It's 2001 and nine-year-old Jonno Davies is standing in the crowd as Robbie Williams entertains 65,000 people at the Milton Keynes Bowl. "He was just this symbol of cool, and that stuck with me for a long

First reviews are in and critics have given Robbie Williams' musical biopic Better Man excellent ratings. The semi-biographical film chronicles the singer's quick ascent to stardom as a member of Take That and subsequent precipitous decline as he grappled with his inner demons and the difficulties that come with fame.

All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission. Jonno Davies plays Robbie Williams as a chimp in "Better Man" from Paramount Pictures.

Let chimpanzee entertain you in a wonderfully bizarre — but still formulaic — musical from the director of "The Greatest Showman."

He had 14 No. 1 singles in Britain, but is not well known in America. In the new movie “Better Man,” he’s played by a CGI monkey.

In 'Better Man', premiering Dec. 25 in theaters, Robbie Williams is portrayed by actor Jonno Davies, in the form of a CGI chimpanzee.

“In real life I don’t cry that much,” Williams says and then smiles. “You have a (expletive) biography about you and have the world go, ‘I’ve seen you and heard you’ and come tell me how you deal with it.’”

Simply sign up to the Film myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. A little over a year ago, Netflix released Robbie Williams, a four-part documentary in which the British pop star discussed addiction and his career.

There are plenty of ways to spice up a biopic, a genre of film often derided for being exasperatingly formulaic. You can play with multiple timelines, focus on a singular, specific moment in someone’s life—or,

If you ever plan on lobbing a criticism at Robbie Williams, he’ll probably beat you to it. The British musician, 50, has spent more than three decades in the spotlight – and in that time, he’s remained one of the most hotly debated figures in pop culture.

Better Man, the new film biopic of Robbie Williams, is out in cinemas today (Thursday, December 26) and has already been receiving rave reviews by critics