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Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

The inescapable unease of the Michael Jackson biopic

Antoine Fuqua's "Michael" movie is fittingly odd, but not for the reasons you might expect

Published April 25, 2026 12:00PM (EDT)

If Michael Jackson’s estate hoped the late King of Pop’s long-gestating biopic would restore the singer’s shattered reputation and solidify his legacy once and for all, they probably shouldn’t have approved a movie so damn weird. It’s not because director Antoine Fuqua’s style is hackneyed, or that screenwriter John Logan’s script has all the dramatic tension of a glass of still water — though both of those things are true, too. “Michael” is bizarre because everything left unsaid still lingers between the lines, sandwiched between the formidable melodies of his greatest hits, like toxic ooze leaking out from the middle of two slices of Wonderbread.

In the days, weeks and months leading up to the release of “Michael,” the one question that loitered at the top of my mind was why Jackson’s estate wasn’t content to leave well enough alone. More than 15 years removed from the singer’s death in 2009, Jackson’s once-radioactive name had softened with time. You could walk through a grocery store, hear “Billie Jean” playing over the sound system, and shimmy your shoulders, feeling slightly less guilty than you might’ve during the aughts. At that time, Jackson’s name was primarily associated with multiple allegations of sexual abuse of young boys, among a litany of other scandals. (No doubt seeing the video of Jackson dangling his infant son over a hotel balcony airing on a loop on VH1 and E! damaged some part of my malleable childhood psyche.) Though Jackson settled out of court after the first allegations in 1994 and was acquitted in a separate trial in 2005, the hearings — and Jackson’s disturbing, repeated attempts to publicly combat the claims — irrevocably stained his career. By all accounts, dying was the best thing for Jackson’s legacy, drumming up sympathy sales and soft-hearted recollections of a child star who spent his youth abused by his father, Joe, and his adulthood stunted........

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