Brittany Luce

Then there's the wonky dialogue in Bizarre Flourishes with characters who resemble off-brand imitations of real-life figures like Diana Ross.

And then there's the makeup.

So Michael's played by Flex Alexander, who's dark-skinned, not unlike Michael Jackson was in his earlier years.

But as the narrative timeline progresses, he has to undergo the physical transformation to look like Mike post-Bad.

But Men in the Mirror cannot moonwalk to the occasion.

The actor looks increasingly ashier and ashier throughout the film until finally it appears as though he's immersed himself in this giant vat of finely ground white flour.

Or let me give you a cinematic reference here.

You might remember that part of E.T., the extraterrestrial, when E.T.

is dying really quickly and he's turning this ghastly shade of white.

That's basically Flex Alexander in this movie.

It's much closer to Tommy Wiseau's The Room than it is to the Jacksons in American Dream.

But here's my hot take.

Man in the Mirror is uniquely fascinating in large part because of its artistic limitations.

They allow room for a less sanitized, if extremely muddled, perspective than any estate-approved biopic would ever allow.

Men in the Mirror is deliberately vague about where it stands on Michael's guilt or his innocence.

It zooms in on Manny, played by Brendan Prost.

He's a character based on the son of Evan Chandler, who filed a lawsuit against Jackson on allegations of abuse in 1993.

Manny's dad's portrayed the way Jackson's legal team portrayed Chandler in real life, as this craven opportunist who was upset with the superstar for not having read his unproduced screenplay.

But in another scene, Manny's interviewed by the police about his relationship with Michael.

And then Manny's demeanor begins to noticeably shift as the questioning gets more specific.