Michael Jackson Biopic Branded a Ghoulish and Soulless Cash Grab
The recently released Michael Jackson biopic, simply titled Michael, has been condemned as a ghoulish and soulless cash grab in a scathing review. This family-backed film portrays the King of Pop as a saintly figure who single-handedly ends gang violence and cares for sick children, while conspicuously avoiding the serious allegations that shadowed his later life.
The Rise of Estate-Approved Musician Biopics
You can largely blame Bohemian Rhapsody, the visually and spiritually unattractive Queen film that won four Oscars and earned $910 million globally, for the recent surge in soulless, estate-approved musician biopics. With subsequent releases like Bob Marley: One Love (2024), Back to Black (2024), and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022), the line between genuine cinema and mere merchandise has been dangerously blurred.
The primary appeal of Michael, produced by Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King, is not a genuine desire to understand Jackson as a person or an artist, nor to grapple with the immense weight of his legacy as one of the most pivotal cultural figures of the 20th century. Instead, it exists to be consumed as an act of allegiance, as definitive proof of fandom. The film actively resists narrative depth in favour of shallow content, ensuring fans see exactly what they expect, whether that be a recreation of the iconic Thriller video or a performance of Bad live at Wembley in 1988.
A Particularly Ghoulish Application
In this respect, the film is hardly unique, but there is a particular ghoulishness in applying such a simplistic, sanitising mentality to a figure as profoundly complex and controversial as Michael Jackson. Notably, Michael concludes its narrative in 1988, a full six years before the singer reached an out-of-court settlement with Evan Chandler, who had accused him of sexually abusing his 13-year-old son, Jordan. It also ends 17 years before Jackson was acquitted of child sexual abuse in a high-profile criminal trial.
Intriguingly, King secured the rights to produce Michael mere months after the release of Dan Reed's damning documentary Leaving Neverland, in which Wade Robson and James Safechuck both accused Jackson of child sexual abuse. Reports from The Hollywood Reporter suggest the film originally depicted Jordan Chandler, but it emerged after production wrapped that the settlement with Chandler included a clause prohibiting his portrayal or reference in any film. The Jackson estate reportedly directly funded the subsequent reshoots.
A Hollow and Emotionally Distant Portrayal
While a final title card states that his story continues, hinting at a planned sequel, the film includes multiple sequences of the singer visiting sick children in hospital, alongside heavy references to Neverland Ranch. However, the ultimate question of how Michael chooses to depict Jackson in the context of these grave allegations is surprisingly difficult to answer, as this would require writer John Logan and director Antoine Fuqua to have any coherent concept of him as a character in their own film.
Jackson is played by his own nephew, Jaafar Jackson, whose physical resemblance is uncanny at times, as is his larger impersonation of the singer's speech, dance, and smile. Jaafar's vocals are mixed with Jackson's original recordings. Yet, genuine emotion is a rarity in this portrayal. Fuqua shoots the musical performances from such a clinical distance that it becomes impossible to discern what Jackson is feeling or thinking for large portions of the film.
Replicating Trauma Without Insight
There is an uneasy tension in the depiction of The Jackson 5's origins, where a young Michael, played by Juliano Krue Valdi, gleefully performs I Want You Back and ABC at his father Joe's behest, only to return to a home ruled by the violent strike of his father's belt. However, the film does not acknowledge this tension so much as it mindlessly replicates it, turning the long-term trauma and isolation of childhood abuse into a borderline punchline.
The audience is invited to laugh when Jackson asks every manager and executive at his disposal to fire his father to pursue a solo career, or at scenes where he confides in his pet chimpanzee Bubbles, rendered in nightmarish CGI, or his llama. Colman Domingo, an actor usually gifted with nuance, is forced to play Joe Jackson's reaction to his son's emancipation like a slack-jawed cartoon villain, a portrayal not helped by excessive prosthetics and contact lenses.
Eradicating Agency and Cultural Context
If Michael exists to smooth out an icon's troubled legacy, it does so by eradicating anything that might indicate genuine intent or agency, beyond some nebulous idea that Jackson was a dreamer destined to spread love and heal. Beyond a few superficial scenes of Jackson staring wistfully at a Peter Pan book, labelling Captain Hook as Joseph, and lamenting that his skin colour and nose do not match The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, Logan's script shows little interest in its subject's complex sense of identity or his wider relationship with Black culture.
Key figures are sidelined or omitted entirely. Quincy Jones, played by Kendrick Sampson, who produced seminal albums like Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad, is marginalised in favour of Jackson's manager John Branca, portrayed by Miles Teller, who is now co-executor of Jackson's estate and a producer on the film. Diana Ross, integral to The Jackson 5's rise, is conspicuously absent. Jackson's decision to cast members of rival LA gangs the Crips and the Bloods in the Beat It video is so shoddily depicted it implies he single-handedly ended gang violence by showing them a cool jacket flick. Even MTV's historical bias against Black artists is solved with a single, quick phone call from a CBS executive played by Mike Myers.
A Mechanical Recreation, Not a Meaningful Exploration
Ultimately, all Michael accomplishes is a mechanical, soulless recreation of the most famous visuals from Jackson's career. It is certainly easier that way. Why bother to depict a flawed, fascinating, and controversial human being when you can simply turn them into a polished, risk-free product for mass consumption? The film, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jaafar Jackson, Nia Long, Laura Harrier, Juliano Krue Valdi, Miles Teller, and Colman Domingo, is rated 12A and runs for 127 minutes. Michael arrived in cinemas from 22 April.
