Michael is a 2026 biopic from director Antoine Fuqua starring Jaafar Jackson, Colman Domingo and, Nia Long in central roles and tells then story of the early years of the life of pop star, Michael Jackson that some of you may have heard of, and follows his life from the 1960’s up until the peak of his fame in the late 1980’s.
What can I say about Michael?
Michael is a pretty generic biopic which despite being entertaining, is also devoid of any real substance but in unsurprising fashion, has gone on to become the top grossing biopics of all time.
Jaafar Jackson (the actual nephew of the Michael Jackson) absolutely excels as Michael and Colman Domingo delivers a powerful portrayal of his father, Joe Jackson and I can’t complain about the acting here but the story here is pretty simple, very sanitised and arguably revisionist with history being re-framed for the benefit of the family. Here, Michael is a lonely, tortured, soul that goes on to become the messiah or something along those lines.
The music is excellent as you’d expect from the 1960s to 1980s Jackson era where his talent was at its best and I was definitely tapping my feet more often than I care to admit but key moments seem to have been sped through in what feels like a playlist of the hits with very little of the back story.
There is a set up for a potential second part to the story but given the removal of certain allegations of impropriety with children from this film, I don’t see where they could go with this whilst avoiding the myriad of weirdness and controversy (to put it politely) that surrounded Michael in the 90s and 2000s.
The allegations and trial, travelling with a harem of children, questionable marriages, dangling a baby from a hotel window, more plastic surgery, the Dave Dave conspiracy theory, the Jarvis Cocker at the Brit Awards thing and much much more.
I think the story should just be left here at the height of his career because we know any telling of Michael’s final years will not be told faithfully.
This is a very entertaining film but also very revisionist at the same time.
