps and everyone walks like robots since there are no Lego knees – it can apparently also levitate in the right hands, and here they do, with Williams in a beautiful dream sequence, who observes the earth lights like a distant astronaut. When the filmmakers make Lego appear as water and music, this is their crowning achievement. (Special shout out to the team that made Lego champagne bubbles.)

It's notoriously difficult to pinpoint the origins of the music – Williams claims to have created the notoriously mysterious McDonald's jingle “I love it” – and the filmmakers try to cover up any misinformation with a simple disclaimer in the credits: “Not everything in this film is 100% accurate. For example, Pharrell never went into space.”

There are also some extraordinary moments that come by quickly but probably took months to create, like a Lego look at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial and Black protest footage. Lives Matter figures scream, “Don’t shoot!”

The documentary lags a little behind Williams' rise, pushing the years forward, although recreations of some of the music videos he pioneered are too funny. Why he and Hugo broke up is kept quiet and the filmmakers struggle to find closure, taking several stuttering steps.

“I think we’re done,” are the last words we hear as the filmmakers finally give up. But they left behind a crazy, sweet portrait of a genius, forever in building blocks.

“Piece by Piece,” a Focus Feature release in theaters Oct. 11, is rated PG for language, some suggestive material and thematic elements.” Running time: 93 minutes. Three out of four stars.