Michael

On this episode of The Drop Box, it’s a solo episode as I dive into the highly anticipated Michael, the biopic centered on the life and legacy of Michael Jackson. From his early days with the The Jackson 5 to his rise as a global icon, I break down how the film captures the highs, the artistry, and the complexities of his story.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everybody, just wanted to say something very quickly before the episode gets rolling here. I realized a bit too late that the audio quality for this episode is definitely poorer than my previous episodes. That is entirely an error on my part, and I promise it's only a one-time thing. So thank you all so much for listening, and as always, enjoy the episode. You're listening to the Dropbox. The only podcast where rewinding is optional, and late these don't apply. Where each episode we chat with guests, dive into a new movie, and probably spoil it. What's going on, everybody? Whether this is your first time listening, no matter where you are in the world, whether that's Transylvania, Lithuania, or even fucking Thneedville, thank you so much for tuning in to the Dropbox. It is amazing to have you here with us today. So yesterday I did something kind of crazy. Connor, oh my god, what did you do? That was so crazy. I'm so glad that you asked. I went and I saw Michael. The Michael Jackson biopic that was directed by Anton Fukua. Hope I'm pronouncing your name correctly, Antoine. Distributed by Universal in Lionsgate, and made with a budget of 200 million dollars. For a biopic. That's crazy to me. I know that this movie's about Michael Jackson, who is a globally renowned cultural icon, but still to dump 200 million dollars into a biopic is just crazy to me. And also I think that the market has become so oversaturated with biopics. I mean, everyone's gonna have a biopic in the next 10 years. I'm gonna have a biopic, you're gonna have a biopic, fucking your mom's gonna have a biopic, your cousin's gonna have a biopic, everyone's gonna have a biopic. I personally wouldn't want Jacob Ballorty to play me in a biopic. I think he would do great. Regardless, I do feel like the market has become so oversaturated. I mean, who who has who's gotten a biopic in the last five years or so? Bruce Springsteen has gotten a biopic, Queen got a biopic. I heard that Snoop Dogg is getting a biopic, which is ridiculous to me. Sorry, Snoop Dogg, I love you, but you getting a biopic is crazy to me. Who am I forgetting? I know there's so many more than I'm forgetting. Whitney Houston got one, Amy Winehouse got one. Not to say that, you know, these people aren't deserving of it, because they are, but oh my god, how many biopics can we take? There's been so many. And again, I know that the film industry follows trends, you know, strike while the iron is hot. I realize that. But come on, you're just we're drowning in biopics, people. Elvis Presley got one. I'm gonna have many biopics come to me because I'm forgetting some throughout this video. But yeah, no, the market is just so oversaturated. And after watching this movie, start with the positives. Because there definitely were some upsides to this. The biggest one to me is that it is a quintessential crowd pleaser. This movie was made for the fans, and it doesn't give a Frenchman's fuck. The movies literally like one song into another song, into another song, into another song. Like they literally went right from the song Beat It into Thriller. Like one scene was the making of Beat It, and the next scene was like the making of the thriller music video. And you know, that's fine. That's what I signed up for. Like, I I would have been annoyed if I saw this movie and they hadn't, you know, shown the making of the thriller music video. I mean, during the title cards of the distribution studios during the Universal title guard, not even 30 seconds into the movie, while the Universal logo was still showing, you just hear in the background, he is like Michael Jackson's trademark, obviously. But as soon as I heard that, I'm like, oh yeah, baby, this is exactly what I signed up for. Let's go. Like 30 seconds in. I'm already getting the hee he. I'm like, oh yeah, this is it. This is it. And that's so funny because that was the name of a documentary that Michael Jackson made. I'm just realizing that. That's so funny that I said this is it. So perfectly appropriate for this episode. But plowing ahead with other positives, Coleman Domingo carried this movie on his nutsack. Sorry, I know Jafar Jackson played Michael, and I'll get to him in a minute. He did a fine job, but he can't hold a candle to Coleman Domingo. He just can't. This dude, I think he's a two-time Oscar nominee. I could be mistaken. I know he's been nominated for an Oscar, I believe he's been nominated twice. Oh my god, what a spittin' image of Joe Jackson this dude is. Holy shit. And I also love how they shined such a great emphasis on the turbulent and toxic relationship that Michael had with his family, specifically his father. Again, played by Coleman Domingo in this movie. And Joe Jackson, I don't think I realized this. I knew that he exploited his children for his own personal gain. I don't think I realized what a true monster this guy was. I'm gonna get into some spoilers in this review. It's kind of inevitable. I can't really escape it. There was one scene in this movie where Michael at this point in the movie had to have been maybe eight. He's a baby. You're eight years old, you're a baby. You don't know anything when you're eight. And they just him and his brothers and his father had just got home from a performance. And they walk in the house, and their their mother, played by Nia Long in this movie, is like, Alright, kids, time to go to bed. It's late, you got school in the