Jaafar Jackson (center) in 'Michael.' Glen Wilson/Lionsgate Director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter John Logan don’t exactly break the mold with Michael, nor do they stuff it with major revelations. But they tap into a vein of melancholy underlaying the stratospheric success that’s surprisingly affecting. The online mob will be sharpening their pitchforks given the movie’s failure to address the accusations of child sexual abuse that tarnished Michael Jackson’s legacy. But the filmmakers get around that by focusing on his early career, ending with the 1988 Bad World Tour concert in London, years before allegations first surfaced. The epilogue card reading “His story continues” does some heavy lifting.
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Whether it will continue in a second film remains an open question, though based on Michael, it seems safe to assume an eventual Part II would be unlikely to tackle the thornier issues head-on. Still, ignoring the scandal certainly hasn’t hurt the Broadway musical MJ, now in its fourth year in addition to a national tour and multiple international transfers. Nor did it stop Kenny Ortega’s posthumous 2009 film, This Is It, from becoming the highest-grossing documentary of all time.
Michael
The Bottom Line Boilerplate on the surface, thoughtful and intimate underneath. Release date: Friday, April 24 Cast: Jaafar Jackson, Colman Domingo, Nia Long, Juliano Valdi, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Laura Harrier, Jessica Sula, Miles Teller, Larenz Tate, Kendrick Sampson Director: Antoine Fuqua Screenwriter: John Logan Rated PG-13, 2 hours 9 minutesThose and other signs of Jackson’s enduring popularity suggest that diehard fans of his music — some of us used to wait hours for “Billie Jean” to come around again on MTV — will still seize the opportunity to celebrate the legendary streak that took him from childhood Motown stardom to pop royalty, with the three certified banger albums produced by Quincy Jones, Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad.
If your mind was made up about Jackson by the tabloid feeding frenzy that began in 1993, and damning exposés like HBO’s two-part 1999 documentary Leaving Neverland, Michael probably won’t do a lot to change that. But if you’re even remotely nostalgic for the time when his songs were ubiquitous on pop charts, at parties and on dance floors worldwide, the movie will be a warm rush of transporting pleasure.
The most irrefutable fact about Jackson is that he was a musical genius driven by a clear-cut vision for his career. Logan and Fuqua celebrate his emergence as the diminutive frontman of the Jackson 5 alongside his older brothers at age 10, with perfect pitch and an adorably charismatic stage presence (he’s played in those early years by the terrific Juliano Valdi). In his 20s, he developed unerring instincts about the material that would best suit him and the ideal ways in which to present it — from precision stage choreography to groundbreaking music videos in the early days of that format.
In an amusing cameo, Mike Myers plays CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff, who in 1983 threatens to pull all the label’s major artists if MTV doesn’t break with its exclusionary programming and put “Billie Jean” into high rotation, making Jackson the first Black artist to receive that exposure.
The film doesn’t go deep on the evolution of his signature look, his distinctive dance style or the genesis of his biggest hits, unlike, say, Spike Lee’s exactingly detailed 2012 ABC doc, Bad 25. Everything seems to spring from his mind fully formed. The closest it comes is when he watches an old Vincent Price horror movie or sees an L.A. TV news report about tensions between the Bloods and the Crips and then incorporates those elements into his music videos for “Thriller” and “Beat It,” respectively.
What makes all this compelling is the degree to which Jaafar Jackson, the son of Michael’s older brother Jermaine, disappears into the role of his celebrated uncle. While the movie wisely sticks with the original vocals, the young actor pulls off an uncanny recreation of Michael’s dance skills — not just trademark moves like the Moonwalk, the Robot, the Spin or the Toe Stand, but the unique combination of fluidity and snappy angularity that helped make him one of the all-time great stage entertainers.
Jaafar nails the sweet, soft-spoken voice with which Michael projected a childlike innocence and vulnerability, but also the single-minded focus with which he pushed his career forward. We see his natural affinity for children in fan interactions or hospital visits to pediatric cancer wards.
