Michael

Michael
Starring Jaafar Jackson, Colman Domingo, Nia Long, Miles Teller
Directed by Antoine Fuqua

Musical biopics. No two other words strike as much fear in the hearts of moviegoers than that, as the cinematic landscape is littered with the remains of musical biopics that are essentially zombies - not alive, but still moving. Very few times are there ones of note ("Straight Outta Compton" and "A Complete Unknown" being two of the best), while the others leave sour notes in the minds of audience members. Yet, in 2026, we saw the biggest musical biopic of all time, because it centered around who is arguably the best voice in music in history: Michael Jackson. Everyone knows his life, his struggles, his failings and, most importantly, his music, so we wondered if there was something more to his story that could be flushed out with his own biopic. "Training Day" and "The Equalizer" director Antoine Fuqua seemed perfect to bring the story to the big screen, and anticipation was high - there were even talks that this would be the first billion dollar musical biopic. Then the critics' reviews came out, and that notion was all but squashed. Yet, what it as bad as the critics say, or would the movie prove them wrong and tell them to "beat it?"

In 1966, young Michael Jackson (Juliano Krue Valdi) lives with his four brothers and sisters, along with their overbearing father Joseph (Colman Domingo) and longsuffering mother Katherine (Nia Long) in a small derelict home in Gary, Indiana. Joseph has made it possible for Michael and his brothers to perform under the name "The Jackson 5," and they immediately become sensations, especially young Michael and his unique vocals. Still, the fame and wealth isn't enough for Joseph, who continually beats Michael specifically and demands perfection from the group, leaving Michael unable to have a real childhood.

In 1978, a now-older Michael (Jaafar Jackson) wishes to branch out on his own, and releases his own album called Off the Wall which became a huge success, even though he still lives under his father's controlling thumb. Wanting to break away on his own, Michael struggles with dealing with his father even as his own career skyrockets to international fame, becoming the undisputed King of Pop.


The Good:
There's something in Hollywood known as "stunt casting" where actors are cast for a specific reason, mostly to generate media buzz. One example is Clint Eastwood's 2018 film "The 15:17 to Paris." That movie retold the harrowing true life story of three Americans who prevented a terrorist attack on a Paris train, and what made that movie noteworthy was the fact that Eastwood cast the actual three heroes in the film to play themselves. Sadly, this proved disastrous because those men weren't actors and it showed, resulting in a hollow re-telling of the events that hit more like a thud than a cheer. 

That to say, the big selling point for "Michael" is the casting of Jaafar Jackson, Michael's nephew, who's never acted a day in his life to play his uncle. Could he pull it off? The answer, in short, is yes. While the acting had a little to be desired, he undoubtedly took on his uncle's physical appearance, mannerisms, dance moves, and singing voice (even though the final product in the movie was a blend of his voice and Michael's) when he took the stage or had any scenes involving him singing. Acting wise, he did the best with what he had, which given how scaled down and whitewashed this movie was (it only covers from 1966-1988, far before any of the scandals rocked the world), is something to be impressed about. There were several times while watching the film that it really did look like Michael on screen, and that's something no other musical biopic has been able to match, apart from O'Shea Jackson Jr. playing his father Ice Cube in "Straight Outta Compton"). 

Two-time Oscar nominee Colman Domingo gives a terrifying performance as Michael's father Joseph Jackson, who ruled his family with an iron thumb. He gaslit, he abused, and he forced his children to perform to perfection in order to gain money and notoriety under the guise of him not wanting them to be as poor as he was. He manipulated Michael so thoroughly that he couldn't stand up to him, and it stunted his growth in maturity, resulting in him being a child as an adult. Domingo is menacing and unnerving, coming off as the perfect Boogeyman figure.

Antoine Fuqua has said that this isn't really a biopic, but a celebration of Michael's music, and to that end he held true. The musical numbers are toe-tapping and exquisitely shot, and any fan of Michael's music will immediately be drawn to those segments. Jaafar Jackson becomes Michael in these moments, owning the stage as his uncle once did, transforming into the King of Pop heart and soul.


The Bad:
"Michael" is a totally whitewashed tale of a certain part of his life (and, if rumors are true, we're still going to get a part two, although depending on how well the movie does we might not see it at all) that glosses over anything remotely resembling character development. All we know about Michael from start to finish is that he's terrified of his dad, he loves making music, and he likes visiting kids in hospitals and buying toys. We never see into his psyche or what really made him tick, but rather just a glossed over version of his life that moves forward with breakneck speed.

Originally the movie was going to be over two and a half hours long, and for some reason they cut it down to just two hours and seven minutes, which is nowhere near enough time to span twenty-two years of his career, especially those where the most pivotal times of his career. Those were the years that he became the King of Pop, and we hardly saw how that even happened. Each dramatic moment seemed like a commercial before the next big musical number, but fortunately those numbers were rousing. Otherwise, this would've been a total waste of time.

Now for the critics. They've bashed this movie into the ground, and while there's several logical reasons, I think they went overboard with their negativity. Sure, it's a Wikipedia-style biopic that glosses over anything that made Michael remotely interesting, but the music is what saves it. They might be too harsh because musical biopics are pretty much awful, and to that they have a point, but it's nowhere near as bad as they say it is - and that's coming from someone who generally hates musical biopics. 


The Verdict:
While not as bad as the critics say, "Michael" is yet another soulless, whitewashed, watered down musical biopic that ignores anything that could've made for an interesting story and instead Wikipedia'ed Michael Jackson's story, but thankfully the music saves it from becoming a total dud.


The Score: B