Piece by Piece Review: Unbound Creativity

Telling the story of Pharrell Williams entirely in LEGO, Piece by Piece is not a deep documentary but it is full of unbound creativity.

Luckily, as the start of the film shows, he had a suggestion for Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville, whose work includes 20 Feet From Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbour and the brilliant but underseen The Saint of Second Chances. How about using nothing but Lego bricks and minifigures?

It wouldn’t be the first major film made out of these plastic bricks and minifigures (see The Lego Movie and the films that came out afterwards), but it seems like such an implausible choice here. And yet, the use of Lego is why Piece By Piece works so well. The film may be telling a standard music biopic story with the typical highs, lows and recoveries, but there is also unbound creativity on offer. It is an innovative style for an innovative mind.

Pharrell has always seen things differently. Growing up in Atlantis Apartments, a housing project in Virginia Beach, was where he first noticed he could see colours when listening to music. It is a condition known as synaesthesia (he describes it as “something you see in your mind’s eye”), and the film shows it beautifully with swirls of colour and light as a young Pharrell listens to Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Wish.’ It was his grandmother who encouraged him to take up music at school, where he met Chad. Then, like a spaceship landing in Virginia Beach, arrives the world’s hottest producer Teddy Riley.

Recognising their talent, he signed The Neptunes to his label Future Records. After years of effort, Pharrell and Chad’s work starts paying off as they have a series of hits as producers whilst also forming the band N.E.R.D with Shay Haley. Later, Pharrell has his own solo hit with ‘Frontin’ – but then there is a three-year gap. Artistic struggles dominated his career as he was controlled by music industry suits until, almost miraculously, he had massively successful hits in ‘Get Lucky’ and ‘Happy.’

The Lego animation will be the make-or-break factor for most people watching Piece by Piece. Even Neville notes the oddness of the project’s central concept at times. For me, the animation is unique and colourful, giving Neville the room to be visually expressive. When one person describes being blown away by one of Pharrell’s beats, it is shown literally. Furthermore, as Pharrell says right at the start, Lego gives him a chance to be his pure self on-screen “without feeling weird,” adding a shielding layer for a person who was a misfit kid and seems rather inward today.

He also compares art to Lego sets, in that you sometimes stack different existing pieces to create something new. The animation allows a perfect insight into that part of Pharrell’s world, where he pushes himself to satisfy what childhood friend Pusha T calls an “artistic itch.” If the film using Lego is unorthodox, that only serves to emphasise the unorthodox nature of Pharrell’s beats, visualised as him linking together pieces to create structures. Different elements as one. But it also emphasises the unconventional nature of an artist who remains uncomfortable with being put in a box (Pharrell ends up pivoting to fashion, fragrances and skateboards, among other things).

Meanwhile, his life and his connection to music take him (and us) to fantastical places. From the reaches of outer space where he sees a philosophical Carl Sagan, to the underwater depths where he meets King Neptune. Pharrell does have a continued obsession with water and Neptune, which makes sense. After all, he did live in Atlantis.

Elsewhere, Neville successfully incorporates the moments of natural spontaneity that define the documentary format. Little imperfections like out-of-focus shots, a shaky handheld camera following Pharrell at the start, or Gwen Stefani’s interview being interrupted by her gardeners. Less successful is a shoehorned reference to the Black Lives Matter movement (mainly so they can cram his work on Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Alright’) and a reconciliation with Chad, who has recently sued Pharrell over the Neptunes. The absence of the former as part of the interviewees makes the film one-sided when it looks at the duo’s collaborative successes.

As a music documentary, Piece by Piece doesn’t escape the hagiographic portrayal that comes with the direct involvement of the artist at its centre (Williams is a producer here and contributes five original songs). It is so overtly non-cynical and self-serving that it nags at you a little, as does Neville omitting certain events or controversies (for instance, ‘Blurred Lines’ only gets a glancing mention). However, this is still a fun, bubbly and effortlessly charming film. It is not deep or interrogative, but it utilises the playful power of Lego to illustrate a sense of wonder and inspiration that is present throughout Pharrell’s cosmic sounds.

Piece by Piece was screened at the BFI London Film Festival on October 20, 2024, as the Closing Night Gala. The film was released in US theaters on October 11, 2024 and will be out in UK and Irish cinemas on November 8.