My introduction to Michael Jackson was when my father showed me his iconic Thriller music video. He told me about the anticipation and the hype surrounding this video, where MTV hosted a week-long countdown to its release. Needless to say, 6-year-old me was impressed by the video as it is still widely regarded as one of the greatest music videos of all time that came to define the music videos genre. Cementing him as the King of Pop. But do we really know the King of Pop? I mean we know his songs and a bit about his personal life, but do we really know him? We don’t, which is what his long awaited and a bit-controversial biopic Michael was supposed to give us a glimpse into this allusive artist’s life. Sadly, Michael is just another stale biopic that manages to be worse than you can possibly imagine.
The story of pop superstar Michael Jackson (Jaafar Jackson) from his extraordinary early days in the Jackson 5 to the visionary artist whose creative ambition fuels a relentless pursuit to become the biggest entertainer in the world.
We all know the common and familiar tropes of the music biopic genre. They are typically a compilation of the artist’s greatest hits with some misses over the course of their life. These films lack intimacy and honesty regarding the lives of their subject and they use the subject’s songs to cover up the shallowness of their film. However, over the past several years, Hollywood has become aware of how cliched this genre has become and they have been trying to shake it up. Rocketman and BetterMan were jukebox musicals. Elvis was a maximalistic extravaganza of Elvis’s life through the eyes of his controlling manager. While A Complete Unknown and Deliver Me From Nowhere were small snippets into an artist’s life as they work on a specific album. I was hoping Michael would have continued this trend. However, with his family estate being heavily involved with the productions, Michael is the encapsulating of everything wrong with this genre plus more.
The first failing of Michael is that it doesn’t really explore who Michael Jackson really was as a person. All we see is what the audience already knows. The film shows us his controlling father who is emotional and physical abuse towards Michael, which heavily affected his self-esteem. The abuse coupled with being famous from a young age made him emotionally stunted and child-like. And that Michael was very, very autistic. Outside of that we don’t get any look into who Michael really was as a person. We never get a glimpse into his creative process or how he navigated his father’s abuse, outside of getting nose jobs or how he navigated the difficulties of fame or his relationship with his siblings. We honestly get nothing in terms of a character study.
The only thing that Michael was concerned with telling us was that Michael was a once in a generation musician and that he was a saint due to his charitable works. So much so that it felt like the film was trying to desperately Canonize him and ignore all of the controversial aspects of his past. Like if you took a shot every time someone said “path” “voice” “destiny” “gift” or “God” you would have been dead by the time the film ended due to alcohol poisoning.
The point of a biopic is to be a character study of its subject. Diving into the person behind the myth and making them human. Showing the good, the bad, and the ugly. Michael is terrified of even mentioning anything from Michael Jackson’s controversial past. Showing him as nothing more than a saint. Which is not only untrue, but it is also propaganda. Even other similar biopics such as Bohemian Rhapsody showed Freddy Mercury struggling with addiction and that he was a serial cheater. Elvis showed Elvis Presley also struggling with substance abuse and hinted at his grooming of Pricilla Presley. What is the point of a Michael Jackson biopic if you are not even going to hint at the sexual abuse allegations.
And in Michael’s attempts of portraying him as nothing but a saint backfires and ends up making him feel unintentionally inhuman and uncanny. While Jaffar Jackson does nail the singing, dancing and voice of his late uncle, he feels incredibly stiff in his performance. I don’t know if this is because of how Michael was the flattest written biopic character I have ever seen or because of Jaffar’s acting skills, but something felt inhuman about Michael in this film. What is the point of doing a biopic if you sanitize the subject beyond recognition outside of damage control?
But I will give the film some credit. The concert scenes are at the very least entertaining and feel like you are watching an actual Michael Jackson concert. The sequences regarding Michael choreographing the “Beat It” music video was a unique and standout scene. And Coleman Domingo feels like the only person in this film actually trying to elevate the flat material presented before him. But at the end of the day, Michael is another in a long line of sanitized biopics. But in Michael’s case it’s a drag to watch, boring, and offers nothing new or insightful into the King of Pop.
My Rating: C-
Michael is now in theaters nationwide.
Leave a Reply