Movie Review: Micheal

I did not go to watch Michael expecting it to capture the full complexity of his life. I went for the nostalgia. And on that front, the film delivers completely.

Michael Jackson had a larger-than-life personality that put him in the company of figures like Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. Beyond creating iconic songs like Thriller and Smooth Criminal, he was a man shadowed by controversy and labeled an eccentric for most of his adult life.

So how do you distill Michael’s entire life into two hours and leave an audience satisfied? The producers made their choice early: tell the story of the music.

The film opens with a young Michael singing alongside his brothers as part of the Jackson 5, and follows him through to the solo release of Off the Wall. From there, it moves through a series of highs and lows, culminating in the Jackson 5’s final tour together. It is a tidy arc. It is also, unfortunately, a shallow one.

Critics Reviews

I read a review that described this biopic as soulless, and I have to agree. Michael is a film about Michael Jackson the star, not Michael Jackson the person. The only stretch of the film that feels genuinely alive is the early section, where the emotions within the Jackson family — the joy, the tension, the complicated figure of Joseph Jackson — are given room to breathe.

If the film has a true subject, it is Michael’s relationship with his father and his long struggle to break free from him. That is a worthy story. It is just not the most interesting one available. Everything outside of it feels like it could have been lifted from a Wikipedia summary.

For fans, the gaps are distracting. Janet Jackson is absent. Diana Ross, too. There is a sense of a fuller, messier, more fascinating story that was left on the cutting-room floor in favour of something safer and more digestible.

My Two Cents

But here is the thing — I did not go to watch Michael expecting it to capture the full complexity of his life. I went for the nostalgia. And on that front, the film delivers completely. Hearing the opening of Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin‘, watching the making of Thriller, singing along to I Want You Back in a cinema full of people who grew up with these songs, that alone was worth the ticket.

So did I enjoy Michael? As a piece of storytelling, no. As an experience, absolutely.