SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about Michael.
Michael plays out as if it were a film adaptation of Michael Jackson’s Wikipedia page. Although the film has good intentions (or does it?), the execution falls obnoxiously short, making the entire film feel like a TV movie of the week, which makes sense. It reminded me of the 1992 ABC miniseries, The Jacksons: An American Dream, starring Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and Angela Bassett as the Jackson family patriarch and matriarch Joe & Katherine – and the late Wylie Draper, who played Michael Jackson in his adult years.
In Antoine Fuqua’s iteration, Colman Domingo (along with that makeup) and Nia Long step into the parental roles, while Jaafar Jackson, the real-life nephew of Michael, plays his uncle with uncanny charm and ease.
Michael meets the basic requirements of a music biopic, but it feels soulless and safe. At times, the fan-driven film tells his story, and at other times, it feels like it is exploiting his story. And leaning into his relationships with animals was a choice — and I just gave up after the computer-generated version of Bubbles.
The pomp and circumstance of the spectacle of MJ’s vivid and outsized musical talent, along with video remakes of some of his legendary career, help distract from the bland, agnostic script that makes for a blissfully basic film that neither elevates nor does justice to Jackson’s narrative.
Michael doesn’t know what it wants to be. Sometimes it’s a poppy, saccharine, flash-in-the-pan Michael Jackson biopic, and other times it tries its darndest to be a prestige film.
According to Variety, in the original script, much of the third act was focused on the sexual molestation allegations that had an impact on Jackson’s life. However, one of Jackson’s settlements prevented these scenes from hitting the screen. This resulted in a delayed release and expensive reshoots.
As simple, safe, and saccharine as the movie can be, there were glimpses of a substantial film within the movie adaptation of Wikipedia bullet points. Any moment involving MJ’s creative process was fascinating to watch and gave life to the movie: the “Beat It” choreography scene; his collaboration with Quincy, and when he suggests notes to director John Landis while on the set of “Thriller”.
All of these plot points are integral in the cultural impact of MJ, and to include all of his accomplishments and his story in the frame of a feature film is an impossible task. Michael is proof of that.
Michael can be thrown on the pile of “acceptable” music biopics, such as I Wanna Dance With Somebody and Bohemian Rhapsody (no shock here because it shares a producer with Michael) that rely more on the subject than the truth and the storytelling to sell tickets — but who am I to prevent you from having fun?
