Kevin Doyle

Almost 20 years on from the death of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop is alive as ever in the public consciousness, with his new biopic breaking records and seemingly delighting audiences worldwide.

In fact, it doesn't seem to matter if the film's not actually good at all.

The fans don't care because they tuned up.

So even if it's crap, people just wanted a little more MJ in their life.

Or how many troubling allegations continue to emerge about the late superstar?

It would appear that Michael Jackson is the ultimate separate the art from the artist's success story.

But why?

I'm Kevin Doyle, and today on the Indo Daily I'm joined by the Irish independent film critic Chris Wasser to look at the trills and spills of Michael the Movie, go behind the scenes of its troubled production, and ask if his life should be celebrated and unchallenged in this fashion.

Chris Wasser, the Michael Jackson movie has arrived in Irish cinemas and I think we should be upfront and transparent for how this is going to play out.

I have not seen the movie.

You have seen the movie.

But I think we should operate on the basis that most people have a fair idea of the Michael Jackson story, the good bits and the really bad bits.

The movie doesn't cover all of them and we'll get to that.

But surprisingly...

when we talk about the controversy around this, it's a box office hit.

Talking bigger than Bohemian Rhapsody.

Now, we're going to dive into some of this and what's in the movie and what's not in the movie, perhaps more important.

But I have to ask, just to set the scene, in your view, is it doing that well because people are attracted to controversy?

People like to watch something that they can then have an opinion on.

Or is it that there is a massive Michael Jackson fan base out there that just wants to go and see this movie in the same way people wanted to see the one about Elton John and people wanted to see other things like that?