JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
He was the gloved one, the king of pop.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BILLIE JEAN")
MICHAEL JACKSON: (Singing) Billie Jean is not my lover.
SUMMERS: Michael Jackson was among the 20th century's most popular artists and toward the end of his career seemed one of its most problematic. Now he's the subject of a Jackson family approved biopic called "Michael," which stars his nephew Jaafar Jackson. Critic Bob Mondello found the film's concert scenes electrifying but had some questions.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: We meet the young princeling of pop when he's not quite 10, rehearsing with four older brothers in their Gary, Indiana, living room. Mom looks tense as Dad, played by Colman Domingo, gives the kids a pep talk.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MICHAEL")
COLMAN DOMINGO: (As Joseph Jackson) In this life, you're either a winner, or you're a loser. Y'all want to work in a steel mill like me for the rest of your days?
JULIANO VALDI, JAYDEN HARVILLE, JAYLEN LYNDON HUNTER, JUDAH EDWARDS AND NATHANIEL LOGAN MCINTYRE: (As Young Michael, Young Jermaine Jackson, Young Marlon Jackson, Young Tito Jackson and Young Jackie Jackson) No, sir.
DOMINGO: (As Joseph Jackson) Yeah, 'cause I sure as hell don't. Y'all willing to fight for it?
JULIANO, HARVILLE, HUNTER, EDWARDS AND MCINTYRE: (As Young Michael, Young Jermaine Jackson, Young Marlon Jackson, Young Tito Jackson and Young Jackie Jackson) Yes, sir.
DOMINGO: (As Joseph Jackson) I need to hear you a little louder. Y'all willing to fight for it?
JULIANO, HARVILLE, HUNTER, EDWARDS AND MCINTYRE: (As Young Michael, Young Jermaine Jackson, Young Marlon Jackson, Young Tito Jackson and Young Jackie Jackson) Yes, sir.
MONDELLO: As Michael grows, he'll discover he needs to fight Dad for it on his own, since Mom and his brothers just stare silently when the old man whips out his belt and beats him. But the Jackson 5 soon have a record contract and a gated California estate. And as Michael reaches his late teens, still childlike in voice and affect, he dreams, as lead singers often do, of solo glory.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MICHAEL")
JAAFAR JACKSON: (As Michael) I love my family. I just want to do my own thing. Just have all these ideas in my head. Just got to get them out.
KEILYN DURREL JONES: (As Bill Bray) Then do it, Michael. You're not a little boy anymore.
MONDELLO: That's Michael's security guard slash driver, who'd grown about as impatient with the infantilized offstage Michael by that point as I had. The rest of the film will be about the performer's rise and rise as the king of pop through "Thriller" and "Bad," a pet giraffe and a chimp named Bubbles, cosmetic surgery, flashy leather jackets, and that signature sequined glove. And with director Antoine Fuqua pumping up the volume...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THRILLER")
M JACKSON: (Singing) 'Cause this is thriller...
MONDELLO: ...And Jaafar Jackson gyrating and lip-syncing to his uncle's vocals, the performance part of that rise is genuinely thrilling. At one point, I realized I'd been holding my breath during a concert sequence because repeated shots of stuttering black loafers topped by white socks were telegraphing that the on-screen audience was about to witness Michael Jackson's first moonwalk. But that audience doesn't know what we know about Michael Jackson's future. And with the film's narrative wrapping up in 1988, with its subject still a Peter Pan-devoted innocent in his late 20s, that makes "Michael" an entertaining but troublesome sit. This is an estate-approved, family-authorized biopic.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MICHAEL")
NIA LONG: (As Katherine Jackson) I knew you were different the moment you were born. You let your light shine unto the world.
MONDELLO: It has a vested interest in not putting the Michael Jackson music catalog at risk. If you know the film is the brainchild of a producer who made the Freddie Mercury mash note "Bohemian Rhapsody," you won't really expect a Jacksonian rhapsody to be probing. The filmmakers give Bubbles more lines than any of the Jackson brothers, and they give us the Michael his family insists we remember - a strictly saintly, forever well-intentioned man-child.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MICHAEL")
J JACKSON: (As Michael) I believe music could change the world.
MONDELLO: I want to believe that, too, but it would be nice if the warm fuzzies, say, bringing gang members together to make the "Beat It" music video, were accompanied by a glimmer of insight to help explain the reputational train wreck that would consume the singer's later life. While there's talk of a "Michael: Part 2," this film concludes at a concert in London's Wembley Stadium...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MICHAEL")
J JACKSON: (As Michael) Let's go out there and tear that stage up.
MONDELLO: ...Several years before the first accusation surfaced that the superstar had sexually abused children. Jackson and his family have denied those accusations, but 17 years after the singer's death, they are still being litigated, and that can't help coloring how the film's curated, carefully unrevealing offstage bits come across. That the explosive concert sequences in "Michael" managed to briefly obliterate those thoughts...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAD")
M JACKSON: (Singing) I'm bad. I'm bad.
MONDELLO: ...Speaks to the enduring power of Jackson's work and the skill of his screen interpreters. I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAD")
M JACKSON: (Singing) You know I'm bad. I'm bad. You know it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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