The film’s principal conflict is between the protagonist and his father Joe Jackson, played in a powerhouse performance by Colman Domingo as an overbearing, self-centered man, with a hint of maniacal menace. Joe is the hardest of taskmasters, booking tour dates for the Jackson 5 while they were still in school and forcing them to come home and rehearse late at night after shows that left them exhausted. Michael’s tendency to speak up earned him frequent whippings with his father’s belt.
Even more than a decade later, when Michael’s solo stardom had far eclipsed that of his work with his brothers — let alone his earning power — Joe remained a controlling bully, insisting that his most famous son continue touring with the Jacksons, as they became known when Jermaine left to pursue a solo career with Motown.
Michael was saved to some degree by the love and constancy of his mother Katherine, played with touching warmth in a gorgeous performance from Nia Long. We see what it costs her when her hands remain tied rather than oppose her disciplinary husband, and when she finally bristles enough to speak up for her son. Her heartache is palpable when Joe impatiently asks medics how long before Michael can return to performing when he’s barely out of the ICU after sustaining severe burns and nerve damage during an accident while shooting a Pepsi commercial.
The film ends before its subject’s relationships, his reclusive nature, eccentricities and extensive cosmetic surgeries — not to mention the more serious controversies — made him the butt of jokes for many. (Only an initial rhinoplasty procedure to reshape his nose is included.) But still, even as his fame crescendos, the portrait here is of a damaged man, whose sharp professional instincts seemed at odds with his gentle demeanor.
Even the well-known fascination with Peter Pan and Neverland, and the weird obsession with collecting exotic animals like a llama, a snake, a giraffe — and yes, Bubbles the chimp makes an appearance — seem to stem from a self-protective infantilization that perhaps begins when Motown chief Berry Gordy (Larenz Tate) insists he lower his age from 10 to 8.
From early childhood, Michael was told he was special, which appears to have inhibited his ability to make friends. Hence his claims that the animals were his friends. Perhaps his most notable friendship is with loyal longtime bodyguard Bill Bray (Keilyn Durrel Jones) and, to a lesser extent, his savvy manager John Branca (Miles Teller in a distracting wig).
Considering that it charts Michael Jackson’s astonishing rise to become one of the greatest pop stars the music industry will ever know, this is by no means a portrait of a happy life. The undercurrent of pensive sadness gives the movie an emotional depth that helps counter its relatively rote approach.
Reported friction between Michael and Gordy, Jones and Jermaine goes unmentioned, and it seems significant that Janet Jackson is pretty much erased from the picture. She’s also one of the few immediate family members not to take an executive producer credit, along with Michael’s daughter, Paris Jackson.
The film leaves itself open to accusations of making Michael a saint, which will not sit well with the cancel crowd. If you are unwilling to separate the art from the artist, this will not be a movie for you. But for lifelong fans who cherish the music, the movie delivers. Simply as a celebration of Jackson’s songs and stagecraft, it’s phenomenal, shot by Dion Beebe with visual electricity in the performance sequences. The music has never sounded louder or better.
Full credits
Release date: Friday, April 24 Distribution: Lionsgate, Universal Production company: GK Films, Optimum Cast: Jaafar Jackson, Colman Domingo, Nia Long, Juliano Valdi, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Laura Harrier, Jessica Sula, Miles Teller, Larenz Tate, Kendrick Sampson Director: Antoine Fuqua Screenwriter: John Logan Producers: Graham King, John Branca, John McClain Executive producers: Antoine Fuqua, David B. Householter, Lydia Silverman, Prince Jackson, Karen Langford, Hayley King, Ron Burkle, Jermaine Jackson, Tito Jackson, Jackie Jackson, Marlon Jackson, LaToya Jackson, Jordan Schur Directors of photography: Dion Beebe Production designer: Barbara Ling Costume designer: Marci Rodgers Executive music producer: Harvey Mason Jr. Editors: John Ottman, Harry Yoon, Conrad Buff, Tom Cross Visual effects supervisor: Louis Morin Choreographers: Rich + Tone Talauega Sound designer: Samir Foco Casting: Victoria Thomas Rated PG-13, 2 hours 9 minutesTHR Newsletters
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