Pharrell’s Lego Movie Is a Brick
The superstar’s biopic ‘Piece by Piece’ is more interested in building alternate realities than telling a real story.
I understand why a Lego biopic might have looked good to Pharrell Williams on paper. The 51-year-old producer, songwriter, singer, and former 10-gallon hat wearer has long presented his childlike wonder and alt-Black-kid sensibilities as inspirations for his music. What better way to bring that colorful imagination to life than by literally shaping it with the iconic building blocks?
When asked by director Morgan Neville why he felt Lego was the best medium for this film, Pharrell said it’s because he sees the world like a Lego set, building something new from pre-existing materials. And every frame of Piece by Piece, from the on-camera interviews and music video recreations to Pharrell’s childhood memories and daydreams, is rendered using Lego bricks and minifigures. It’s a cute idea that suits the gee-whiz, follow-your-nose approach of Pharrell’s creative endeavors. But its whimsy and implication of low stakes also play too close to hagiography for Piece by Piece to be taken as the serious life story it clearly aspires to be.
Pharrell and his company I Am Other’s status as producers of Piece by Piece is also a red flag. You might think that no one can tell their own life story better than the person who lived it, but that idea often leads to sterile, PR-ified renditions of deeply complicated careers. Consider the difference between a warts-and-all retelling like 2004’s Ray Charles biopic Ray, which was produced independently, and 2015’s N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton, which the group’s surviving members had a hand in producing, and was rightfully put on blast for omitting Dr. Dre’s 1991 assault on journalist Dee Barnes. Pharrell doesn’t have anything that heinous to answer for, but any biopic—even a Lego one—that’s overly concerned with making its subject look good will never be as interesting as one that allows their faults to be part of the story.
Piece by Piece’s treatment of Chad Hugo, Pharrell’s creative partner in the production duo the Neptunes, is particularly glaring. The bits involving the pair’s first meetups are some of the film’s most wholesome, but Hugo’s inclusion feels obligatory: insert best friend and collaborator here. He barely has any speaking lines, and his contributions to the Neptunes sound are never meaningfully explored. Near the film’s end, a rough patch the pair went through is waved off with a montage, but in reality, the duo is embroiled in a legal battle over the Neptunes’ name and no longer on speaking terms. By playing fast and loose with moments like these, Piece by Piece unintentionally reveals a less appealing side of Pharrell’s the-world-is-my-Lego-set framing: When he’s the one doing the building, he’s free to ignore the parts of the story that don’t suit him. It makes the movie feel less like a charming look into its subject’s mind and influences than a candy-colored exercise in brand management.
Both 2014’s The Lego Movie and its 2019 sequel proved it’s possible to become emotionally invested in these plastic wonderlands. But Piece by Piece’s PG rating and kid-friendly bent occasionally make the movie difficult to take seriously, giving certain scenes tonal whiplash that stings more than stepping on a Lego brick with your bare foot. Why am I watching Lego Pusha T sell drugs on the corner or record “Grindin’”? Bits about the death of Pharrell’s grandmother or the creative slump that followed his debut solo single “Frontin’” don’t connect with their fantastical renderings.
Weirdest of all is the section dedicated to Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 single “Alright,” which features a rendition of the song’s sepia-toned music video and a Lego recreation of a Black Lives Matter protest for George Floyd after his murder by a Minneapolis police officer. At best, it looks like a middle-school diorama. At worst, it saps a pivotal moment in contemporary Black history of its power and glosses over Pharrell’s less-than-ideal comments about what he’d coined “The New Black” after the Trayvon Martin shooting: “The New Black doesn’t blame other races for our issues. The New Black dreams and realizes it’s not a pigmentation, it’s a mentality, and it’s either going to work for you or against you.” (Also, why does Kendrick’s minifig look nothing like him?)
Pharrell’s story deserves more panache and nuance than Piece by Piece is interested in investing. To be fair, the scenes involving his creative process and career highlights are inspiring and beautifully rendered. And you could say that it’s just a family movie meant to inspire a passion for music—but then why is any of the more serious stuff here, if not to canonize this version of Pharrell for younger viewers? Why are we watching these surface-level paeans to activism from a person who recently said they “don’t do politics?” Piece by Piece could’ve sidestepped all of this by just committing to frothy kid stuff. But its insistence on having serious messages, combined with its frequent refusal to look closely at its subject, adds up to a film that isn’t as fun or enlightening as it wants to be. It’s much less than the sum of its bricks.
