What the film has done, since its release in April, is introduce an entirely new generation or two to the King of Pop's music.
Late pop icon Michael Jackson. Picture: Getty Images
Where do you start writing about a movie that is somewhat fantastic, part hero-worship, part glass-half-empty and a wee bit disappointing? And not a total letdown at the same time.
After the hype, settling in to finally watch Michael, the biopic of one of the twentieth century’s greatest icons, Michael Jackson, it doesn’t take long to wonder why the film could have given so much more, but didn’t.
What the film has done, since its release in April, is introduce an entirely new generation or two to the King of Pop’s music. My six- and eight-year-old Gen Alphas still walk around the house singing Billy Jean, Bad and Thriller. They practice moonwalking and dancing like Jackson. And perhaps the film is intended to create a new generation of admirers, because it reads more like a fandom compact that delivers a smidgen of what Jackson was about.
What Michael, the film, does is document some of the primary aspects of his life before releasing Bad in 1987. And there’s too much of it.
Joseph Jackson, his dad, features prominently as one of the shaping forces of his life. The corporal punishment, the typical hard-ass dad who wants to live vicariously through the success of his kids. The Jackson 5, the money. It’s all there, but it feels drawn out when, actually, the producers could have stretched the narrative across more of the singer’s personal demons, the hype, the gossip and the music that followed Thriller.
Too much of one, too little of the other
The argument was made that Thriller, and later his 1988 Wembley performances, represented Jackson at his peak. But was it really? Albums like Bad, Dangerous and HIStory flip-switched Jackson into a different kind of artist, a musical and emotional evolution that could have been captured without turning the movie into a four-hour, butt-hurting Great Trek.
Instead, the apparent determination to stop short of the period when Jackson faced allegations of child sexual abuse also meant sacrificing important milestones in his life.
The purpose of a biopic is not to rewrite history. But if you’re going to be selective about it, create a balance. Aspects of the star’s life perhaps influenced his levels of anxiety, like suffering from vitiligo and the loneliness that he must have experienced as a super-superstar.
Some of the characters shaped a massive chunk of his mid-life: Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Diana, Lisa-Marie Presley. There’s also USA for Africa, the initiative conceived by Harry Belafonte in response to the Ethiopian famine. It brought together some of America’s biggest musical stars for We Are the World, written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones in 1985, as part of the international wave of famine-relief fundraising that also included Band Aid and Live Aid.
Where’s all of that? Where’s the publicity stunt where Jackson floated a massive statue of himself down the Thames on the release of HiSTory? There’s so much that could have been included in the film without going to the nasty bits. You cannot relegate history and fact and pretend it does not exist. It just kills the authenticity of the narrative on balance.
Michael is a must-watch, but manage expectations
But enough about that, because nephew Jafaar Jackson’s performance is really believable. He does a fantastic job of celebrating his uncle’s artistic legacy. The archive material in between takes anyone back to so many glorious moments in Jackson’s career. It’s really special to watch and indulge in those moments, as well as the storytelling that does take place.
Albeit skewed, it’s still fascinating to see what it was like for Michael behind the scenes, how he wrangled control of his life away from his dad, how he took charge of a career that soared, and how we all need someone to believe in us. After all, to reach the stars, you need to stand on the shoulders of giants. Jackson did, and he achieved the exceptional.
Michael succeeds spectacularly at reminding us why Jackson became the King of Pop, but by curating his life so selectively, it struggles to tell us who Michael Jackson actually was. It is well worth watching as long as you press play with clear expectations. The film is available on Apple TV for rent or purchase.
