Though it may seem like a strange choice on the surface, it felt natural for the musician Pharrell Williams to tell his life story through Legos. “My earliest memories were the Lego sets that my parents would get me when I was really, really, really young,” he says. “Whether you actually really build what the set is all about or you’re just putting pieces together … it’s just magical.”

As a kid, Pharrell lived in the Atlantis Apartments, a densely populated public housing complex in Virginia Beach, Va. Outsiders were afraid to go into his neighborhood, but for Pharrell, the place was special, teeming with talent and fun.

“There were a lot of athletes that were incredibly gifted, a lot of artists that were incredibly gifted,” he says. “You know, you talk about carbon? … That heat, that pressure, that time produced a lot of diamonds.”

The new animated film, Piece By Piece, uses Legos to trace Pharrell’s early life as a boy fueled by creativity and drawn to music. Directed by Academy Award-winner Morgan Neville, the unusual biopic charts Pharrell’s trajectory to becoming a Grammy-winning songwriter, performer and producer who’s collaborated with artists like Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Britney Spears and Beyoncé. Perhaps a story as colorful as his can only be told in such a flamboyant way.

Interview highlights

On his synesthesia, which causes him to see color when he hears music

If you take it back to when you were born, all of your nerve endings — sight, sound, smell, taste, feeling — they were all connected. And then when you turn 1, those nerve endings, they prune. And sometimes some of them stay connected. And the ones that stay connected give you synesthesia. And when they’re connected, they send ghost images and ghost information to the different parts of the brain. And so you end up “hearing” a color or “seeing” a sound.

On writing “Milkshake,” sung by Kelis

The shapes [I see] are hard for me to explain, but it sort of zig zags. And those synth lines are yellow and brown for me. … And the yellow it goes from bright to mustard, marigold, and then there is just very stark brown. …

 That song came from a trip that I went to in Brazil, and I just, like, lost my mind. I’d never seen so many beautiful women. They were just everywhere. And forgive the objectification, when I say that. But that was the impression that it made on my mind at that time, I don’t know, 20 years ago. … I’d never seen anything like that. Where am I? And if you could put that energy and feeling if that could be sort of transmuted [into a song]… that was the attempt.

On writing a song for Prince that he rejected

He was different. He was one of those people that, like, he’s a musical savant. There’s not an instrument he couldn’t pick up and play. He’s a brilliant writer. Vocally, he’s incredible. He was an incredible performer and he wrote and produced for so many people. … [He was] like, “Do you own or your masters? If you don’t own your masters, we can’t work together.” … I never heard anyone say that before. Then his other thing was he wanted to sort of talk about religion. And I was like, interesting. And now I do own all of my master recordings. And I’d be happy to square off in a conversation about the business of religion versus the necessity of faith.

On his falsetto singing voice

I had a problem with my voice for many, many, many years because I didn’t feel like I had found my voice. I always thought that my tone sounded like Mickey Mouse. The next time you listen to “Frontin’,” picture Mickey Mouse — you can’t unsee it.

On writing “Happy”

The song is a sarcastic answer … for a rhetorical question: How do you make a song about someone so happy that nothing can bring them down? … When Despicable Me 2 came out [the studio] couldn’t get it to work [on the] radio because it was alien. It didn’t sound like anything else. … [Radio] didn’t play it until we did the video six months later, when the song was included on a DVD … and there was a budget to do a video for the song. Since we loved it as a companion piece to sell the DVD.

On why being in water helps him write music

When you’re in the shower, you know, and the water’s just consistently running and it creates an effect of white noise. And that’s the reason why you can think clearly when you shower. … Ideas come. Or sometimes people sing in the shower – that’s the reason why they do it is because that consistent noise, that white noise is particularly freeing to the part of your mind that wants to just iterate and not be environmentally distracted. So running water, being near water, being in water, a bath, a pool, seeing the ocean, standing in the shower, washing my hands in the sink. It does it for me.

