Browsing Tag: REVIEW

This is not a movie about Michael Jackson the icon. It is a movie about Michael — the person. That single distinction is why it works so well, and why it stands as the best cinematic portrait of him ever made. It humanizes a figure the world thought it already knew, and in doing so, makes you miss him more than any headline ever could. Why the title says everything The film isn't called Michael Jackson. It isn't named after an album or a hit. It's called Michael — and that choice is the whole thesis. The world has spent decades consuming Michael Jackson from a distance: the moonwalk, the Pepsi accident, the tabloids, the trials. This film throws all of that to the side and asks a simpler, more radical question: who was the man behind the gate? What shaped him? What did he love? What made him laugh? What made him lonely? By the end, you realize just how little any of us actually knew him. Jaafar Jackson — give him every award No conversation about this film can happen without leading with Jaafar Jackson. In his film debut, Michael's nephew doesn't just play his uncle — he becomes him. The voice, the facial expressions, the specific way Michael held his hands, the childlike wonder in his eyes during creative moments, the quiet authority that emerged once he stepped out of his father's shadow — all of it is there. It is a Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, Denzel Washington as Malcolm X level of transformation. It is that rare. It is that scary-good. At a certain point in the film, you stop watching an actor and start watching Michael. That is an almost impossible thing to pull off, and Jaafar does it completely. The supporting cast Nia Long as Katherine Jackson is a revelation. For those who grew up with Angela Bassett and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs from the Jackson 5: An American Dream miniseries cemented in their memory, it takes adjustment — but Long brings something entirely different and entirely right for this version of the story. Her mannerisms, her quietness, the way she moved and talked, the subtle protectiveness she showed toward Michael — she gave us a Katherine Jackson we hadn't seen before. By the end, she is Catherine, full stop. Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson took the longest to land — again, the ghost of the American Dream miniseries cast a long shadow — but the film earns it. There is a specific scene where you suddenly cannot see Colman Domingo anymore and can only see Joseph Jackson, and that moment is genuinely mind-bending. The film also deserves credit for not fully villainizing Joe. It shows his manipulation, his control, his cruelty — but it also shows the complex fear he commanded over everyone, including those who loved Michael most. It doesn't let Joe off the hook, but it also doesn't reduce him to a cartoon. Kendrick Sampson as Quincy Jones and Larenz Tate as Berry Gordy both add real texture, and Mike Myers as Walter Yetnikoff — in the context of Michael's battle to get on MTV — is phenomenal. Laura Harrier as Suzanne de Passe also delivers. This is a cast that fully commits at every level. What the film gets right about Michael the person The film understands that Michael Jackson was deeply lonely in a way that almost no one could relate to. From childhood, he was the most famous person in any room — and that meant no one could ever just see him as a kid, a brother, a friend. His companions were his animals, his imagination, and the few people like his bodyguard Bill Bray who were simply present without agenda. The film makes this loneliness vivid without making it maudlin. You see a child who was surrounded by the world's love and couldn't access it in the way he needed most. It also captures his work ethic and creative vision with genuine awe. His writing process, the way he studied the greats, how he moved from being directed to directing his own artistry, the slow accumulation of his own autonomy over his music and image — it's all rendered with the attention it deserves. His relationship with vitiligo, with the Pepsi accident, with the physical and emotional toll of his public life are handled with sensitivity and clarity. The film doesn't flinch, but it also never exploits. One of the film's most effective choices is showing how the family saw him versus how the public saw him. His brothers loved him. His mother was his anchor. But even within the family, his stardom created a kind of glass wall — he was always the one who had to separate to elevate, to step outside the unit to become fully himself. Structure and pacing The first 20 to 30 minutes can feel like it's moving through cliff notes — skimming the Jackson 5 years quickly, checking boxes. This is intentional: the filmmakers clearly didn't want to retread ground already covered by the American Dream miniseries, and once the film slows down and locks in on Michael as his own person, everything clicks into place. The patience pays off. The second and third acts are deeply engaging, often funny, and at several points genuinely chilling in the best way. The film ends at a natural and satisfying stopping point — covering roughly the 1960s through to his last world tour with his brothers in the 1980s. On part 2 The desire for a part two is real and immediate — but so is the fear. Part one gets to be the good side, the becoming, the wonder. Part two will have to reckon with the headlines, the allegations, the media circus, the isolation. The hope is that because this film does such thorough work humanizing Michael and grounding us in who he actually was, part two will carry that context forward and let us see even the darkest chapter of his public life through his eyes rather than through the tabloids. That would be extraordinary. But it's also what makes it scary. Final word This is how you make a biopic. Not by going through the greatest hits or dramatizing the scandal, but by asking who the person was and refusing to let the icon swallow the answer. Michael is funny, emotional, inspiring, and at times genuinely overwhelming in how much it makes you feel his absence. It will make you want to play his music the moment you leave the theater. It made an arena full of people sing, laugh, and cheer — and it will do the same to you. Go see it. No other version of this story has ever come close.

Browsing Tag: REVIEW

Antoine Fuqua’s Biopic Reimagines the Man Behind the Icon | REVIEW

Discover