reportedly directly funded the reshoots<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Uncanny:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MICHAEL_KM2_0106R10C5.jpeg\")
Uncanny: Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson in \u2018Michael\u2019 (Lionsgate)<\/p>\n
While a final card states that \u201chis story continues\u201d in what is for now a planned sequel, what the film does include are multiple sequences of the singer visiting sick children in hospital, alongside heavy references to the Neverland Ranch. But the ultimate question of how Michael chooses to depict Jackson in context of the allegations is surprisingly hard to answer, since that would require writer John Logan and director Antoine Fuqua to have some concept of him as a character in their own film.<\/p>\n
Jackson is played here by his own nephew, Jaafar Jackson, whose resemblance to the late singer is uncanny at times \u2013 as is his larger impersonation, in the way he speaks, sings, dances, and smiles (Jaafar\u2019s vocals are mixed with Jackson\u2019s original recordings in the film). But emotion here is a rarity, and Fuqua shoots the musical performances from such a distance that it\u2019s impossible to get a sense of what Jackson is feeling or thinking for half of the film.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an uneasy tension in the origins of The Jackson 5, in which a young Jackson (Juliano Krue Valdi), at the behest of his father Joe (Colman Domingo), bounces gleefully around on stage to \u201cI Want You Back\u201d and \u201cABC\u201d, only to slink back to a home ruled by the violent strike of his father\u2019s belt.<\/p>\n
But the film doesn\u2019t acknowledge the tension so much as replicate it, turning the long-term trauma and isolation of childhood abuse into a borderline punchline. We\u2019re invited to laugh at how Jackson asks every manager and executive at his disposal to fire his father so he can pursue a solo career, or at scenes in which he confides in his pet chimpanzee Bubbles (a nightmarish CGI vision) or his llama. Domingo, usually an actor gifted in nuance, reacts to his son\u2019s final act of emancipation like a slack-jawed cartoon villain (the piled-up contact lenses, fake eyebrows, and prosthetics certainly don\u2019t help).<\/p>\n
![\"Cartoon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MAVEN_Unit_240208_00091_v01R_BCC5.jpeg\")
Cartoon villain: Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson in \u2018Michael\u2019 (Lionsgate)<\/p>\n
If Michael exists to smooth out an icon\u2019s legacy, it does so by eradicating anything that might indicate intent or agency beyond some nebulous idea that Jackson was a dreamer destined to \u201cspread love and heal\u201d. Apart from the scenes in which Jackson stares wistfully down at a Peter Pan picture book, labels Captain Hook \u201cJoseph\u201d, and then mourns that his skin colour and nose don\u2019t match those of The Boy Who Wouldn\u2019t Grow Up, Logan\u2019s script doesn\u2019t care much about its subject\u2019s sense of identity, or the artist\u2019s wider relationship with Black culture.<\/p>\n
Quincy Jones (Kendrick Sampson), who produced Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), and Bad (1987), is sidelined in favour of Jackson\u2019s manager John Branca (Miles Teller), now co-executor of Jackson\u2019s estate and a producer on the film. Diana Ross, who was integral to The Jackson 5\u2019s rise to fame, is nowhere to be seen. Jackson\u2019s decision to cast members of rival LA street gangs the Crips and the Bloods in the video for \u201cBeat It\u201d is so shoddily depicted, it\u2019s implied that he ended gang violence single-handed by showing them a cool jacket flick move. MTV\u2019s bias against Black artists is solved with one quick phone call, made by a CBS executive played by Mike Myers.<\/p>\n
All Michael does is recreate, in mechanical style, the most famous visuals of Jackson\u2019s career. It\u2019s certainly easier that way. Why bother to depict a human being when you can simply turn them into a product?<\/p>\n
Dir: Antoine Fuqua. Starring: Jaafar Jackson, Nia Long, Laura Harrier, Juliano Krue Valdi, Miles Teller, Colman Domingo. Cert 12A, 127 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u2018Michael\u2019 is in cinemas from 22 April<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-543203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}