By Dan Skip Allen

I, like a lot of my friends and family, grew up with the music of Michael Jackson. I’ve talked about this before, but it deserves to be said again. My parents took myself and my brothers and sister on car rides around New England, and we listened to all kinds of music. What we would call oldies today were the 60s back then in the 70s and 80s. The Jackson 5 were a staple of those car rides along with Elvis, The Beach Boys, and The Beatles. Michael’s voice was indelible when he was a kid and part of that group. Little did I know at the time that “Michael” would transcend his mo-town roots and become the greatest singer and entertainer of all time. And his album “Thriller” would become the greatest album of all time at that time. Those are the years that this music biopic depicts to perfection.

Michael Jackson (Jaafar Jackson, Juliano Valdi) is a young man who lives with his parents Joseph (Colman Domingo), Katherine (Nia Long) and his brothers in a small house in Gary, Indiana in the 1960s. His father is very strict with him and breaks out the belt from time to time when Michael doesn’t listen to him. He created this group from his children, which became a huge sensation. Their songs were catchy and caught the zeitgeist at the time. That was just the beginning of the man who would become the icon. Once he broke off from his overbearing father, he was able to write and perform some of the biggest hits in music history from his second studio album “Thriller” and change the music business forever. 

With any music biopic, you have to start with the lead performance of the actor who plays that person. In this case, it’s another Jackson family member, Jaafar, the son of Jermaine, one of the original Jackson 5 members. He was phenomenal as his uncle “Michael”. He captured everything that made “Michael” who he was and why he became such an indelible artist. He had the look of his uncle, the singing voice, and the dance moves that came along with everything else. He exuded everything that made “Michael “ who he was. I’ve seen my share of music biopics, and this is the best performance of them all. I had a minor quibble with the eyes of Jaafar, but that was nothing compared to how incredible he was in this role. At this point in the year, this is a clear best actor performance as far as I’m concerned. He made me believe he was his uncle, and that to me is phenomenal. 

Jaafar Jackson wasn’t the only good performance in this film. Miles Teller did a good job as John Branca, a lawyer who helped “Michael” break away from his father and go on his own. Colman Domingo as Joseph Jackson was a bit stereotypical, but because he played a real person, it makes sense in the context of the story. Domingo has played a similar character in “The Color Purple,” so he knew how to be an overbearing father figure already. An underrated performance in the movie is that of Keilyn Durrel Jones as Bill Bray, the security guard of “Michael”. His character was a bit reserved, but he gave off the right vibes of a man who saw the potential of “Michael” and took his side when it mattered the most against Joseph. The supporting cast of this film was terrific across the board. They all did a good job making me believe they were these real musicians and celebrities from history. 

When it comes to any film, let alone a period piece like this one, you have to make the film look the part of what it is trying to do. “Michael” does a few things that made me believe it took place in the era it was supposed to be in. First, the clothes that all the characters, especially Jaafar Jackson, wore were meticulously recreated for this movie. The outfits that were worn by many of the actors looked amazing. The red leather jacket and some of the sequined outfits looked great on him. Along with those came the performances that were recreated terrifically. Various concerts and live performances on awards shows and so forth. These were amazing moments that were brought back to life once again by Antoine Fuqua and his production designer. These scenes brought me back in time.

The music of Michael Jackson is some of the greatest songs of all time. So anybody who performs them has to do a great job. I can honestly say his performances were amazing. I especially loved the recreation of the “Thriller” video and how the dance came together in that entire sequence. It felt like “Michael” was actually singing these songs. I genuinely got chills at some of the performances. That’s how realistic they felt to me. Some of these scenes were on a “Ray”, “Walk the Line” or “Rocketman” level for me. Films that also feature indelible performances of great songs from great musicians. I loved these song performances throughout the film. They made the biopic that much more memorable. These are some of the reasons why you watch music biopics like this. They were worth the price of admission for me.

There was some controversy with this film behind the scenes regarding the production of this movie. Some of the stuff that was shot for it wasn’t sanctioned because of nda’s and so forth. I can honestly say you couldn’t tell what was changed and / or not changed about this film. Maybe it allowed for some creative changes where the music of “Michael” was able to be featured more in the movie. Who knows? I think cutting out some controversial stuff might have been better for this movie overall that Fuqua was telling. This story flowed nicely. It was a cradle to the grave biopic by any means, but it touched on the right moments that most people want to see. That’s a good thing.

“Michael” is one of the best music biopics I’ve ever seen. It captured everything I could have wanted from the first half of Michael Jackson’s life. All the performances, the drama, and everything between that goes with this iconic man’s life. The performance from Jaafar Jackson is one of the best of the year. I know it’s only April, but I can assure anyone who reads this months from now that this man will be considered as one of the best performances of the year. The production design and other technical aspects were very well done in this film. What made this movie so good for me, though, is how it made me feel. Multiple times, while watching it, I had chills because of how realistic and jaw dropping the songs sounded and were performed. This is a best picture contender in multiple categories, in my humble opinion. That’s how much this film and performance moved me.

5 stars