What people are saying in the theaters - from a repeat viewer!
I love going to see movies multiple times, and Michael has been no exception. I'm a massive MJ fan ❤️ One of the things I like about repeat viewings is hearing different reactions from other audience members during and after the show. I thought I'd share some things I have heard and seen so far.
People react very strongly to Joe Jackson - also to Katherine Jackson. Many people audibly gasp at the belt scenes. People also react out loud when Joe asks about Michael's ability to perform again after the accident, and groan when he comes backstage during Motown 25. I heard a group talking to themselves about why Michael calls him 'Joseph' instead of dad/father. They ended up having to search online because someone in the group was convinced it was because Joseph wasn't his biological father. I really don't think a lot of people knew what Joseph Jackson was like before. People also seem to like Katherine and have said out loud things like 'finally!' or 'yes!' when Katherine stands up to Joe after the fax termination (which, of course, isn't quite how things happened), and at the kitchen table scene where she tells Michael he has a special light.
People laugh a lot during this movie. Knowing how much suffering there was in Michael's life, I wasn't expecting laughter to be so common. Michael himself was wickedly funny, and while I don't necessarily think that shows up too much, I am glad there are parts where people laugh.
People love a lot of the lines they wrote for Michael. Nearly every showing, someone in the audience has remarked out loud after Michael says he wrote 'this album for everybody' when trying to get his videos shown on MTV. People have said, 'I know that's right!', 'that's true', 'get him Michael!', and (my personal favorite) 'they aren't gonna show Thriller?? Thriller?!?'. I also heard someone say afterwards that they didn't know MTV was racist, and they couldn't believe Michael had to face racism after Thriller.
People see Michael - and I think this has a lot to do with Jaafar's excellent performance. The film wanted to humanize him, and I think Jaafar has accomplished that. I have heard people saying they didn't know about Joe's abuse, the Pepsi incident, or even how young he was when he got his first nose job done. I heard an older man remark that he didn't know Michael had procedures until he "was white" (sad to hear someone say that, but it shows how much misinformation there is).
People LOVE the music. After every showing, I have heard people singing, seen them dancing, or just remarking to their friends and family how much they love his songs. And this is the part I think is most important.
After my first watch, as a hardcore fan, I thought it was too surface-level and left out too many important events. I also didn't know the film ended in 1988, so I was stunned when Bad ended, and the credits started to roll. But - after 6 viewings (7 after tonight), I have seen a lot of audience reactions that show me why they decided to release the movie as it is, barring this wasn't how the movie was originally intended and had to be changed quite a bit.
People who love his music still don't know much about the man behind the icon, and I have seen this change after people watch the movie. There are so many details fans would know, but more casual listeners don't, and I think we lose sight of that sometimes because of how huge a figure in pop culture Michael is. I also want to mention that most of the people in the theater (largely due to my town's demographic) are older people who absolutely would have known of Michael as adults or teens, and they still are learning new things and have made comments with misinformation in them. It hasn't been just younger people who don't know who Michael was - that's how effectively the tabloids spread misinformation.
The movie is imperfect, as are all biopics, but I am loving seeing everyone come away from it loving and hopefully better understanding Michael. Please share anything you've heard in the theaters as well!
(No AI was used to write this. I just love an emdash and can't give it up)