“Piece by Piece” (2024) Review

But what if it was LEGO? That thought probably crosses the minds of some creatives when they are struggling for ideas, getting drunk, or high (or all three). To its credit, the idea sounds lucrative, considering how many LEGO movies and TV shows have exploded in the past decade. But while LEGO might be versatile enough as a toy to brandish sets for kids and adults, it can’t work miracles. Case in point, Piece by Piece tries to use LEGO to amplify the documentary about Pharrell Williams. While it does provide a useful medium for conveying the artist’s abstract conceptions of the beats he composes, it doesn’t show much creativity beyond that.

The problem with wielding this medium is that past LEGO movies have created a perception of mocking the absurdity of the toy and parodying its creative appeal. There was more than one joke to be had with this staging. The joke with Piece by Piece is that it’s wild LEGO is even being used in association with this documentary. Pharrell Williams brings this up in his opening interview with director Morgan Neville. “Seriously?” asks Morgan. Williams is being serious. Morgan continues asking questions with an “okay, I guess” attitude. Although he’s playing up the recognition of the weirdness, there’s a relatable concern about how well this concept can work.

Where the film works best is how it tries to convey the complex thoughts of music. Pharrell talks about his earliest experiences with hearing music, where playing records feels like being transported to another world. His obsession with beats finds the aspiring musician creating his own songs as he assembles his band, The Neptunes. His many beats are given a tactile nature of crystal-like artifacts, gifted to talented rappers or stored for future use. The most robust scene in the film is where the LEGO Pharrell leads the viewer into his vault, showing them off like precious treasures extracted from the Earth. It’s a more compelling scene than if Pharrell booted up his laptop and sifted through his recorded files.

Most of the film is played straight with interviews from top talent who knew Pharrell. Producer Teddy Riley speaks of how his presence at Virginia Beach led to him discovering a young Pharrell at a talent show, where you’ll have to peer quickly at the stage for some funny moments. Fellow rappers Missy Elliott, Pusha T, and Timbaland speak about growing up together, framed in the same talking-head style of most documentaries. The only spot where there’s real creativity is when Snoop Dogg enters the story. He’s portrayed as a dog for a few shots, and the film narrowly tries to steer around the fact that Snoop did drugs with Pharrell before recording his famous song, “Drop It Like It’s Hot.”

The LEGO gimmick is so limited and part of that might have to do with how the film wants to be taken seriously and emotionally in many sections. But how serious can one get with LEGO? That stern nature does little keep the eyebrows lowered when the film makes the controversial call to animate the Black Lives Matter protests that inspired Pharrell. The mere presence is surreal, and the softening for a PG movie only further makes it feel slightly inappropriate, far more than the manner of censoring cannabis and profanity.

The best that can be said of Piece by Piece is that it reveals the true limitations of the LEGO lens. It’s an idea that isn’t fleshed out much and leans too heavily into an earnest approach far too standard ever to stand out. Pharrell had put off making this film because he didn’t want it to feel like a standard biopic. While it doesn’t look like any other documentary on a musician with its LEGO-style staging, it does little to diverge and rarely utilizes the LEGO aesthetic with knowing charm. While The LEGO Movie was clever with its toying, Piece by Piece is too stiff with this style and not in the funny way that the LEGO characters move.