Piece by Piece truly soars when it embraces the potential of its LEGO building blocks, with imaginative visuals to match Williams’ famously omnivorous approach to production and songwriting.

| Feb 8, 2025

This vibrant and whimsical documentary is unconventional in the best way as it takes you through the life of the hitmaker from his childhood in Virginia through to his success in music.

| Jan 17, 2025

It’s certainly not the most compelling music documentary out there, even just from the past year, but Piece by Piece is a provocative, near-pitch-perfect match between artist and format.

| Jan 10, 2025

The film’s final act feels rushed, but Piece By Piece is endearing, playful filmmaking.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 19, 2024

The memoir is a clever fit of form and subject.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 13, 2024

The soundtrack is stuffed with hits but you’re not given the chance to settle into any of them. It’s also well stocked with platitudes and you are given plenty of time to mull over these. Too much time.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 5, 2024

Where Piece by Piece builds up to something truly different is how it uses its LEGO visuals to depict Williams compositionally connecting with a state of synaesthesia (where individual notes and complete melodies appear to him as colours).

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 5, 2024

All up it’s a passable but far-from-exceptional vanity project, with the format becoming increasingly awkward: Lego movies are usually associated with comedy, something lacking from the Williams’ saga.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 5, 2024

Ultimately an unconventional documentary for an unconventional artist, Piece By Piece is a celebratory, well, piece that gets away with not adhering to a warts-and-all structure due to its exciting individuality.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 4, 2024

… pure sensory pop art …

| Original Score: 17/20 | Dec 2, 2024

The inspiration in “Piece By Piece” goes beyond age boundaries and is for everyone who has a dream and is pursuing it. The notion that “What makes you different makes you special”is a powerful message indeed.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 29, 2024

The use of Legos is a disarming technique and one that has every reason not to work, but somehow does largely because it fits thematically with Pharrell’s artistic philosophy.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 22, 2024

The narrative theory that, like Lego itself, the bare bricks of a life can be built up into something better may sound cheesy, but there's no denying the passion of the sentiment, nor the feelgood joy this film brings to fans of all ages.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 19, 2024

The film, therefore, is all surface, no depth — but in a way, doesn’t that befit the vibrant man we are here to celebrate?

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 18, 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.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 13, 2024

Take the plastic away and we’d also miss some insightful flights of invention: hot new beats glow from shelves like alien lifeforms. And celebrities in Lego form is a durable running joke.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 13, 2024

While it may feel odd to tell someone's life story in this way, the blast of energy, colour, humour and music is infectious. And Pharrell's life is fascinating.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 12, 2024

A Pharrell LEGO documentary is as cool as it sounds.

| Nov 12, 2024

What at first seems like a quirky gimmick actually works rather well. It’s a fun watch, and the technique allows film-maker Morgan Neville to visually represent Williams’s form of synaesthesia.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 11, 2024

That said, this biopic of music trailblazer Pharrell Williams has something for all the family - sweet, inspiring, and with a block-rocking soundtrack to boot.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 9, 2024