Film Review of the Week

Drama

Michael (12A)

Review: Jaafar Jackson keeps it in the family, portraying his late uncle in a biographical drama directed by Antoine Fuqua, which focuses on the singer’s dizzying rise to global superstardom as part of The Jackson 5 and as a solo artist. Executive produced by five of Michael’s siblings and his eldest son Prince, this hagiographic history lesson spends almost two hours prostrate in posthumous veneration, depicting its chart-topping subject as a sweet-natured and sensitive saint in an industry controlled by devils.

Iron-fisted steel mill worker Joe Jackson (Colman Domingo) is determined to drag his family out of Gary, Indiana by creating a wholesome musical band that trades on the family name, comprising sons Jackie (Nathaniel McIntyre), Tito (Judah Edwards), Jermaine (Jayden Harville), Marlon (Jaylen Hunter) and Michael (Juliano Krue Valdi). The patriarch brandishes his leather belt as a whip in the face of dissent from the boys and demands obedience as he builds the foundations of The Jackson 5. Youngest child Michael catches the eye of Motown record label founder Berry Gordy (Larenz Tate) and his kind mentorship over the years eventually inspires 20-year-old Michael (now played by Jaafar Jackson) to strike out on his own. “I’m not a boy in a kid band any more,” Michael bravely tells his father.

Joe sees dollar signs as Michael becomes one of the biggest stars on the planet with the albums Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad. The father is determined to capitalise on his son’s success and pressgangs Michael into performing alongside his brothers Jackie (Joseph David Jones) Tito (Rhyan Hill), Jermaine (Jamal Henderson) and Marlon (Tre’ Horton) on a global tour.

Michael moonwalks reverentially from 1966 to 1988, culminating in the singer’s barnstorming performance at Wembley Stadium as part of the Bad World Tour. Jaafar Jackson recreates pivotal performances with jaw-dropping gusto. He wasn’t born when any of the songs featured in Fuqua’s film were originally released but it feels like he is channelling his uncle’s spirit. A sequence devoted to the making of the Thriller video is electrifying, leading to a cameo from an unrecognisable Mike Myers as CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff, who threatens to pull his entire stable of artists from MTV unless the station runs Michael’s videos for the Thriller album.

Screenwriter John Logan projects Michael’s actions through a rose-tinted lens and the film stops well before the first allegations of abuse made headlines in 1993. A sequel has been mooted – Fuqua’s first cut was reportedly around four hours and included key moments beyond the late 1980s. In terms of dramatic meat, a second film would be the main course. Michael is a tasty but excessively sweetened starter.

Horror

Mother Mary (15)

Review: Figurative and literal ghosts haunt the impeccably designed frames of Mother Mary, a bewildering yet undeniably hypnotic psychological drama about the tug of war between a pop star and her former costume designer, who jointly imagined the stage persona that inspires fervent fandom around the world, though the latter was never properly credited for her input. A dialogue-heavy opening hour rubs fresh salt into deep wounds before writer-director David Lowery’s script shapeshifts into something slippery and supernatural that never clearly articulates its narrative intentions.

Mother Mary (Anne Hathaway) is a pop culture phenomenon on a par with Madonna, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, who commands a rabid and adoring fanbase. Her Joan of Arc aesthetic, replete with elaborate halo headdress, was the brainchild of her former best friend Sam Anselm (Michaela Coel) but Mary took credit for the religious iconography in interviews, driving a wedge between the women. They have been estranged for years. Following a terrifying incident during a live concert, captured in real time on thousands of mobile phones, Mary steels herself for an eye-catching comeback performance supported by singer-songwriter Miel Contrera (Alba Baptista). The physically scarred diva wants her resurrection to be perfect but her costume doesn’t feel quite right.

In a moment of madness, Mary abandons her ego-puffing inner circle including Jade (Sian Clifford) and Nikki (Kaia Gerber) and flies to the English countryside where Sam, now a celebrated fashion designer, has a tumbledown studio. The singer begs Sam to make her an outfit that captures the essence of her being. Mary attempts to apologise for never publicly acknowledging their collaboration but Sam isn’t interested in carefully rehearsed speeches. “Catch me by surprise with your sincerity,” she coolly advises, flanked by her personal assistant Hilda (Hunter Schafer).

Mother Mary revisits the phantasmagoria of writer-director Lowery’s 2017 film A Ghost Story through the lens of celebrity, punctuated by slickly choreographed concert sequences replete with an infectious soundtrack of original songs written by Jack Antonoff, Charlie XCX and FKA Twigs. The latter appears on screen in the film’s most unsettling sequence, portraying an interloper to Mary’s coterie who leads a seance and seemingly summons a spirit into her body.

The opening hour is largely a two-hander between Hathaway and Coel and the script polishes dialogue beyond the point of naturalism. Verbal exchanges don’t have the spontaneity or flow of everyday conversation but Coel’s performance continually elevates as her fashion designer reflects on “how closely love and hate are bound”, and Mary deserves neither. Hathaway commands attention when her demanding diva is on stage but she is less engaging trying to make sense of the melancholy that has invaded her singer’s body like a parasite. If Lowery’s film is the surgery to purge her of that otherworldly misery, it’s beautifully botched.