morning. And Coleman Domingo, Joe Jackson, played by Coleman Domingo in this scene, is like, no, what do you mean? What do you mean? You know, we're not we're not going to red, we're not resting until this is right. We gotta rehearse, we gotta do do some more. And Michael, again, he's like eight years old, is like, what do you what do you mean? We're tired, we did a great job. Can't don't we deserve some rest and time to like play and have fun and relax? And Coleman Domingo is Joe Jackson in this scene, literally looks at Michael and he's like, Oh, you think you're better than us now? Are you saying you're better than us to an eight-year-old? He's talking this way to an eight-year-old child who just wants to take a break from working his fucking ass off, and he goes, get get over here. And he takes off his belt and he fucking whoops him. It's brutal to watch. It's fucking brutal to watch. Because Mikey starts screaming, he starts crying. Who wouldn't? You're getting whipped with a belt at eight years old. Anyone would fucking start screaming and crying, and it's heartbreaking to watch. And I I wish that the movie delved a little bit more into that turbulence. Even though I know that they they they definitely did, I feel like there was so much more meat left on the bone in regard to the toxicity between Michael and his family, specifically his father. And I don't know, I'm fine with how much emphasis they placed on the turbulence. I just wish there was more. As I mentioned earlier, Jafar Jackson, Michael Jackson's real-life nephew, portrays him in this movie. When I first heard that Jafar had been cast, even while I was watching the movie at some points, it felt low-key like nepotism. Because again, it it literally is his blood relative, it's his nephew. But after watching it, I can't lie. I don't know who else could have portrayed Michael Jackson. I don't know if a Hollywood actor, and I say Hollywood actor, because Jafar Jackson, this is his first role. He's never acted before. In his life, he's never acted. And it showed at some points, his inexperience definitely showed, especially when he's on screen with Coleman Domingo. Like, as I said, Coleman Domingo is an Oscar-nominated actor and he carries the movie. And Jafar is fine. He's fine in the movie, he's fine as Michael. He has the mannerisms down, the voice is 20 out of 10. Oh my god. I don't know how on earth he nailed Michael's voice. Because anyone who knows Michael Jackson's speaking voice, he has a very, very distinct, high-pitched speaking voice. You can't mistake it. And Jafar fucking nailed it. The speaking voice was great. I saw him on a talk show promoting the movie like a week before it came out, and I was shocked to hear that that wasn't his natural speaking voice. He sounds nothing like Michael Jackson. So the fact that he was able to chameleon his voice into sounding just like his uncle is fucking spectacular. I think I think it speaks to how much care and dedication and research he put into this part. And it shows. In the nearly two hours runtime that this movie has, I think Miles Teller was on screen. I don't even know if he was on screen for ten minutes. Someone of his caliber, and only have him on screen for not even ten minutes, knowing what he's capable of and what he has done in the past and how polished this dude's resume is already at this point in his career, and you only have him on screen for 10 minutes, is kind of silly to me. Not even kind of. It is very silly to me at that point. Just cast an unknown in the role. Like, don't cast Miles Teller in your movie if you're hardly gonna have him on screen. And Mike Myers is in this movie for some reason. I don't know if Mike Myers is just gonna be the go-to person for like biopic movie roles in which he plays like a record executive, a record label executive, because he played literally the exact same role in Bohemian Rhapsody from 2019. I believe that movie was released in 2019. He played a record executive in Bohemian Rhapsody. Obviously, not the exact same character, but he played a record executive in the Queen biopic, and now he's playing a record executive in the Michael Jackson biopic. And it's funny to me because I just did an episode on Austin Powers and Goldmember, which obviously Michael Myers Michael Myers Myers is the creator of the Austin Powers trilogy. And if you've never seen it, it's some of the most ridiculously silly slapstick you've ever seen in your fucking life. And going from Austin Powers to a Michael Jackson biopic, which is obviously a much more serious movie tonality-wise, what a fucking whiplash. No pun intended, because I was just talking about the movie whiplash. But it but it is it is a bit of a whiplash because I'm not accustomed to seeing Mike Myers in roles where he's not being a fucking comedic nincompoop. I don't know how else to word it. And the fact that this is his second biographical film in which he's playing a record executive for like a one-off scene that holds such a minuscule amount of weight in regard to the plot is incredibly ironically comical to me. I don't know. Like, what are the odds? What are the odds of that? So I think that that is where I will stop regarding positives of the movie. There may be something else that comes to me throughout, and if it does, I'll throw it in here. But there is a lot of things pertaining to this film that I wish had been done so differently. The biggest and most jarring one for me is how watered down and sanitized the movie overall is. loved Michael's music, even going as far back as like middle school. Smooth Criminal, I would just be playing Smooth Criminal and just be jamming out. But Michael Jackson, regardless of whether or not people like to admit it, was a bit of a controversial figure. And there is a lot of elements within his life