"Michael" Review

Any doubts that Michael Jackson remained the King of Pop 17 years after his shocking death in 2009 at age 50 were erased as Michael, the rote musical biopic checklisting his life events from 1968 thru 1988, grossed $992 million, making it the highest-grossing biopic ever, surpassing the equally sanitized yet popular Bohemian Rhapsody. People wanted their Michael Jackson fix and this waxworks museum movie apparently delivered the goods for the undemanding masses.

Opening in 1966, we're introduced to the Jackson family in their home in Gary, IN. Domineering patriarch Joe Jackson (Colman Domingo, who's become the black Pedro Pascal, appearing in everything, but we're not sick of seeing him so far) is drilling his sons, the Jackson 5, fronted by eight-year-old Michael (Juliano Valdi), in their musical chops. Failure to live up to his standards means he's taking off his belt.

Two years later they're spotted by a Motown scout and signed. As they group rockets up the charts, the family moves to a massive mansion in Encino, CA. In 1978, Michael (now played by Jaafar Jackson, a nephew of Michael's, his father is Jermaine Jackson) signs a solo deal with Epic to be produced by Quincy Jones and Joe is not happy for he considers the Jackson 5/Jacksons to be the primary project for which he is owed all the credit. When meeting with lawyers, Michael chooses a long-haired younger associate, John Branca (Miles Teller), and has him fire Joe as his first duty.

The movie then races through a series of bullet points: See Michael humming and scatting to create a hit song for his debut, Off The Wall; see Michael get Bubbles (earlier than he actually did); see Michael get a nose job; see Michael hold a meeting with Bloods and Crips gang members to teach them the dance finale to the "Beat It" video (a reality-defying scene though kudos for casting spot-on doppelgangers for the lead gang members); see Michael making the "Thriller" video; see Michael moonwalk at the Motown 25 special then got burned filming a Pepsi commercial then forced to go on the Victory Tour with his brothers then announce this is the final Jacksons show on stage then starting his Bad Tour in 1988. It's a video Wikipedia entry with less character development than the Bob Dylan Wikipedia musical biopic A Complete Unknown.

What don't you see other than the controversies about the allegations of doing bad things to young boys which caused the third act of the already finished movie to be scrapped and replaced with an extended series of concert performances which clearly excited audiences but grew tedious? (If I want to watch a bunch if Michael Jackson performances, I'l go watch the real deal, not his nephew's imitation.) For starters, sister Janet (who declined to participate), a couple more brothers, or any real insight as to why Jacko was the way he was.

Jaafar does an adequate job portraying his uncle, conveying his terminal childlike persona and how he chafes under Joe's domineering and bullying actions, but we never really understand who Michael was and how he came up with his record-setting series of hits. Songwriting is a hard thing to translate to film because it's like a magic trick the writer is inventing fresh every time. Movies about painters or sculptors can show them applying paint to canvas or chipping away at stone. Songwriting is just above writing in visually dull activities. Watching someone fumble through chords or trying to find words doesn't get you inside the musicians head and I say this as a songwriting musician. I can't explain how it works.

Jaafar doesn't really look like Michael, but he has the rail thin physique and ably pulls off the dance moves. But because the script by John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator, Penny Dreadful) is hemmed in by legal considerations and the Jackson family's control, it's all surface and superficial. Domingo is his usual excellent, blending Joe's power lust and control freakishness with his pride in his star son. Nia Long as mother Katherine doesn't have much to do. The "That was HIM?!?" award for stunt-casting goes to Mike Meyers who portrays CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff in a wild, almost factual, scene where he blackmails MTV into playing the "Billie Jean" video when MTV wasn't to keen on playing black artists. While watching it there was something familiar about the actor, but he's so buried under makeup it didn't click.

Music biopics are so formulaic that Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story was a sarcastic commentary of the formula as well as a wacky parody and Michael lives down to the modest demands of the form. While most criticisms hit it for cutting out the scandals - a sequel is in the works and who knows what they'll do? - I'm happy to ding it for being just "Michaelmania" - a simulation, not an insightful representation of the HIStory of the King of Pop.

Score: 5/10. Catch it on cable/streaming.