What the Polarizing ‘Michael’ Biopic Got Right and Wrong About Michael Jackson’s Life

Even in death, Michael Jackson continues to break records. The new movie Michael, which chronicles the early life and career of the late King of Pop as portrayed by his nephew Jaafar Jackson, posted the highest opening weekend box office ever for a biopic, taking in $217 million worldwide, BBC reported. “You don’t deliver this figure unless you’re seeing huge numbers across every conceivable demographic,” said Lionsgate chairman Adam Fogelson, per the outlet.”[Audiences] are clearly having a blast.”

The numbers certainly don’t lie. As of press time, Michael scored 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics, however, have not been so kind about the film’s idealization of the star, who died at 50 in 2009 of a drug overdose, haunted by allegations of child sexual abuse. Michael is a “sanitized portrayal so vacant of nuance or substance that it leaves one unsettled,” Cinerama Film’s Calum Cooper wrote, via Rotten Tomatoes. “The film clearly loves Michael Jackson and his music, but it’s painfully uninterested in understanding him.” Added the U.K.’s Sunday Times‘ Tom Shone: “What makes the film such a distressing watch, for all its polish, is the gauzily viewed halo they insist on placing above Michael’s head.”

Incomplete Picture

According to Variety, Michael was supposed to open with police raiding Neverland Ranch after then 13-year-old Jordan Chandler accused him of molestation, but a clause in the multimillion-dollar settlement his family received from the “Bad” singer, who always maintained his innocence, prohibited the pop star’s estate from ever mentioning Jordan in a movie, so the film had to be reworked and reshot.

“That was a tough period,” director Antoine Fuqua, 60, told Deadline. “We had a lot of meetings. But we clicked into it at the same time: The movie is called Michael so you have to focus on Michael.… Let’s go back to the beginning and really show people who he was on the stage.” The film includes the singer’s complicated relationship with his father and manager, Joseph Jackson, played by two-time Oscar nominee Colman Domingo. In one scene, the Jackson 5 patriarch, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 89, is seen beating a young Michael with a belt, abuse the “Beat It” singer attested to in the 2003 doc Living With Michael Jackson, per ABC News. “We were nervous rehearsing because he sat in the chair and he had this belt in his hand,” he said of his brothers’ group. “And if you didn’t do it the right way he would tear you up, really get you.” But the film downplays two other influential figures in the superstar’s life, including the late Thriller producer Quincy Jones (Kendrick Sampson) and friend and mentor Diana Ross. After playing the Motown legend, Kat Graham announced on X that her scenes were cut because of “certain legal considerations.”

Michael also recreates the infamous moment when his hair caught fire while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. It is largely accurate, per The New York Times, but fails to explore how the incident contributed to his dependency on painkillers. He died after being administered a fatal dose of propofol by his personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray, who was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison, a People report said. An autopsy would go on to reveal he had a host of other drugs, including lorazepam, midazolam, diazepam, lidocaine and ephedrine, in his system.

Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’

Critics aren’t the only ones taking issue with the film. Janet Jackson isn’t portrayed in Michael despite being asked. “She kindly declined, so you have to respect her wishes,” sister La Toya Jackson told Variety. Michael’s sons Prince Jackson and Bigi Jackson both attended the biopic’s April 10 Berlin premiere, but daughter Paris Jackson, who is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the executors of their father’s estate, did not.

“I read one of the first drafts of the script and gave my notes about what was dishonest / didn’t sit right with me and when they didn’t address it I moved on with my life,” she explained on Instagram in August. She later alleged that Michael “panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in a fantasy” and claimed there was “a lot of inaccuracy… a lot of full-blown lies,” which didn’t “fly” with her, she said, according to E!. “I just prefer honesty over sales and monetary gain.”