Motown employees often described him as quiet and reclusive off-stage, hiding behind his mother, Katherine (Nia Long). My own father, who interviewed the Jackson 5 during their rise, consistently recalled Michael as a painfully shy kid. Witness accounts reveal a boy sitting in recording studios, staring out at a park across the street, crying because he could see other children playing while he was forced to work.
This social isolation is the heart of the film’s argument — a man whose only ‘friends’ were his brothers and his pets. So, is this ‘sanitized,’ or is it simply a chapter of Michael’s life before the ‘Wacko Jacko’ media circus?
Fuqua, the director behind the sublime Training Day (2001), delivers an emotionally resonant journey, with a clear-eyed focus on the material. Both Jaafar and Domingo succeed in capturing the core theme: the volatile father-son dynamic. No, Michael doesn’t cuss or have a “meltdown” here, but that is consistent with every account of his sensitive temperament as a young man.
Would you want to see a Michael doing “freak stuff” that filmmakers would have to fictionalize just to add dirt? What if Michael was truly just a quiet personality — eccentric and reclusive, searingly lonely from childhood to his twenties? Escaping into Neverland and the world of Peter Pan with his only friends, including his chimp Bubbles, rendered here as CGI?
This is not a Pablo Larraín art-house project. Michael is a glossy, commercial flick in the vein of Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and Rocketman (2019). It tracks a visionary artist gradually slipping from the psychological clutches of a tyrant. And Jaafar is truly a revelation, capturing the magic as he belts out “I’ll Be There” and “ABC,” building to the mounting thrill of “Billie Jean,” the inspiration for “Thriller,” and his MTV breakout.
Looking for the 1990s allegations in a film that concludes at the peak of the Bad era is a choice of perspective. If you want a movie that traces the molding of a superstar in a popcorn cinematic event — complete with breathtaking full performances — this is your movie. It captures a man desperately trying to find the childhood he lost in those Gary, Indiana recording studios.
