Antoine Fuqua’s Michael will own the box office and thrill the faithful — but as a portrait of one of the most complicated figures in pop history, it barely scratches the surface.
There’s a growing epidemic in the world of music biopics that Hollywood doesn’t want to shake: the visual greatest hits playlist. For many stars, there are specific moments — a memorable concert performance, the release of a particular album, life struggles turned tabloid fodder — that must be hit. The beauty of a great biopic lies in the nuance of bouncing in and out of those well-worn moments, showing the highs as well as what happens when things go low.
In Michael, the long-awaited biopic about the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, director Antoine Fuqua (known for Training Day and The Equalizer) and company knew exactly where they wanted the story to land, from the Jackson 5 wowing TV audiences to the Motown 25 special, even to the moment when Michael’s hair was set ablaze during a Pepsi commercial shoot. Focusing on the timeframe between Michael’s rise with the Jackson 5 through the release of Bad, Michael feels like a speed run through an iconic performer’s career instead of a fuller portrait of the man in the mirror.
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Michael is portrayed by Jaafar Jackson, Michael’s real-life nephew (Jaafar is the son of Michael’s brother, Jermaine). Jaafar handles Michael duties for the bulk of the film in a performance that, at times, makes it hard to know where Jaafar ends and Michael begins. Michael’s speaking voice and movements are matched perfectly, which helps when Fuqua is tasked with making sure that Michael’s Motown 25 moonwalk goes off without a hitch.
The thing is, if you’ve watched the film up to that point, you know it will go off without a hitch. Jaafar isn’t here messing about, so this really becomes a game of “how well can we recreate Michael Jackson’s Motown 25 moonwalk?” — which they do well enough, but then what? For all of the gaps they do fill in — from Michael organizing a meeting with the Crips and Bloods after seeing a news segment on gang violence to Quincy Jones going through all of the alcohol and cigarettes in producing Michael’s classics like Off the Wall and Thriller — we never learn about the origin of the moonwalk. It’s just a thing Michael does, and, yes, it’s a moment, but it’s never explored further. “Mama-say, mama-sa, ma-ma-ko-ssa” is written on an index card to be used in “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'” but there is little explanation as to why that phrase would be included. Fuqua doesn’t skimp on the MJ tentpole moments — you get to witness Michael reworking the angles while filming the “Thriller” video and even see how Joe Jackson and Don King linked up to organize the Victory Tour, which ultimately led to Michael’s hair catching on fire in the infamous Pepsi commercial, further highlighting the narrative Michael is trying to convey.
At the heart of Michael is Michael’s relationship with his father, Joe, who was both physically and verbally abusive to him from a young age. Early in the film, during a tirade, Joe hurls a “big nose” dig at Michael, a phrase that had become all too familiar to him. With the demands of school and the Jackson 5, Michael didn’t have children his age to interact with, so he retreated into a Peter Pan book that served as both comfort and inspiration (and gets more screen time than some of Michael’s family members!). Peter’s “never grow up” attitude and facial features, we learn, had a profound impact on different aspects of Michael’s life.
Colman Domingo embodies the Jackson family patriarch, a man who was mostly indifferent to his sons’ actions as long as they, in his words, “went to work” for him daily. Michael’s story is about him finding the strength to break free from the man who held him back his whole life. Michael’s success became the family’s success to the extent that they relied on him to maintain it — a fact that Michael reminds us of at every opportunity.
For a while, the plan was to make Michael a two-part film. For about half of Michael, there is a decently paced story. Then, somewhere in the middle, Michael begins to feel more like a highlight reel than a film — which doesn’t even feel like a slight if you’re a true Michael Jackson fan, though some superfans have noted that certain facts are presented out of order. Most of them have already seen the film and have been turnt in the aisles ever since. Michael is going to own the box office this weekend because of that decades-long fandom. But as a moviegoer, this story feels too big to speed-run. Maybe that’s why it would make more sense as a TV show. The idea of being able to spend part of a season exploring Michael’s youth — the twists and turns of the recording industry as children on Motown (Larenz Tate barely has screen time with little Michael), through getting recognized across the country, and much more — is compelling. The end of Season 1 could be Michael deciding to leave his brothers, with Season 2 picking up with him battling to create his own material while “working” for his father.
That’s not what Michael is, though. Michael is the greatest hits visual playlist. It’s shot sleeker and in higher definition, with stellar musical performances and “they did the thing!” moments plucked from Michael’s life. It’s everything Michael Jackson fans need to sing along with, backed by a story that underpins the abuse he struggled with and the abuse that shaped him as an adult. It’s a love letter to the icon — the exact cinematic Michael Jackson representation his fans would want. That’s why it will crush the box office: it’s fan service for one of the largest fandoms on the globe.
That doesn’t make Michael a good film, though. It is proud to be of service, but in the rush to put Michael’s biggest moments in 4K, Michael becomes the highest-definition fan film you’ve ever seen. It’s a grab bag of glamorous nostalgia, expertly deployed to usher us through Michael’s life, where moments have been selected to highlight the one story they want to tell. And that story is, ultimately, about the impact Joe Jackson had on Michael Jackson the man, and how that manifested into Michael Jackson the iconic pop star. That’s great if your aim is to reminisce on Michael’s music and artistry. It’s frustrating when you’re trying to catch more than a glimpse of the man in Michael’s mirror.
Then again, assuming the inevitable happens and Michael is the global box office smash that automatically greenlights a sequel, one has to imagine that — aside from his father Joe — the main antagonists of Michael 2 will be the media. The National Enquirer or whomever would write about “Wacko Jacko” in oxygen chambers, the owner of the Elephant Man’s bones. It will highlight how Michael had to further retreat into Neverland as the world wasn’t built to understand people like him. It all makes sense and plays to a particular form of nostalgia, but a complete look at the man Michael remains out of reach — for now.
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