Andy Warhol imagined a future where everyone would be world-famous for 15 minutes — a prediction that has effectively come to pass, courtesy of TikTok and reality TV. So here’s a revised forecast: We now live in a time when everyone can (and a great many will) have documentaries made about them. That may already be true for musicians, so it will surprise no one to learn that it’s “Happy” hook factory Pharrell Williams ’ turn.
What you probably didn’t see coming was the form, which is every bit as playful as his music. In “ Piece by Piece ,” no sooner does Williams sit for his interview with director Morgan Neville than the rapper-producer-entrepreneur muses, “What if we told my life with Legos?” You know, a fully animated brickfilm, à la “The Lego Movie,” whose real-life subject would be repped by a CG plastic toy, with inked-on cheekbones and the best virtual lighting money can buy. Neville (who appears as a fuddy-duddy beige minifigure with a gray beard and glasses) chuckles nervously, as if to say: “That’ll never happen.
” But if there’s one thing “Piece by Piece” wants you to know, it’s that Williams is frequently struck by inspiration that mere mortals cannot see. That’s how he makes music — via synesthesia, whereby the beat appears to him as vivid colors in his brain. That’s how he hatched successful lines of sneakers and skateboards and skincare and streetwear, plus the rare flop, like Q Qream liqueur.
As Williams tells hi.