Don't be hypnotized by Michael

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]The story of Michael's production is likely to eclipse anything that happens in it, or in this case doesn't happen.

[00:00:05]The film was retooled multiple times because of holdouts or changes mandated by Jackson family stakeholders. Notable absences involving Michael Jackson's controversial relationships with children. I'm not here to parse who excised what, and I didn't expect a family-produced film to go into that.

[00:00:21]But what I am here to report is that there's barely a movie. Michael chronicles such a wide swath of Jackson's rise from lead vocals in the Jackson 5 to his game-changing solo albums. It lacks a central [music] fixation. Mike's relationship with his abusive father, greed-driven manager of the Jackson 5 band, trying to rein in his biggest cash cow is posed as the central conflict, where Mike wants to break away and live his own life. But it's diluted with 10 other things, like an extended beat-brokering piece [music] between the Bloods and the Crips, or introducing Bubbles the Chimp. There's like four other father figures for Michael that are established, but their relationships don't amount to anything.

[00:01:00]They're just devices to move history forward. The missed potential might be explained away by what the Jackson family directed, but this isn't about blame. It's about the movie sucking ass.

[00:01:09]Young Mike has a conversation with his mother about how he can't connect with other kids because all they want is his autograph. That sounds interesting. You could have showed us that. And then in the same breath, the movie will show over and over and over again people losing their minds at Michael's concerts. Crying, they are screaming, fainting. It doesn't read as empowerment or success. It's chilling. Michael's [music] descending into fame is the delusion of freedom, and nobody making this film picked up on it. How do you think you're making a point about the inability to genuinely connect with people, and at every concert Mike's alone on stage getting screamed at? The film treats Michael buying toys and a whole ass zoo as fame and success affording Michael some freedom within his father's cage, but it's weird. It's arrested development, and worse, Michael keeps opening a book to never land like that isn't ominous. The only thing that isn't tone-deaf is the singing. I admit, I was raised in an age where Jackson was a figure of mockery and scandal. I tried to get past that, but this movie's creepy. Jaafar Jackson's got an anime boy-ass impression of Jackson's voice.

[00:02:12]His Ken doll face is glossy. He lacks chemistry with everyone except for baffling sexual tension with Miles Teller. This film should be repellent to anyone not hypnotized by the song and dance, which for the most part just feels like detours rather than moving the plot forward. If you get the urge to see this movie, just rewatch Thriller with ad block on.