Michael review: 'a bland, perfunctory, sanitised tribute'
Drearily directed by Antoine Fuqua, Michael seems completely uninterested in pushing the biopic format, writes Alistair Harkness
Michael (12A) ★
Regardless of how you feel about Michael Jackson’s tarnished reign as the King of Pop, the fallen superstar deserved a better biopic than this bland, perfunctory, sanitised tribute to his musical genius. Ending in 1988, before the child molestation allegations started surfacing, it moonwalks us through his contentious childhood as the breakout star of the Jackson 5 before zeroing in on his subsequent transformation of the music industry with his groundbreaking Thriller album.
Framing his story as a rote tale of creative emancipation from his brutish father Joe (Coleman Domingo), cartoonishly conceived here as Captain Hook to Michael’s Peter Pan, it mostly presents Michael (played by his nephew Jaafar Jackson) as a saintly naif, with Jackson — who can certainly move and sing like his uncle — smiling his way through the movie like a Stepford-style automaton.
A more creatively engaged film might have tried to reconcile that anodyne façade with the sexually charged energy of his music, but this officially sanctioned effort keeps everything at surface level.
Drearily directed by Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer franchise), it’s similarly uninterested in pushing the biopic format the way Jackson himself did with his music videos. Consequently, it’s a movie in which the title of Jackson’s most famous album never applies. Its follow-up, on the other hand, provides a handy one-word review. Bad.
Michael is in cinemas now
The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today
Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp channel here
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.