Piece By Piece
Focus Features | Release Date: October 11, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
13
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeNov 11, 2024
It’s a fun watch, and the technique allows film-maker Morgan Neville to visually represent Williams’s form of synaesthesia, which turns music into colours, and to explore his musical process in a suitably playful and creative manner. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeNov 7, 2024
Many will roll their eyes when Williams is praised for supposedly ground-breaking collaboration with luxury brands. But the real problem with this tolerably diverting film is that he isn’t really that interesting. Read full review
60
EmpireJohn NugentNov 6, 2024
Piece By Piece’s very existence is baffling, and the Lego of it all is never entirely justified, but as an unconventional documentary of a maverick musician, it works — just about. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 10, 2024
Paradoxically, the Lego approach gives the film a far more imaginative visual range than traditional documentaries, even as it robs us of the thing we most want to see: human faces. Read full review
60
The New York TimesAlissa WilkinsonOct 10, 2024
Piece By Piece sidesteps feeling rote by doing something that seems, frankly, bizarre. That it works at all is a product of the quirky form fitting the subject well. It’s chaotic, sure. But that’s the fun of it. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearOct 9, 2024
Sometimes all of these little plastic avatars are a needless distraction from what is a compelling origin story by any measure. Other times, the LEGO-ification of it all provides a welcome distraction from some fairly cut-and-dried Music Documentary 101 business, with Piece by Piece putting a formally unique spin on a very familiar, if slightly incomplete arc. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterLovia GyarkyeAug 30, 2024
While inventive, Neville’s doc can’t quite avoid the trappings of the celebrity-produced biopic, and is expectedly marked by typical hagiographic evasiveness. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerOct 10, 2024
Rather than blazing a new trail for Lego cartoons, this may be the first one to feel like it’s adhering too closely to its instruction booklet. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerOct 10, 2024
Taken on its own fluff piece terms, Piece by Piece is an interesting sprint through three decades of cultural relevance and relatively scandal-free living. If Pharrell’s happy, then it seems we have to be too. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonOct 10, 2024
For all its breezy animation, the film can’t match the vividness of its subject. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsSep 3, 2024
Williams’ playful, genre-bending music that mixes post-soul cool with skater sensibilities is probably more than a live-action narrative could contain. In the hands of director Morgan Neville, however, the story of Williams’ life lacks specificity and substance. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 7, 2024
The Lego Pharrell is an intriguing, absurdist high concept, but not nearly as interesting as the real thing. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreOct 11, 2024
What’s obvious after a few minutes of Piece by Piece is that the movie isn’t rendered the way it is because of some profound thematic ties between its subject’s life and the plastic construction set, but because the Lego is an attempt to inject something of interest into what is, even by the pre-chewed standards of authorized celeb docs, textureless pablum. Read full review
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