The problem with many music biopics nowadays is that they fall into one of two categories. The first is that the film tries to experiment with the artist’s iconography and explore the person behind the artist in a unique way, as with Robbie Williams in Better Man or Bob Dylan in I’m Not There. The second, and more common, category is that the film merely shuts up and plays the hits, as was the case with films like Bohemian Rhapsody or Bob Marley: One Love. In the case of Michael, the highly anticipated biopic about the King of Pop, it sticks to the latter. It is still an enjoyable enough film in its own right, but considering how bold MJ was in his artistry, it still feels somewhat like a missed opportunity.
The film essentially covers the first half of Michael Jackson’s career, up to 1988. It starts in 1966, with the working-class Jackson family living in Gary, Ind. Joe Jackson, played by Coleman Domingo, is the family patriarch, spending his days working in a steel mill and his nights ruthlessly training young Michael, played by Juliano Krue Vald, and his brothers Marlon, played by Jaylen Lyndon Hunter, Jackie, played by Nathaniel Logan McIntyre, Jermaine, played by Jayden Harville, and Tito, played by Judah Edwards, to become the Jackson 5, much to the chagrin of their mother Katherine, played by Nia Long, and sister La Toya, played by Jessica Sula. Oddly enough, the family is depicted as having only six children, with four siblings removed from the movie entirely. Most shockingly, that includes Janet, the one Jackson sibling with a level of success not too far off from her big brother.
The success of the Jackson 5 on tour, Michael’s prodigious vocals in particular, leads the family to sign with Motown Records, where mentorship from founder Berry Gordy, played by Larenz Tate, further cements their early success. More than a decade later, a grown-up Michael, played by Jaafar Jackson, dreams of carving his own path and pursuing a solo career. The problem is that those dreams do not sit well with Joe, who wants to continue “expanding” the Jackson family brand and whose previous abuse has left Michael with heavy emotional scars. Through the making of two of his biggest albums, Off the Wall and Thriller, Michael slowly gains the courage to finally confront his father, just as he becomes the single biggest superstar on the planet.
“By far the best aspect of Michael is the lead performances.”
By far the best aspect of Michael is the lead performances. Jaafar Jackson, the real-life nephew of the real MJ, is phenomenal, delivering a pitch-perfect performance as his legendary uncle. The physicality, his exuberance, his sensitivity, all of it is impressively recaptured on screen, as though the real thing never left. The same goes for Juliano Krue Vald, who plays the younger MJ and whose dance skills are incredible. Additionally, Coleman Domingo, under prosthetics, is downright unrecognizable as Joe Jackson. There are times when his performance dips a little into cartoon villainy, like a moment when he smokes cigars with infamous promoter Don King, but Domingo is still captivating and menacing every time he appears on screen. Also, despite her limited screen time, Nia Long gives a very sweet performance as MJ’s caring mother.
Director Antoine Fuqua originally made his start directing music videos, and he does a solid job of recreating several of Michael’s most iconic music videos and performances, including the making of Beat It and the Billie Jean performance at Motown 25, where he premiered the moonwalk. Of course, it is impossible to watch the Thriller dance sequence and not want to do some of the choreography in my seat. However, outside the impressive mimicry in those sequences, there is not much style to Fuqua’s direction. The film is not poorly directed like Bohemian Rhapsody, and it moves at a steady pace throughout its runtime of more than two hours, but it still feels anonymous, like anyone could have directed it.
Additionally, John Logan’s screenplay feels more like a Wikipedia summary than an actual story, with characters delivering exposition and reciting resumés while spewing cliché after cliché. The moment when Michael meets his longtime lawyer and current estate co-executor, Jon Branca, played by a ridiculously coiffed Miles Teller, is awkwardly introduced through a list of other celebrities he has represented, meant to show his importance.
“For many, Michael is enough of a certified crowd-pleaser that will contain enough nostalgia and incredible music to satisfy many a person’s dopamine level.”
Similarly awkward is a scene in which Jackson and Branca meet CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff, played by Mike Myers in a bizarre cameo, to get MJ’s videos onto MTV, which at the time was only playing videos by white artists. A scene meant to explain MJ’s impact instead becomes a clumsily written monologue in which Jackson says he does not want his music to “only sit at the back of the bus.” Yes, the film had to find a way to capture MJ’s impact on music videos, but it feels as though the movie is talking directly to the viewer.
Ultimately, the most disappointing thing about the film is that it never feels as though we really learn more about who Michael Jackson was as a person. Between the horrific abuse he suffered at the hands of his father and reaching an already inhuman level of fame by the age of 10, he was someone truly deprived of any kind of normalcy in his life, and that would later metastasize in adulthood through his Peter Pan obsession.
It is a complex way of living that the film seems as though it might explore, but then it pulls back into another needle drop or montage of him meeting sick children before anything deeper can be examined. It does not help that the film was executive-produced by the Jackson Estate, which means the narrative was tightly controlled, with no seemingly damaging flaws in his character to be found. The film does not even hint at the controversies and allegations that would haunt Jackson in the latter half of his career. If Lionsgate proceeds with a sequel covering those later years, then maybe it will be explored.
For many, Michael is enough of a certified crowd-pleaser that will contain enough nostalgia and incredible music to satisfy many a person’s dopamine level, and it’s pretty much guaranteed to make a billion at the box office as a result. That’s all well and good, but for a generational talent and noted perfectionist like Michael Jackson, sometimes good isn’t good enough.
