Lest anybody come away from this pondering that “Higher Man” is all in regards to the lurid spectacle of a well-known determine’s fall from grace, I guarantee you that is solely the half of it. The biopic is much more inquisitive about Robbie Williams’ well-known comeback, turning his life and his profession round over the course of a number of years — not essentially via willpower alone, however by the therapeutic and redemptive energy of rehab. For director Michael Gracey, that performed a reasonably important function in what goes down in the course of the Knebworth Competition mayhem:
“The thought of combating your self is one thing I believe we’re all accustomed to, and also you get an thought of that self-loathing and that self-judgement going via each efficiency that he does. He is at all times clocking himself out within the viewers, searching in disgust. So it reaches this level at Knebworth, since you go, in your head, ‘Oh, that is clearly this man’s best second of his life. He is performing to 125,000 individuals, he did it three nights in a row, he broke each file on the time.’ You are identical to, that is what you assume is somebody’s best second of happiness the place he is fulfilling all his desires. And but, on the time, it was an absolute nightmare. Robbie would not do not forget that efficiency in any respect, which, to me, speaks to how checked out he was, mentally. That is unimaginable, to have one of many best moments you can ever expertise and never bear in mind it.”
The place “Higher Man” shines probably the most is in its depiction of a live performance that begins out energetic and enjoyable … solely to devolve right into a harrowing battle in Robbie Williams’ thoughts, culminating in a darkish second the place he gruesomely slays an attacker revealed to be himself as a child. For Gracey, that sudden low level had its roots in a real-world therapeutic method for these in rehab. As he defined:
“After which clearly it involves fairly an abrupt halt when he kills his youthful self, which is predicated on going to rehab and one of many strategies the place they present you a photograph of your youthful self at age 5 – 6, and mainly say, ‘Would you be doing what you are doing to your self to this little boy?’ And naturally persons are like, ‘No, I freaking love that child. As if I’d do that to that boy.’ And so they’re like, ‘Effectively, that is you.'”
You possibly can hear Jacob Corridor’s full interview with Gracey within the again half of right this moment’s episode of the /Movie Every day podcast:
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