MICHAEL (2026)

Starring Jaafar Jackson, Nia Long, Laura Harrier, Juliano Krue Valdi, Miles Teller, Colman Domingo, KeiLyn Durrel, Jamal R. Henderson, Jayden Harville, Tre Horton, Jaylen Lyndon Hunter, Rhyan Hill, Judah Edwards, Joseph David-Jones, Nathaniel Logan McIntyre, Jessica Sula, Kendrick Sampson, Kat Graham, Larenz Tate, Liv Symone, Kevin Shinick and Derek Luke.

Screenplay by John Logan.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua.

Distributed by Lionsgate. 127 minutes. Rated PG-13.

It’s hard to understand with over forty years of buffering how incredibly huge Michael Jackson was at the height of Thriller-mania in 1983-1984. At that point he was the defining act in pop culture – sort of like Elvis in the late ‘50s, The Beatles in the late 60’s, Elton in the early ‘70s or The Bee Gees in the late ‘70s.

Of course, in the decades since then, Jackson’s legacy has taken a certain amount of tarnishing. However, the movie Michael pretty much climaxes with Jackson at the top of the world, with the release of the title-track single from his follow up album Bad in 1987. An apparent second Michael movie (in the early phases of being planned but not officially greenlit yet) will have to look at some of the darker areas of Jackson’s life – the sexual abuse allegations, the excessive plastic surgery, the failed marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, the surrogate children, the insistence on being called The King of Pop, the falling sales, the drug dependence.

However, Michael pretty much skirts the dark stuff. The only real conflicts here are the somewhat anticlimactic Victory tour in 1984 and a lifetime of physical and mental abuse by Jackson’s infamously controlling father, Joe Jackson.

Instead it looks at the career highlights from the early days of the Jackson Five to the record-breaking run of Thriller. And so much happened in just 15 or so years that lots of stuff is skirted over or completely skipped here – a good seven years of The Jacksons’ career between breaking out and Jackson going solo were barely skirted over, as was the group’s leaving Motown Records for Epic. The release of Jackson’s previous solo album Off the Wall, which had four top ten singles, is shown, but not really dug into. The USA for Africa “We Are the World” recording was not even mentioned, nor The Wiz movie, nor the ET obsession, nor “Farewell My Summer Love ’84,” nor was Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me.”

In fact, for some odd reason, the Jackson family in this film only seems to have one daughter – LaToya. Where are Janet and Rebbie?

So, Michael is far from the whole story. But looking at it as what it is, it is a pretty enjoyable – if slightly surface level – recreation of one of pop culture’s brightest supernovas.

And needless to say, the music is fantastic.

Jaafar Jackson – Jermaine Jackson’s son and the nephew of Michael – does an impressive job of channeling his famous uncle, particularly capturing the star’s soft-spoken naivete and killer dance moves.

If you take Michael like that – a Greatest Hits clip compilation of Jackson’s biggest moments, the movie is pretty good. If you’re looking for a deeper psychological dive into the icon – for example why he never really grew up, why there is not even a whiff of a romantic connection for a nearly-30-year-old man, why all of his best friends were animals – maybe you’ll need to look somewhere else. This film, which has deep cooperation from the Jackson family, tends to overlook stuff like that, just shrugging it off as “that was just Michael.”

In fact, most of the Jackson family comes out looking pretty good, except of course for the late patriarch Joe, who has long been the consensus bad guy in this story. Deservedly, probably; and Colman Domingo plays the character as vaguely cartoonishly evil, but somehow it mostly works.

More problematic is Nia Long’s performance as long-suffering mother Katherine Jackson, who is portrayed as an angelic presence, without once questioning how she overlooked all the terrible things happening under her roof for all those years. Also, it never quite questions the fact that movie Katherine always tends to put Michael’s needs over those of her eight other children. Yes, Michael was the star and the meal ticket, but she was a mother of nine children, not a business manager, so it comes off looking a bit disingenuous.

However, that is probably taking Michael Jackson’s life more literally than Michael ever really does. Whether Michael is a biopic or an infomercial for Michael Jackson is open to debate. If they were trying to reach the ravenous Jackson fans, chances are they will succeed. I just hope those fans don’t take this as the full story.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2026 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: April 24, 2026.