that aren't so flashy and extravagant and cinematic. A lot. Like, there is a lot. One of which, as I already mentioned, was his turbulent relationship with his father and his family. Which they incorporated into this film, which I liked and appreciated and respected. But how on earth can you make a Michael Jackson movie without even at least referencing the fact that he was tried for child molestation? How on earth can you do that? That's like making an R. Kelly biopic and having it only be about his music and not referencing the fact that he was like pissing on girls' faces. How? Like how how can you do that? And granted, at the end of the movie, right before the as the screen cut to black, words come up and it says, I I'm gonna paraphrase, but it said his story continues. I believe that's what it said. Clearly alluding at a potential sequel, which I'm sure will eventually be made within the next five years. This movie has already made nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in its opening weekend for fuck's sake. So you can bet your bottom dollar there's gonna be a sequel at some point. So I hope that when inevitably the sequel comes out, they touch upon some of the more heinous aspects of his life. But this movie didn't. It really, really, really didn't. And I think that what the filmmakers were going for is a sympathetic portrayal of Michael, which is fine. I'm totally fine with that. If if we're if we're talking specifically about him and his relationship with his father, obviously he's there's some clear victimization going on there. His father is clearly exploiting his children, even more so, Michael, because of his musical ability. I'm sure that in this inevitable sequel they're gonna touch upon some of the more heinous stuff. I don't see how they could make a two-part Michael Jackson biopic duology and not touch upon it. That would be crazy to me. I don't want to spend so much time talking about the the heinous acts that I'm disappointed they discluded from this. Michael Jackson was a very eccentric person. He owned several animals as pets. And right now you're thinking in your head, oh my god, Connor, what do you mean? That's crazy. Everyone has a pet, we've all owned a dog, we've all owned a cat. Yeah, but you motherfuckers never owned a giraffe. You motherfuckers never owned a peacock. No one's coming home from work or school and it's like, oh I gotta feed my giraffe! I gotta feed my peacock, my pet giraffe, my pet peacock. Michael Jackson did. This man owned a giraffe. This man owned a peacock, a couple of peacocks. And even more insane than that, he had a pet chimpanzee. And you're you're like, oh my god, Connor, why are you saying why on earth are you saying that owning a chimpanzee is crazy? That's not that uncommon. A lot of people own chimpanzees. This was a CGI chimpanzee with a 200 million dollar budget and you couldn't get a real fucking monkey. Are you serious? That's insane to me. That is blasphemous insanity. A 200 million dollar budget and even with a 200 million dollar budget, you couldn't make a more convincing looking monkey using C the CGI that is made available to you given your 200 million dollar budget. As soon as they showed the monkey on screen for the first time, Michael Jackson's pet chimp, which I believe his name is Bubbles, I was like, oh my god, not the CGI monkey. It was so jarring, and it was so painfully obvious that it wasn't a real monkey. It was so obvious. Oh my god, it looked plasticky. And it is possible to make convincing CGI monkeys. If you disagree with me, watch The Planet of the Apes. The original, uh sorry, not the original from the 60s, the more modern interpretation from the 2010s, starring Andy Circus as Caesar. If you don't think they can make convincing CGI apes and monkeys, watch that shit. Those monkeys looked real. They looked so real, and every single one of them was completely CGI. All of them were completely digitally created. With a 200 million dollar budget, you only have to make one. One monkey. Just one. And you couldn't even do that. It low key kind of pisses me off. Where did that budget go then? If you can't make a convincing Bubbles the Monkey, where'd it go? I don't know. I don't know. It's very disappointing to me. A lot of the the climax of the movie in which he's singing his song Bad, the scope and spectacle of that scene was great. That is one of the the few scenes in this movie that I am pleased with what they did with the budget. Because the scope and spectacle of those scenes was like, whoa. Like, holy shit. That's really, really nice to look at. It it showed the vastness of like how Michael managed to touch people. How his music transcended racial lines during the era. At one point in this movie, Jafar Jackson portraying Michael Jackson says, This my music isn't about white or black. It's not about that. It's for people. My music is for everyone to enjoy collectively together. And during the climax of this movie, as Michael is on stage performing bad doing his moonwalk thing, Jafar crushed the dance moves. Oh my god. The dancing was so sick. It's so fucking cool. Michael Jackson's dance moves have always been so mesmerizing to me. It's so fucking cool seeing Michael Jackson dance. And seeing Jafar replicate it is even more cool to me. But during that final scene, it showed it the the camera panned over several groups of audience members at this concert in the movie at several points. And it showed groups of white people. And I think this was a deliberate move on part of the filmmakers. Again, tying back to that scene where Michael was like, it's not about white or black or black or white. My music is for everybody to listen to and collectively enjoy together. And it showed groups of white people jamming out, rocking, some of them even hysterically