Sanitized King of Pop biopic sidesteps the icky parts of Jackson’s troubling legacy
Michael
Starring Jaafar Jackson, Colman Domingo & Nia Long
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
Rated PG-13
In theaters Friday, April 24
The new musical biopic of Michael Jackson is heavy on the music but lite on the bio.
Centered on Jackson’s strained relationship with his domineering father, Joe, from the mid-1960s through the ‘80s, it sidesteps the controversies, scandals and accusations that later tarnished the superstar’s reputation.
But if you’re looking to get your groove on with Michael Jackson’s greatest hits, here you go. The film recreates more than a dozen performances, recording sessions and familiar music videos, like “Thriller” and “Beat It.” Young Juliano Valdi does a commendable job as preteen Michael, getting walloped with daddy Joe’s belt for every musical misstep he makes with his older brothers Jermaine, Marlon, Tito and Jackie. Jackson’s real-life nephew, Jaafar Jackson, steps into the role as teenage Michael. He bears some natural resemblance to his late uncle, but dress him in iconic MJ outfits, top him with a Jheri curl, and give him Michael’s evolving, ever-smaller nose, and you might forget for a few fleeting moments that you’re not seeing the real deal.
Oscar-nominated Colman Domingo keeps the plot pot astir as the temperamental Jackson patriarch, Joe, who can’t accept that Michael spreads his solo wings apart from the Jackson 5 boy band. Nia Long, best known for her role on TV’s NCIS: Los Angeles, is Joe’s long-suffering wife, Katherine, who loves cozying up with her youngest son and a tub of popcorn on the couch to laugh along to the antics of The Three Stooges and Charlie Chaplin.
As Michael’s star rises, we see other recognizable faces, including Michael Myers as the head of CBS Records, Miles Teller playing the entertainment lawyer who becomes Michael’s manager, and Black-ish star Deon Cole as boxing promoter Don King.
We watch Michael indulge his love of animals, turning his home into a menagerie with a pet rat, a snake, a llama, a giraffe and the chimp he named Bubbles. (Somewhat distractingly, Bubbles is clearly an overly cute CGI creation.) We see Michael visit hospitals and burn centers—especially after his own scalp catches fire during an ill-fated TV commercial shoot for Pepsi—to comfort sick kids.
Director Antoine Fuqua (whose other films include Southpaw, Training Day and the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven) has a handle especially on the live performance scenes, which do pack a musical punch. But there’s a soft-pedal, generic feel to the drama, a paint-by-numbers path straight out of the “musical biopic” playbook. Michael Jackson might have been a lot of things, but paint-by-numbers wasn’t one of them.
There’s moonwalking, crotch-grabbing, sequined gloves and fancy footwork galore. One of Michael’s first producers, Berry Gordy (Power Book’s Larenz Tate) tells him to keep still in the recording booth, because he keeps slip-sliding in and out of range of the microphone. Michael is fascinated by Peter Pan and Never Never Land, the story’s place where children never grow up, where childhood never ends.
The movie ends with Michael taking the stage in London in 1988, just after the release of his seventh album, Bad.
But it stops short of Michael’s sad last act—overdosing on medications administered by his personal physician in 2009—after a media circus of criminal indictments, courtroom appearances and an eventual acquittal on 13 charges of child molestation. That omission might have something to do with the film being financed by Jackson’s estate, which likely wanted to steer clear of anything icky.
But it’s hard to forget all that as part of Jackson’s tarnished legacy, as this disinfected, feel-good tribute seemingly wants to do. It wants us to remember Jackson as the King of Pop, fulfilling his wish to become the biggest star in the world, but not how he lost much of his reputation in the process, alone and adrift in his own Never Never Land.
—Neil Pond
The Media Tourist 