John Fardy reviews ‘Michael’ the biopic
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Michael, the biopic about legendary pop star Michael Jackson's life is in cinemas from today. There has been well-documented controversy around the making of it, including reshoots and revisions. And our very own presenter of Screen Time, John Fardy, has seen it. And he joins me now. John, the reviews are terrible. They are. And they're about to get even worse, I'm afraid.
What is the biopic 'Michael' about?
So I just say at the start, like, this gives me no pleasure. I was one of... was bad on cassette and you know i till my my head as that other song goes i i loved them uh and was a massive fan even when it wasn't cool to be when all my pals were into the red hot chili peppers and metallica and blur or whatever i i adored michael jackson's music so it gives me no pleasure to you know uh tear this apart, but I don't think we've any choice. Park all the controversy for the second. We'll come back to it.
What controversies surrounded the making of 'Michael'?
Yeah, but first of all, this is like a bog-standard biopic that, like, the script... I think I could have written it on the back of an envelope. So it begins in Gary, Indiana in 1966, where famously the Jackson brothers were schooled and treated fairly horribly by a stage dad in the form of Joe Jackson, played by the great... Oscar-nominated Coleman Domingo, who you think really should have known better. So we have about 30 minutes of that. Then fast forward, we're in 1978, 79, where Michael Jackson wants to break away and he's doing Off the Wall. And then he has great success with that. And there's this tug between him and his dad who wants him to stay with the Jacksons. Then we have Thriller where
which goes, you know, interstellar and galactic. And we see lots of clips of him making that and shooting videos and stuff.
How does John Fardy feel about the film's reviews?
But it's just really, there's no drama. There's no interior life of Michael Jackson shown in this. So it's just Michael Jackson, the star. Yeah. And like, you know, so whenever you see a biopic, there's usually like if it's, you know, Cash, Elton John, all these people, there's moments of them falling in love or there's moments of them just being broken by something. We don't really see any of that. The only thing we see is him befriending animals as in as an escape. You know, he's bringing llamas home and he's there's a scene where this truck arrives and the whole family are standing in his mansion and they're wondering what is it what is it michael and a monkey comes out and this is bubbles and that's about as dramatic as it gets to be honest and there's occasional scenes of him staring at peter pan books going that's who i want to be but like to me that's just that's very pedestrian screenwriting you know
Yeah, I mean, some of the reviews have called it bad karaoke and they've called it just like cosplay. You know, there's absolutely nothing in it. Now, there is all of the scandal around Michael Jackson, which was left out. And we were told that was because there was a legal agreement between one of his alleged victims and the Jackson family or the Jackson Trust, which meant that that case couldn't be mentioned. But I mean, it's not really a reasonable explanation, is it? Because you can avoid mentioning that one case and fulfil the obligations of that legal agreement, but you don't have to leave out all of the scandal around Michael Jackson and the claims that were made against him. You absolutely don't.
And, you know, that statement that was issued from the Jackson estate, you know, is very handy and I don't mean to be cruel but saying that there was an NDA they discovered in this out-of-court settlement with this young man Jordan Chandler so thereby we can't mention anything to do with his clearly strange relationship with children and it's more pointed at times because you may know there was three and a half hours of this and apparently And now it's just over two hours, but apparently it went on. So it now stops in 1988 where he's on the stage at Wembley. Sorry to give a spoiler, but he's broken free from Joseph, let's say, and he's out on his own and that's where it ends.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:34
2
What is the biopic 'Michael' about?
0:34–1:10
3
What controversies surrounded the making of 'Michael'?
1:10–2:08
4
How does John Fardy feel about the film's reviews?
2:08–6:45
5
What are the main plot points covered in the biopic?
6:45–7:43
6
How does 'Michael' portray Michael Jackson's early life?
7:43–11:02
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Claire Byrne Show
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