crying during Michael's performance at the end of this movie. Some people even had to be taken away because they literally fainted at the sight of Michael Jackson. And I think that was very, very, very deliberate. At least that's how I perceived it. I perceived that as being incredibly, incredibly deliberate. Again, if I had to reference the scene in which Michael said it's not about white or black, my movie's, my my music, sorry, is for everybody. That scene in which he said that featured Michael and Miles Teller portraying his agent, whose name I can't remember at the moment, forgive me, having a meeting with again Mike Myers. I can't talk about Mike Myers without giggling because all I think of is Austin Powers. A meeting with Mike Myers' character portraying this record executive. And Miles Teller portraying Michael Jackson's agent is like, we need to get Michael's music videos on MTV. We have to get them on MTV. These music videos demand to be seen. And he's not wrong. Like Michael Jackson's music videos, they're not even really music videos, they're short films. Like some of the I I forget how long the music video is for Thriller. It's like 15 minutes or something. It tells a story. It's literally a short movie. And Mike Myers, Mike Myers' character, looks at them and says, Listen, I hear you and I agree with you. But there's no way that MTV is going to air a music video by a black artist. Don't ask me why. They just won't. And at this point, that's when Michael takes off his glasses and is like, but my music's not about black or white, it's for everybody. So that's the context as to how that line of dialogue was implemented. But yeah, no, people were literally being taken away, carried away. It showed one lady literally being carried away, not even on a stretcher. Like this this person literally carried her away, like limp in her arms. She looked like she was dead. Because she had literally fainted going into such a frenzy at the sight of Michael Jackson. And I wish that the filmmakers had given some of the other members of the Jackson family their time to shine as well. His brothers specifically are horrendously underdeveloped as characters. They are cardboard cutouts of film characters. At one point, in like the first 20 minutes of the film, Michael, who at this point is still very young, he's like eight years old, and he's in the Jackson 5 with his brothers, is in a recording studio with his brothers, his father, and like the head of the recording studio, whose name I can't remember, and the name of the actor is escaping me as well. Please forgive me. Um but Michael's in the recording booth and he's singing, he's jamming out, he's dancing, he's like, A BC, it's easiest one, he's doing his thing. And his brothers are all sitting in the back of the room, and they all stand up and they just start dancing while Michael is in there singing. And me just sitting here talking about it probably doesn't do it justice. You'd have to see it to you for yourself to really get a grasp of the point I'm trying to make here. When they stand up and start dancing, it's so It's like they don't seem like real people to me. It's so obvious that his brothers are just characters being portrayed by an by actors in a film, and that someone off-screen directed them to do that, like five minutes prior to them doing it. It didn't seem real. It just didn't. And that is just one of many examples of his brothers just lacking any and all depth. I hope that if if and when they inevitably make a sequel, that his brothers get a little bit more screen time and a little bit more character development and a little bit more depth, because that would make it so much more compelling. Yes, Michael is the protagonist, and the emphasis should be placed on him. Obviously. However, it is possible to develop your supporting characters, but not take away any of the emphasis from your protagonist. That is possible. K-pop Demon Hunters, which I made an episode about, if you haven't listened to it, please go listen to it, is a perfect example of this. Yes, Rumi is the protagonist of that story, but Zoe and Mira, although yes, they are supporting characters in the film, they are given so much depth and development and unique characteristics that they feel real. Which creates a more rewarding experience and enjoyable experience for your audience. His brothers didn't have that. I wish they gave Nia Long as Catherine Jackson a little bit more to do. Overall, I'm satisfied with what they gave her. Like, I'm not upset that she got what she got. I thought she was fine in the role. Not great, but she was fine. Kind a kind of a cardboard cutout, not nearly as bad as Michael's brothers. Because all they really give Nia Long to do in this movie is she's usually just there in scenes that are regarding Coleman Domingo as Joe Jackson bossing around Michael and his brothers, and she's usually just there in the background reacting to Coleman Domingo playing her husband in the film treating her sons horribly. And you can see on her face how she's clearly not okay with it. But they don't really give her anything else to do other than that. Which is just, I don't know. You need to flesh out your supporting characters more. You've just you just have to. If you don't, it's so painfully obvious you're watching a film. Because your supporting characters don't seem real. They are literally just there to move the plot forward. That's it. That's it. If you don't develop your supporting characters, it's not a good time. Sorry, but it's just not a good time. Alright, people. Here's the conundrum. I'm running out of things to say. So I think I'm gonna wrap up this episode of the Dropbox here. I very much appreciate all of you tuning in. Love you all so much, and stay tuned for the next one. Peace out, everybody.