PREMISE
The life of the ICONIC musician Michael Jackson, known as the King of Pop, from the Jackson 5 to the beginning of the Bad tour.
THE GOOD STUFF
Jafar Jackson & Juliano Krue Valdi– If you are, say, steadily familiar with how Michael Jackson performed both as an adult and as a child. It is absolutely astonishing to watch these two individuals embody this artist as they do. The unsung hero of this film is, in fact, Valdi, who absolutely nails the Jackson 5 era Michael to a tee. In a film filled to the brim with highlight-reel moments, the scene where young Mike sings the Smokey Robinson classic “Who’s Lovin’ You” in a recording studio to Barry Gordy is one of the film’s greatest moments. I have absolutely no idea if either of the actors playing Jackson sang the music that they were supposed to sing in real life. If they did, then these are even more amazing performances than I’m giving them credit for.
Jafar Jackson is so perfect as the adult version of his uncle that at times, dare I say… he vastly eclipses the dancers that I saw at the Cirque du Soleil Michael Jackson: ONE show at the Mandalay Bay a couple of months ago. He’s unutterably impressive here. The Beat It section of the film is particularly jaw-dropping. I could have rewound that sequence of him going over the dance moves to the music video of that song over and over again. Dramatically, he’s no slouch either. Matching up with Coleman Domingos aggressive performance as Joe Jackson and providing a wonderful juxtaposition. I can only hope that, as he continues to work in the future, this performance doesn’t overshadow anything else that he can do. He’s perfect here.
THE STUFF THEY GET RIGHT- As the trailer to this movie shows, they go over a lot of very historical pop culture moments in Michael Jackson’s career. The recreation of these events (Michael meeting with gang members to make the Beat It video, the making of the thriller music video, the debut of the moonwalk) with Jafar Jackson’s performance hits you in the feels with nostalgia. It does so in a way where you may want to see this more than once…. IF YOU ARE SIMPLY HERE FOR THE VIBES.
THE BAD STUFF
THE STUFF THEY GET WRONG- Let’s get one thing straight right out the gate here…. EVERY SINGLE BIOPIC HAS MAJOR INACCURACIES. I personally consider straight outta Compton, THE DOORS, ray, and walk the line to be my four favorite musical biopics of all time, and even those have major inaccuracies. I don’t consider myself to be among the most knowledgeable Michael Jackson fans at all. But there have been biographies written about him, and there are documentaries made; if you dip your toe in those waters at all, you will notice that many things here didn’t happen in the sequence the film presents them. The inaccuracies of this film are going to drive the Michael Jackson experts absolutely crazy. And it might drive them crazy enough that they don’t like the film despite all the good things it does.
THE UGLY STUFF
BITE-SIZED PORTIONS- No, I’m not a Michael Jackson expert; I am undoubtedly a fan of the music. Like zillions of people, I had music as an essential part of my childhood. As a fan, I was enamored with many of the things the rest of the world was, and, as I previously mentioned, those things were highlighted in an amazing way in this film… For about 5 minutes apiece. All that stuff you saw in the trailer that got you hyped to see this film are short bursts of film time. It’s actually very annoying to look back on the film and see that they recreated these timeless moments of Jackson’s career so unbelievably well, yet gave them so little screen time that you could miss them during a bathroom break.
This is undoubtedly the fastest-paced movie I’ve seen in many years, regardless of genre. Because it is so fast-paced, notable figures in Michael Jackson’s life are either not characters at all or not speaking at all, this is a movie that wants to tell the story of a father and son whose personal and professional lives are pretty unrecoverable. Respectfully, I think the audience at large is only moderately interested in that story compared to highlighting the work and the times.
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There’s a lot that’s been said about how hacked to s*** this movie has been because of legal reasons. I think it’s important to note that covering this man’s career in anything but a 10-part miniseries is just too much of a task for a motion picture to do. Respectfully, I do think it’s kind of insane that The Beatles are getting four separate two-hour movies to tell their story, and Michael Jackson doesn’t get that kind of service. Understandably, this movie exists, but there’s so much material to cover that I don’t think any of us would have been satisfied with the final result.Â
MICHAEL is in theaters now
