Michael Jackson's biopic finally lands, and what Brookings should make of it

By the time autumn settles over Brookings, the harvest trucks are rolling along Highway 14, and South Dakota State students are deep into the fall semester, a lot of us start doing more of our moviegoing after dark and closer to home. That makes this the right moment to catch up on “Michael,” the long-promised Michael Jackson biopic that opened back in May and has had all summer to work its way through theaters, streaming menus, and now the kind of word-of-mouth that actually tells you whether something is worth your evening. If you spent the summer in the garden or at the lake instead of the multiplex, this is your chance to hear what you missed.

The real story behind “Michael” isn't really on screen, it's in how long it took to get there. Biopics about Michael Jackson have been rumored, announced, and shelved for the better part of two decades, and the subject matter alone guarantees that no version of this film could ever be simple. Jackson remains one of the most complicated figures in American pop culture, a genius performer whose legacy is permanently tangled up with serious allegations that have never stopped dividing public opinion. Any filmmaker taking this on has to decide how much of that tension to put in the frame and how much to leave out, and that decision shapes everything else about the finished product. Director Antoine Fuqua, known for muscular, morally messy dramas, and screenwriter John Logan, a veteran of prestige biographical work, are not an accidental pairing. Casting Jackson's own nephew, Jaafar Jackson, in the lead role, with newcomer Juliano Valdi playing him as a child, was clearly meant as a statement of authenticity, a way of saying this story comes from inside the family rather than from outsiders looking in.

As for what's actually covered, “Michael” traces the singer's rise from his childhood years performing with the Jackson 5 in the 1960s through the Bad World Tour of the late 1980s, which gives the film a tight, deliberately chosen window rather than a cradle-to-grave sweep. The supporting cast is stacked with recognizable names, including Nia Long, Colman Domingo, Miles Teller, Laura Harrier, Jessica Sula, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, and, in a curious bit of casting, Mike Myers.

Here's my honest read. I don't have a tidy critical consensus to lean on for this one, no aggregated score to point to and weigh for you, so this judgment is mine alone. A film built around two first-time actors carrying the weight of one of the most scrutinized lives in modern music is a genuine gamble, and the choice to stop the story at the Bad tour, before the later decades that complicate Jackson's public image even further, feels like both a strength and a dodge. It lets the film focus on the sheer, undeniable talent that made Jackson a phenomenon in the first place, the Motown-era hustle, the family dynamics, the discipline behind the dancing. But it also means viewers looking for the film to wrestle honestly with the fuller, messier picture of the man will come away feeling like something was left off the table. For what it sets out to do, a tightly scoped, performance-driven portrait of an artist's ascent, it largely works, carried by a cast that clearly understands the assignment even when the script plays it safe.

If you're the type who likes catching this kind of big, awards-season-adjacent biopic on the largest screen you can find, Brookings Cinema 8 is the sort of place that tends to carry titles like this, and with five-dollar tickets on Tuesdays and roomier seats than you'd expect, it's not a bad way to spend a cooling-down weeknight this fall.

Facts verified as of October 1, 2026.