Ann Marie Baldonado and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Sheldon Pearce adapted it for the web.

The DC Comics villain Joker has always faced tough crowds. But even he might not have been ready for the cold reception his sequel received on opening weekend.

With the massive success of the first Joaquin Phoenix Joker film in 2019, anticipation was high for the follow-up, which included Todd Phillips as the returning director, and also stars Lady Gaga.

But after a sub-par opening weekend and a barrage of poor reviews, Joker: Folie à Deux is quickly shaping up to be remembered as a flop and arguably one of the biggest disappointments in comic book film history.

CinemaScore, which polls moviegoers during a film’s opening night, gave the sequel a D — which is considered the lowest CinemaScore ever given to a studio comic book movie. Before Joker, it was Fantastic Four (2015) that held the bottom mark with a C-minus.

If that wasn’t harsh enough, PostTrak, which also surveys audiences, rated the the Warner Bros. film a half star out of five, according to Deadline. Rotten Tomatoes pegged it at just 33% on its Tomatometer.

At the box office, Joker: Folie à Deux earned roughly $40 million in domestic ticket sales during its opening weekend — a fraction of the $200 million it reportedly cost to make. And it also pales in comparison to its original Joker’s debut in 2019, which grossed over $96 million and became the biggest October box office hit. (And let’s not forget that the first of these two grossed $1 billion worldwide, becoming the first R-rated movie in history to do so.)

Joker: Folie à Deux follows Arthur Fleck in the aftermath of his murder spree from the first film. At Arkham State Hospital, he meets and falls in love with fellow inmate Harley Quinn (“Lee”) a.k.a Lady Gaga. All the while, Fleck’s trial begins, questioning whether his madness was the result of a psychological disorder or part of an elaborate act.

Some film critics and comic book fans thought the sequel strayed too far from the original film, feeling unmoved by the sequel’s musical direction — which came as a surprise to many moviegoers — and unconvinced by its subversive ending. Others simply felt the plot was “wafer-thin” and underwhelming, including the highly-anticipated love story of Fleck and Lee. On that note, some also complained that Gaga’s talents were underutilized.

NPR’s in-house film critic, Bob Mondello, gave the sequel more of a mixed review, stating that it did not deepen our understanding of the characters, but praised its stunning visuals and commended the film for taking risks.

“Joker: Folie a Deux maybe is a folly, but credit the filmmakers with taking a big swing and crossing up genre expectations,” he said on All Things Considered.

Actress and singer Lady Gaga, director Todd Phillips, center, and actor Joaquin Phoenix during the 81st International Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido, on Sept. 4.

Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

Advertisement

Glenn Kenny in RobertEbert.com wrote “The movie is narratively, psychologically, and aesthetically incoherent” but did give some props to Phoenix and Gaga’s performances.

“Both Lady Gaga and Phoenix clearly put a lot of work into their characterizations and interactions. The different performance modes they use in singing, for instance, low-key and fallible in their own “real lives,” full-on, professional quality belting in their shared dreams,” he said.

IndieWire’s David Ehrlich echoed that the film fell flat but applauded the choice of making it a musical: “No other genre makes it so easy to appreciate all the fun you’re not having.”

He added, “Once again, Phillips has made a movie that Joker himself would probably approve of. This time, however, I’m much less convinced that other people will share the same enthusiasm for it.”

Some critics have suggested that it was the film’s intention all along to defy the genre’s expectations and fanfare surrounding Joker. The title “Folie à Deux” means “madness of two” in French — not only a nod to Fleck and Lee’s relationship, but the twisted bond between Joker and moviegoers. For that, some have hailed the film as “brilliant.”

And there are yet others waiting to see if next weekend at the box office will be any different.

Either way, there is a bittersweet undertone to the sequel. Over the past few weeks, director Todd Phillips has made it clear to reporters that he is not interested in making a third Joker or solo Harley Quinn movie.

For those hoping the criticism would have been put to constructive use in another Phillips Joker film, well, the joke’s on them.