(PG) ★★★
Director: Antoine Fuqua.
Cast: Jaafar Jackson, Juliano Krue Valdi, Colman Domingo, Nia Long, Miles Teller, KeiLyn Durrel Jones.
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| "Tippy toes!" |
So let's get the icky stuff out of the way first. This film dodges the sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson by ending before the point in history where they happened. According to Variety, that's because "attorneys for the Jackson estate, which served as a producer, realized there was a clause in a settlement with one of the singer’s accusers, Jordan Chandler, that barred the depiction or mention of him in any movie". The film was supposedly originally going to be bookended by the allegations, but had to change tack because of the discovery of this settlement clause.
So regardless of whether the film intended to include the allegations or not, the film I'm reviewing does not include them, nor does the film encompass a period in time where those allegations exist. Call it whitewashing, call it a hagiography, call it lying by omission - I don't disagree.
But the film before me is not about that. Instead, I'm reviewing a film about how a remarkably talented boy from Gary, Indiana, who was beaten and abused by an overly-driven father, became the biggest musical star on the planet, and who changed the face of music by being extraordinarily talented. What came after that (becoming a human punchline and being uncovered as an abuser of children) is not in this movie because it happened later.
Leaving all the discussion about what is and isn't in the film aside, Michael is a by-the-numbers biopic not a million miles from Bohemian Rhapsody. It ticks off its story beats and historic moments with a minimum of fuss or depth or examination, doing the bare minimum required to tell the tale of Jackon's progression from pint-sized prodigy global megastar. In that sense, it works - this is a beginner's guide to Jackson's life, and as such, it does that well.
The key arc is Jackson's attempts to free himself from his father. While it would have been nicer to dig into that further, and to get the perspective of his brothers (or even some understanding of who they are and what they thought of the whole thing), it does give the film an emotional anchor and a vague sense of tension.
Having said that, there's definitely a lack of depth to the film. It moves from one event to the next without ever really digging deep into the motivations or meaning of it all. Yeah, it's cool to see him bringing Crips and Bloods together for the Beat It film clip, but the film doesn't dare to draw a line between this and the own violence he experienced at the hands of his father, or to find any real reason for the out-of-nowhere peace move no one asked him to make.
What is truly amazing about the film though is Jaafar Jackson. He nails his uncle's speech patterns, voice, dance moves, and demeanour, and manages to never make it feel like a caricature, which is remarkable when you consider that Michael Jackson, for a lot of his life, seemed like a caricature to the world at large. Jaafar does a fine job at showing there was a human in there somewhere, at least as much as the script allows.
And there are some hints at the future weirdness. In Michael, Jackson has no friends, and he is most at home around children. His mother and his chimp Bubbles are the only people he has non-transactional relationships with. He's obsessed with perfection, is eternally trapped in his youth, and has a strange connection with Peter Pan. Again, none of this reaches the depths that are necessary, but at least the film acknowledges its protagonist is not a "normal" person by any definition of the word.
The other highlight is, of course, the music, though there's arguably too much of it in places - some songs make their point in the film, and then keep going. And going. But there is no arguing against the fact this is phenomenal music, and it would have been great to see more of how it was made, especially considering Jackson wasn't renowned as an instrument. Berry Gordy (Larenz Tate) and Quincy Jones (Kendrick Sampson) are set up, flitter into the film and then are gone, so more of them would have been amazing too. But maybe that's a doco for another day.
People will want to hate this because of what's not in the movie, and that's fair enough. But judging this film purely by what is on the screen, and the story it's setting out to tell... well, it's actually not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination (but then nor is it a thriller). Michael is a snapshot of Jackson's rise to the top, and it summarises that rise neatly, quickly, and with huge dollops of great music.
